Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

  Chapter 33 Causes of Failure

  Gong Zhang and Gong Wang are both automotive engineers. Of course, they look down on Li Weidong, a young car repairer.

  Even Wei Bin persuaded: "Xiao Li, the problem of getting out of gear is actually very complicated. Our engineers have been studying for a day and night, but still haven’t found out the cause of the failure."

   However, Li Weidong is also despising Zhang Gong and Wang Gong in his heart. Both of them are in their thirties. Judging from this age, they should be "workers, peasants and soldiers college students."

  The country began to cancel the college entrance examination in 1966, and until it resumed in 1978, the twelve college students enrolled during the period were all college students of workers, peasants and soldiers.

  The enrollment of workers, peasants, and soldiers is just based on their personalities, regardless of their literacy level. Priority is given to admissions from poor and lower-middle peasants. Many of them can even calculate arithmetic problems in elementary school by mistake. Going to college is like coming to a literacy class.

  Many outstanding talents have been born among the group of workers, peasants and soldiers, but they are individual elites after all. The overall level of the workers, peasants, and soldiers is indeed a lot worse than the source of students enrolled through the college entrance examination.

   Faced with the doubts of Zhang Gong and Wang Gong, Li Weidong decided to show his hand, so he pointed to the gearbox of the faulty car, and said, "The gearbox of this car should be a copy of a foreign one, right?"

"You guessed it right." Wang Gong nodded, and then said: "Foreign gearboxes are different from domestic gearboxes in terms of design. It can be seen that this is an imitation of foreign gearboxes. , Not surprising."

  Li Weidong did not refute, but went on to say: "Is it a copy of the ZF gearbox from West Germany?"

  "Do you still know ZF?" A look of surprise appeared on Wang Gong's face. He didn't expect Li Weidong to be able to name ZF. This is not the knowledge that auto mechanics should have.

  When it comes to gearboxes, Li Weidong’s first thought is of course ZF, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc., all of which use ZF gearboxes. In the future, there will be many domestically produced independent brands, which will also use ZF gearboxes.

  Remember the Yellow River JN162 heavy truck, which has absorbed the Austrian Steyr technology, and Steyr uses a German gearbox, so it is not difficult to guess that the Yellow River JN162 is actually a copy of the ZF gearbox.

  In the future, it is not uncommon to know that ZF gearboxes, after all, they are the world’s top 500 companies and the top suppliers of automotive core components.

But in 1984, China was still relatively closed. Most people didn’t know foreign countries. Ordinary people couldn’t even name a foreign brand. Auto mechanics couldn’t even know about ZF gearboxes. They had to be professional cars. Only engineers can know this kind of information.

  When Li Weidong talked about ZF, Zhang Gong and Wang Gong suddenly put away their arrogance, and never dared to underestimate Li Weidong.

  "How did you know that we are copying ZF gearboxes?" Zhang Gong asked.

   "If I can't even see this, how can I find the cause of the out-of-gear fault?" Li Weidong replied with a smile.

  "Well, you tell me, why does this car automatically get out of gear? Is it the gear bushing problem?" Wang Gong asked.

  Li Weidong shook his head: “Of course it’s not the gear bushing problem.”

  Wang Gong's face turned dark, while Zhang Gong was excited: "Haha, I just said it, it's a problem with the gear shifter."

  Li Weidong still shook his head: "It's not a problem with the gear gauge either."

  Zhang Gong's face was also black.

Seeing that Wang Gong and Zhang Gong were about to unite and anger Li Weidong, Li Weidong took the lead in picking up the tools, walking to the faulty car, and unloading a component from the gearbox.

  Li Weidong showed the parts to everyone, and said at the same time: "This is the reason for the automatic disengagement of the fourth gear."

  "Is this a self-locking spring?" Wei Bin recognized this part instantly.

   "Yes, this is a self-locking spring for fourth gear." Li Weidong handed this part to Wei Bin's hand.

  Self-locking spring is not a difficult part to process. Many manufacturers can make it. In the entire transmission, it is not an important part compared with gears and speed gauges.

  Wei Bin took the self-locking spring, took a closer look, checked it again, and then said: "Xiao Li, you may have made a mistake in your judgment. This spring is not broken."

   "I thought you could have any good ideas! Did you hear that? This spring is good, not bad!" Wang Gong mocked again.

  Li Weidong pointed to the self-locking spring and explained: "This spring is not broken, but it is soft! It is precisely because the self-locking spring is too soft that the vehicle will automatically be out of gear in fourth gear."

  Wei Bin thought for a few seconds and then said: "The situation he said is indeed possible. If the self-locking spring is too soft, it will cause automatic release."

  Li Weidong then asked: "The batch of faulty vehicles returned by Yankuang should have undergone level three maintenance not long ago? The gearbox must have been cleaned during level three maintenance, right?"

  Wei Bin nodded: “The cars in the coal mine are quite worn out. Their three-level maintenance will clean the gearbox.”

"That's the problem. Originally, the self-locking spring was in a tightened state, but when cleaning the gearbox, you need to remove the gear and shift gauge, and the self-locking spring is loosened. The material and technology of this spring It should not be up to the standard, suddenly loosened, the tension exceeds the standard, and it will naturally become soft." Li Weidong explained.

  "Nonsense, the self-locking springs we use are all top-quality products!" This time, Zhang Gong said.

"Gong Zhang, I don't deny your statement. If it is placed in China, this spring is likely to be of first-rate quality, but can it meet the standards of West Germany? Don't forget, what you are replicating now is a West German gearbox! "Li Weidong responded.

   "Then how do you know that the self-locking spring has a problem?" Zhang Gong asked again.

"In fact, when I saw that the gearbox was a copy of the German gearbox, I had guessed that the material and craftsmanship of the parts were probably not up to standard. Moreover, the gears, gear bushings and shift gauges were all replaced. If possible, it should be a self-locking spring." Li Weidong replied.

   "Then how do you prove that the disengagement is due to the self-locking spring?" Wang Gong asked a very stupid question.

Li Weidong looked at Wang Gong helplessly, and then said, "You have to prove it. You take this and self-locking spring, test it in the laboratory, and compare it with Steyr’s data. You don’t know. Is the truth!"

  The self-locking spring is just an inconspicuous small part. Prior to this, the engineers of the Yellow River Plant had also checked the self-locking spring of the gear, but the spring was not damaged, so they did not consider the softening of the spring.

  And in the engine, the self-locking spring is not a component that is prone to failure. Even if the gearbox gear is worn out, the self-locking spring will still be very strong.

  But the engineers at the Yellow River Plant overlooked one thing. The gearbox used by the Yellow River JN162 is an imitation of the German ZF gearbox, so the parts standard in the gearbox should also reach the German level.

  The same domestically-made self-locking spring is no problem when placed in a domestically-made gearbox, but when placed in a German-designed gearbox, the material and craftsmanship is not up to standard.

Although the Yellow River Plant imitated the German gearbox, it could not imitate the advanced materials and technology of Germany.

   Even if it is completely copied from the German design and pieced together into a gearbox with domestic materials, it looks similar in appearance, but the service life and failure rate are very different.

  For an experienced automotive engineer like Wei Bin, he certainly knows the importance of material technology. Prior to this, he had been considering whether there was a problem with the design, and when Li Weidong reminded him, Wei Bin immediately thought that it might be that the materials and craftsmanship did not meet the standards.

  This is actually a layer of window paper, which breaks when you poke it.

   After trying to understand this, Wei Bin said: "Xiao Li, you go to my office and sit for a while. I will go to the laboratory to test the elasticity and tension of the spring."

   After Wei Bin finished speaking, he took the spring, took Zhang Gong and Wang Gong, and ran towards the laboratory without looking back.

  ……

  Although Li Weidong knows how to repair the car, he can’t tell at a glance that the disengagement is because the self-locking spring is too soft.

  The reason why Li Weidong dared to make such a judgment is because in his previous life, Li Weidong repaired the Yellow River JN162 heavy truck.

  In 1986, Qinghe Transportation Company finally introduced 10 Yellow River JN162 heavy trucks, which came with the truck, and there was also a booklet called "Yellow River JN162 Heavy Truck Repair Manual", which is Li Weidong’s killer.

  This repair manual introduces the possible failures of the Yellow River JN162, as well as the maintenance methods. As long as the repairman holds this manual, he can fix the car with the right medicine.

  The reason why the repair manual is presented with the car is mainly because there are so many minor problems with the Yellow River JN162. After all, it is a domestic heavy truck, and its technology is much worse than that of imported heavy trucks. It is normal that there are many minor problems.

  For this reason, the Yellow River Factory had to specially prepare a repair manual, and whoever buys a car will send a repair manual, which can be regarded as providing after-sales service.

  For auto mechanics, this repair manual greatly simplifies the work process and reduces the workload. Moreover, many of the faults described in the repair manual can also be applied to other vehicles. It can be said that the auto repair manual is equivalent to a simplified version of the auto repair textbook.

  At that time, Li Weidong was still working as an auto mechanic. Because of work needs, he learned the contents of the repair manual thoroughly, but after so long, he could not remember what was written in it.

  Li Weidong heard the argument between Zhang Gong and Wang Gong, and when he saw the faulty vehicle, he recalled the cause of the fault as recorded in the repair manual.

  As for Li Weidong, he guessed that the craftsmanship did not meet the standard, which was completely an afterthought. Faced with a known result, it is easy to apply a reasonable explanation.

  ……

  Wei Bin hurriedly walked into the laboratory.

   "Wei Gong, you stayed up all night yesterday, so let's get some sleep before coming back!" an engineer said.

   "I'm not sleepy yet." Wei Bin took out the spring, and then said: "This is a self-locking spring with four gears just removed from the breakdown car. Go ahead and test it."

The engineer took the spring and turned around to take it for testing. Wei Bin added: "The size, horizontal test, vertical test, etc., are all omitted, and the physical performance test will be carried out directly. Zhang Gong, you go together. Give me the data after the test."

  Zhang Gong nodded and followed.

  Wei Bin said again: "Wang Gong, you go to the data room, find out the data of the self-locking spring of the Steyr gearbox, and we will compare it later."

  Wang Gong agreed and turned to the reference room.

  After a while, after the test is completed, the two points of data are compared and the results are clear at a glance.

   "It's really the problem with the self-locking spring!" Wei Bin muttered to himself.

  Gong Zhang and Gong Wang looked embarrassed.

   "I was really hit by the auto mechanic!"

  　 folks, let’s get a recommendation ticket! Thank you for being too lazy to be like a dog, Xiaofei, Shangpin Home Delivery, Zi Min Luan for rewards!

  (End of this chapter)