<VV> Fuel Leak / lug nuts

[Hugo Miller]

I would love to debate this with you, but this is probably not the right 
forum! I will confine myself to a few comments; the metric system and the 
decimal system are two different things. Metric is of course decimal, but 
not necessarily vice-versa; - Metric is an artificial political construct 
designed by Napoleon as a sign of conquest, as was the command to drive 
(carriages!) on the right. Napoleon even wanted to decimalise the clock! 
The infant America decided to drive 'on the French side' in a moment of 
post-revolutionary fervor.
Britain, until the early '70s, had a currency system as follows; 12 Pennies 
to a Shilling; 20 Shillings to a Pound. We had a Two Shilling & Sixpence 
coin called a Half-Crown, and there were eight of them to a Pound. When I 
was at junior school, we used to multiply and divide these currencies with 
ease. Five Pounds seventeen shillings & three Pence divided by fourteen? I 
wouldn't have a clue how to do it today, but it made us very good at math!
And I dislike the metric system in practical terms. I can look at a bolt and 
tell you whether it is 5/16" UNF, or 3/8" BSF, or 1/2" UNC, or whatever. I 
struggle to do the same with metric bolts. British Jap cars tend to use 13mm 
& 17mm wrench sizes, whereas American ones (at least my Mitsubishi Eclipse 
Spyder) uses 14 & 18 as you say.
Finally, the metric system is rational, scientific and boring, whereas 
traditional measures are idiosyncratic and above all, HUMAN!


-----Original Message----- 
From: Joel McGregor via VirtualVairs
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2018 3:35 AM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re:  Fuel Leak / lug nuts

In the US the Budd system was inch and the "new" hub center is metric.  22mm 
I think.
I love metric.  If you can count you already know how to use metric.  No 
learning.  Feet make no sense at all.  The only reason it is meaningful is 
that we grew up with it.  If you grew up with metric 1.7 meters would make 
just as much sense.   It burns me that US auto manufacturers decided they 
needed to be different when they went to metric and they are all different 
from Japanese metric.  Lots of 15mm and 18mm wrenches needed when Japanese 
metric uses 14 and 17.  Thread pitches are mostly different also.

Joel McGregor

________________________________________
From: Hugo Miller [Hugo at aruncoaches.co.uk]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2018 11:48 AM
To: Joel McGregor; virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> Fuel Leak / lug nuts

And of course some people think that if they do the nuts up tight enough
they won't come off. They then stretch the stud beyond its elastic limit as
you lose most of the 'spring' force that keeps it all together. That's if
they haven't stretched the threads first.
I have never used a torque wrench on wheel nuts on my buses - I do them up
by feel - they don't need to be too tight if all faces are clean and the
threads are not stiff. I never check them, and I've never had a problem
ever. The plus side of using lube on the threads is that you can get them
apart again.
Another sort of related comment - I notice that coarse (UNC) threads are
widely used on American vehicles. In the UK we used to use BSF (British
Standard Fine) and Whitworth (which co-incidentally has the same pitch as
UNC). Then we went over to UNF threads, with UNC only being used on the
bottom of studs or in aluminium. Now of course everything is metric, which I
hate. It is an artificial system imposed by Napoleon on the countries he
conquered - every measurement is supposed to be a tiny fraction of the
circumference (or maybe diameter?) of the Earth. (Of course, if it is a
fraction of the circumference, it cannot also be a fraction of the
diameter!). Traditional measurements, on the other hand, are based on the
human body. The decimal system is divisible only by 2 and 5, whereas the
traditional 'duodecimal' system divides by 2,3,4 and 6.  Plus the fact that
centimetres are not included in the S.I. metric system, so you get
measurements given in hundreds of millimetres. If I told you I was 5' 10"
tall, you would know immediately what that looked like. If I told you I was
1.778 metres you wouldn't have a clue.
Ok, rant over ;)
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