(24) Design draftsman’s job (4/6).

With the aforementioned German (Otto Tescher by name) I had another conflict. The highest car in the WB Series had a little electronic module installed in the boot. The module’s job was to monitor all the rear lamps and report any failure by way of a warning light on the instrument panel. The module came from France, it was my job to find a suitable location for it, and also marry it with our electrical system. The module was designed for a French vehicle with an electrical system different from ours, and I was unable to follow its installation instructions exactly. Had I followed them it would be possible to start the engine from the rear lamps area even if the automatic transmission was in gear. My sketches were given to the experimental workshop, mechanics there installed and connected the module, it was tested and everything worked correctly. Eventually some dozen of prototypes were fitted with the modules. Suddenly, the Quality Control department reported to the Chief Electrical engineer that the French module is NOT installed according to the French instructions!

I was called to Otto’s office where he started noisily monstering me from the moment I stepped in: why did I not follow the French instructions exactly, why am I causing him so many problems for which he must keep covering up to uphold our reputation, why…!? My attempts at explanations were drowned by streams of abuse, for he was interested only in total submission, he did not want to hear any explanations. I was forced to re-design the damned thing to the French instructions, knowing full well what was going to happen.

I was out of GM already for some couple of years when it eventually happened . There was a recall notice in the daily press, according to which hundreds of WB vehicles, fitted with the rear lamps warning modules, were being recalled because of their faulty French supplied modules. It transpired that when a mechanic somewhere in a workshop was replacing light bulb in rear lamps of one of those vehicles, the engine in that vehicle suddenly started, the vehicle lurched forward and pinned legs of a mechanic who was standing in front of the vehicle, to the wall. “Faulty diodes in the French supplied module”, the recall message said. Faulty my foot, I thought for myself: two broken legs because of one pig-headed man…

        VB, VC, VH, VK

An era of the so-called “world cars” began. A new vehicle was imported from (General Motors) Opel in Germany, and we were told to prepare it for local production. The original four cylinder engine was replaced by a six cylinder one, eventually even by an eight cylinder engine. We were busy for a couple of years, and the car ended up heavily modified with model designations VB, VC and VH. The modifications mainly took place in the body of the vehicle, which was not strong enough to take larger and much more powerful engines. After these three models there came one designated VK. For that model a locally produced engine was to be used, but the carburettor was replaced by a Bosch supplied electronic fuel injections system – first for a GM produced car. The vehicle underwent a serious face-lift, to distinguish it from the previous models. The electrical engineer having been transferred to the Quality Control department, the job of installing the EFI system ended up with me:

I was not entirely happy with the electrical system in those imported vehicles. For instance, we were not allowed to modify the original German fuse box, with its failure-prone ceramic fuses; also, various switches were fairly flimsy and were prone to breaking. Working alone, and having a fairly free hand, I replaced the ceramic fuses with plastic ones, and for these I had to design a new fuse panel, there being nothing even remotely similar in the GM catalogue of parts. There being a few new modules as well I relocated all of them, together with the fuse panel, from under the dash in the cabin into the newly-designed box mounted in the rear of the engine bay – another new for GM vehicles. To be fair to Otto, the Chief Electrical Engineer, I must say that he was signing off all these novelties without a word, without a question!

My biggest challenge was in form of the new Electronic Fuel Injection system. I had no experience with anything like it, and neither had the local branch of Bosch. Eventually I was allowed to invite an EFI specialist from Bosch in Germany, a man called Ullrich, or Urbanek, and together we completed the design in two or three days.

        After a couple of minor problems encountered in prototypes the production car performed perfectly from the first vehicle to the last (except for its starting problems, which may be mentioned in the next blog, Lord willing)..