In <Pine.SUN.3.91.950602120840.22419D-100000@northpole.med.uvm.edu>, W. Ray
Gibbons wrote:
>On Fri, 2 Jun 1995, Palmer, Lew (UCI) wrote:
>
>> In fact, although LBCs stopped using BSF/Whitworth threads back in the
>> mid-50s, they never really gave up on the BA threads. Whitworth was a coarse
>I think this is going to depend a lot on what kind of car you have. I
>assume Lew is right in general, but that may not apply to some cars. For
>example, I am 99.44% sure my bugeye, designed in the late 50s, has UNF
>threads on all but a very few applications. Exceptions might be screws
>used in carbs or some electrical components such as the fuse block. But
>on the body, the fittings are UNF, as are most fittings on mechanical
>components and the engine. The pipe threads are british, and nothing
>like american.
>
>I think I recall that Will has an MGB. Someone will certainly correct me
>if I am wrong, but I expect the situation for a B would be much the same
>for that car as for the bugeye. I bet virtually all of the threads are
>UNF. If he had a Morgan, on the other hand, all bets would be off.
Saving a little bit of face, since my previous reply got lost in the
bit bucket. MG used BSF (son of Whitworth) and some bastardized
metric combinations in cars through the TF (1955 or so). I always
understood that the metric threads (on inch stock) resulted from MG
inheriting a bunch of German screw machines as War the First
reparations, but that might be urban legend. MGA used _mainly_ SAE
(UNF) hardware, though some BSF slipped through on the plumbing
(brakes, electrical). Lucas even used Whitworth on generator mounting
bolts as late as 1964, possibly later. The MGB is nearly exclusively
UNF (SAE fine thread) but some bolts, usually bedded in aluminum or
cast iron, are coarse. OTOH, my Aston Martin Mk III (produced through
1959) uses exclusively BSF hardware, so that it will be more expensive
to maintain, of course.
A. B. "I know about threads, but not about sewing" Bonds
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