<VV> more perimeter seals & staples

[Mark Corbin]

Reminds me of what my old-time mechanic once said about the
three-in-the-tree shift mechanism in my '75 Nova. "That design is 40 years
old, and all they've ever done in that time is make it cheaper." The
infernal thing had a habit of sticking in reverse gear. You could put it in
any other gear, but it would still be in reverse as well. First time it
happened I had to back the car 10 blocks to his shop, where all he did was
push something back into place.

Then too, sometimes the two departments obviously clashed. It's why the new
suspension for the Fiero was delayed until '88, even though it was ready
for the '87 run.

Kind of makes you wonder why they waited until the '69 model year to
improve the Corvair's clutch cable. Since they stopped development just
after the '65's hit the market (but obviously after the '66's improvements
were a done deal), it must have only made it from leftover money that had
been approved for "safety and emission requirements". Also makes you wonder
what other improvements could have been made had development not been
halted so early in the LM's life cycle. Anybody care to venture some
speculation on that?

-Mark

> [Original Message]
> From: kenpepke at juno.com <kenpepke at juno.com>
> Subject: Re: <VV> more perimeter seals & staples
>
> GM Engineering has a long history of improving the product, making things
better, sometimes even in the middle of a production run.  Ideas 'come in
their time.'  So it must have been concerning that perimeter seal in the
Corvair.  Sometimes the reasoning is obvious and sometimes not.  However,
when an improvement is seen you can pretty much count on it as being an
idea from one of the Engineering departments.  
>
> On the other hand, when something that was good seems to be less than it
once was, one can pretty much count on that change being generated by the
accounting departments.   
> Ken P   
>
> ******************
> Vairtec Corporation <Vairtec at optonline.net> wrote:
>
> I tend to think that the inspiration for the perimeter seal redesign had 
> little to do with "better" and even less to do with service life, and 
> was driven mostly by cost and ease of assembly.
>
> --Bob