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New starter in the Spitfire. In theory this is the easiest job around: unscrew nut, remove battery cable, unscrew two bolts that mount the starter, remove starter. It's also right on the side of the engine where it's easy to get to.
In practice, Nissan decided to use a different bolt size for the bolt on top, that I can see, than the bolt on the bottom, that I can't see, so I remove the top bolt and can't get the socket to unscrew the one I can't see, that I've placed by feel. They did this for a decent reason: the top one is huge because it's the negative ground for the whole car, with the battery cable tab attaching to it. But it's a drag to spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the socket won't turn the bolt when it's clearly over the bolt head.
However, the car sure starts nicely with the new starter motor in place.

Crossposts: https://randomdreams.livejournal.com/959831.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

acelightning

I owned a Nissan once. Their design philosophy seemed to only make sense in Japanese. The voltage regulator was mounted inside the engine compartment, more or less inside the right front wheel well. The only way to get at it was to put the car up on a frame jack (this was all being done in the driveway, of course), so the wheels hung down to the limit of travel of the shock absorbers, and remove the right front wheel. That gave me room to wriggle my arm up to where the mounting bolts were. And, as with your starter, the two mounting bolts were not the same size. Good thing I've got small hands!

I compare this experience with replacing the voltage regulator in the Ford Maverick i also owned at one time. Lean in, disconnect the cables, remove two identical bolts, reverse the process. I was three months pregnant when I did this, so the hardest part was the "leaning in" :-)

Edited Date: 2018-09-23 02:58 am (UTC)

From:

ranunculus

I think my long ago Datsun B-210 had different sized bolts too, and had one up and one down. However I had a manual and, since I am very mechanically challenged, had actually read the thing.

From:

randomdreams

Hah. This is a Datsun B210 engine. I should have read the manual.

From:

acelightning

Well, Datsun grew up to be Nissan, which explains a lot...

From:

randomdreams

My first Subaru seemed to have been designed by a team that was selected for simultaneous possession of sheer mechanical genius and zero experience working on cars. It was a huge mass of design decisions that made sense if you were wanting to assemble and disassemble things, but was absolute lunacy if you were a shade tree mechanic.

From:

acelightning

My Nissan was designed by a team that was highly trained in efficiency, and had never given any thought to putting things together or taking them apart. There was usually no more than a millimeter or two between adjacent components - a man with typical American male-size hands couldn't even get his fingers onto many of the pieces. My husband was lucky that I have small hands, and my father taught me how to work on cars.

From:

randomdreams

The Triumph was definitely designed for hamfisted british mechanics. You lift the hood and the whole front of the car lifts away, then you sit on the front tire and you can reach everything on that side of the engine. I thought a while before I made the engine mounts for putting the Nissan engine in there, so there's scads of room, and the places there weren't, I've moved stuff. The oil filter was going to be difficult to remove, so I moved the whole filter to behind the bumper with hoses to attach it. As a result, the Triumph is, comparatively, a joy to work on, especially compared to a modern Japanese marvel of compactness and efficiency.

From:

acelightning

I remember hearing about one British model of car (either Jaguar or Triumph) which was designed so that you had to remove a frame brace that ran across the engine compartment in order to get at one specific spark plug.

I really miss the Ford Maverick - it had been specifically designed to be easy for shade-tree mechanics to work on. I also had 3 VW Jettas (over time) that were almost as easy as the Maverick. Today's computerized wonder cars should be labeled "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE" - there's nothing you can adjust. But how are you going to communicate to your car how you want it to behave?

Edited Date: 2018-09-24 01:41 am (UTC)

From:

fbhjr

Glad it now starts well. But, that's any annoying design choice...

From:

randomdreams

AMC's used to design with bolt heads of one size and nuts of the next size up on the other end, which on the face was really annoying, but then I realized I didn't need two of each wrench as a result of their choice.
Of course, Datsun uses bolts into tapped components, rather than separate bolt/nut/two components, but that's because Datsun had funding.

From:

amaebi

I congratulate you on your difficult triumph! And of course your difficult Triumph.

From:

basefinder

The first car I owned was a Datsun B510 wagon. I drove it hard for a few months, but then the timing chain broke and the repairs would have cost more than I paid for the car. I sold it to somebody that worked on cars, and replaced it with my first Subaru.

From:

randomdreams

Of course this is never worthwhile, but 510's are worth a lot of money these days.

From:

basefinder

As soon as you make a time machine, we'll go back to an appropriate year and buy a warehouse. Then we'll fill it with the old cars we let slip away. :-)