To: NigelOnDraft
I don't think anybody has said that anything was installed backwards. If your post was making this assumption, than a very elequant post it is, but nothing to do with this incident.
The cannibalized parts (tubes) that were taken from the RB-211 engine were installed backwards. These parts were interchangeable with the tubes that should have been delivered with the engine (but they were not). Both tubes had identical "B" nuts at each end of the respective tubes. Good design would have dictated different types/sizes of "B" nuts or at the very least specific instructions as to how the tubes should be installed including the establishment of clearance between the two tubes.
That’s the story I got from my sources and I’m sticking with it.
