Re: "Button Gravity" and "Warning Gravity"

[Laura Lemay <lemay -at- lauralemay -dot- com>]

On Dec 16, 2008, at 8:08 AM, Nancy Allison wrote:
> "The users who got electrocuted are going to be mad when they finally
> get to the warning!" That's what I always think!

I've told this story before, but I told it badly, so I'll tell it again.

A number of years ago I was taking apart a motorcycle with the help of  
a Clymer manual.  The Clymer manuals, for those of you who don't know  
them, are maintenance and repair manuals for cars and bikes, with step  
by step instructions and lots of photographs. They are not perfect.  
They could be better. But sometimes they are all you have.

Specifically I was removing the cam chain, which goes from the bottom  
of the engine to the top, and is connected by a removable ("master")  
link.  It had taken me about 40 steps just to get to that point, and I  
had had to take off a whole lot of parts from the engine, which was  
dirty and rusty and in very poor shape.  I had reached the step at the  
bottom of page 47 of the Clymer manual entitled "Removing the Master  
Link."

The master link has a lot of pins and fiddly bits, and it is very  
important that you not drop any of these bits into the engine, because  
you can't get any of them out again without taking the whole thing  
apart.  So I was very careful as I pried the master link apart not to  
drop any parts.  I popped some parts across the garage, but no parts  
went into the engine.  Freed from the link, the two halves ends of the  
chain slid apart.  One side fell into the guts of the engine, but I  
caught the other half.  And I figured that was a success.

I returned to the Clymer manual, and turned the page.  There at the  
top of page 48, was a note.

Note:  Make sure neither end of the cam chain falls into the crank case
by attaching wire to the ends before removing the master link.

*gasp*

I ranted for a good half hour on the importance of instructional  
design, then kicked the bike twice and went inside and
got drunk.

And actually come to think of it I never did finish rebuilding the bike.

Laura


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