On 9/7/2012 8:20 PM, McGaheyRx@aol.com wrote:
This question is, I think, in the same vein with those about the service
bulletins.
I recently snagged a "1977 TR7 Repair Operation Times" booklet - an
original British Leyland publication intended to serve as a flat rate time
guide for dealer service departments - interesting - IMHO anyway
Quite apart from collector value, the dealer flat-rate guides are always
interesting to read, in part because of the outrageousness of them, but
also to glean where the big problems were--most times were on the short
side, but the big design bugaboos were always kept really short, because
they knew warranty reserves were going to be depleted by them, anyway.
Still, if one was working in a dealership, there was not much hilarity
in them. I recall well a new Corolla that the owner had asked for an
extra key, we cut him one, and it fit, but not perfectly--either the key
code on the car was wrong, or there was an imperceptible burr on it, but
the key wedged in the "start" position, and the fellow took off and
drove about fifty miles. This of course turned the starter into an
unregulated generator, and it fried the starting harness (0.3 hours to
replace by the book) which took about fifteen minutes, and a part of the
instrument harness, which had to be replaced as a unit. Book time for
that was 3.0 hours. The entire dash and its support structure had to be
disassembled to remove the old harness and route the new one (about
thirty major pieces). I think it actually took me ten hours, and about
halfway through it, the shop manager was about ready to have me
committed because I started yelling at the top of my lungs, every time I
hit a snag, "I wanna meet the little Japanese guy that can do this in
three hours!"
Still and all, better than the poor GM guys across the street at the
time, who were having so much trouble with poor design with regard to
disassembly/assembly issues that they were averaging about 12 flat-rate
hours a week, even though their yard was full of cars waiting for repairs.
Cheers.
--
Michael Porter
Roswell, NM
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....
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