One idiot that I encountered in a bush camp. He was responsible for fueling the small genset that powered the camp.
This was an air cooled engine with a small oil cooling radiator in the air stream. On of the hoses to the oil cooler ruptured. The low oil protection shut the set down. The local genii discovered that the fittings matched on each end. They discarded the radiator and the ruptured line. They connected the remaining line in a short loop and put the set back in service.
1. "Dave, you can't let your fuel barrels sit flat. They will suck in rain water."
"What do you know? Sex and travel and don't tell me my job."
2. Dave refueled the set from a barrel with a couple of inches of water in the bottom. The set stopped. Dave changed the fuel filter. The set still wouldn't start. Still lots of water in the tank.
3. Must be the pressure switch. Dave disconnected the low pressure shutdown. The set still wouldn't start.
4. Must be the hi temperature switch. Dave disconnects the hi temp switch. The set still won't start.
5. Dave refuses to check the fuel filter because it is brand new.
6. Dave remembers that a couple of months before the local genii had destroyed the starter trying to start the set when the fuel tank was full of water. Dave drains the water, changes the filter, fills the tank with fuel instead of water and puts the set back into service.
Chapter two.
1. The remaining oil line ruptures and the oil is pumped out onto the floor. No low oil shutdown circuit so the set continued to run. It did start to heat up. No hi temp shutdown so the set continued to run. No problem, the set eventually stopped on its own.
2. Take the set out of the generator shack and send it to town.
The generator shack was 8ft by 8 ft. Framed with 4x4s on 4 ft centers with a 2 sheets of plywood on three of the four sides. One sheet was left off of the fourth side. That was the door way.
3. Dave looks at the set in the middle of the room and the doorway at one corner and says;
"We'll have to take that wall out to get the set out of here."
"I don't think so."
"No. The wall has to come out."
Dave left to look for implements of destruction.
4. I grabbed hold of the set and asked for help. A couple of the fellows grabbed hold and we easily slid the set to the doorway. (Remember the spilled oil? It helped.)
The front end loader was sitting there. I jumped on the loader, someone rigged a chain and in a minute or so we had the set on the deck of the one ton. The driver chained it down and left for town.
5. Dave returned with a crow bar and a sledge hammer and started to destroy the wall.
"Dave"
"Dave"
"Dave"
"What the .... do you want?"
"Uh Dave, the set's gone."
Dave continues hammering.
"Dave, look up the hill. You can see the set on the back of the truck. The set's gone. We don't need to take the wall out."
"We will need the wall out to put it back in."
"I thought that we would put it in the same way that we took it out."
Dave continued hammering.
I went somewhere else.
Stupid is forever.
Note to self: Idiocy and ingenuity may not be mutually exclusive.
Evolution continues to make better idiots.
Last word on the set.
Estimated cost of repairs; $4500
Cost of a new set; $4000.
Dik said:
That's why you cannot make things idiotproof...
Ma Murray said:
“And that’s fer damshur!”
Link
Bill
--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!