Re: [Amc-list] Made a boo boo today

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

I know the feeling about inventing new cuss words "at the spur of the moment"! I wouldn't use one of those old flex plates though. I've personally ripped the center out of one, and have seen many. They are a hard steel that cracks easily. I know you want to get that engine in, but you will be better off getting a new replacement flexplate. If you drive easily the old one will probably last a few years, but you're likely to have to replace it then. 

I had a discussion of motor vs. engine recently. In a small nutshell, an engine is mechanical, a motor is electrical, or converts a force to useable energy in other than mechanical means (I don't think there IS anything other than an electric motor that isn't mechanical, but then the rubber band of a toy airplane is the motor....). An internal combustion engine can be a motor, but an electric motor is never an engine. That's the one that's confusing! The engine sitting on a stand (test or rebuilding) is an engine, once it's installed in the car it's a motor, as it provides motive force to/for the vehicle. So technically the terms engine and motor can both be correctly applied to an automotive power plant. 

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Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 11:17:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Joe Fulton <piper_pa20@xxxxxxxxxxx>

While torquing the flex plate bolts to the crank on my 196 OHV today (100 - 100 ft-pounds) I put a heavy screwdriver through one of the outer holes to brace it against the torque and keep the crank from turning.  Well, that flexplate is fragile and I tore it.  Ruined.  But one of the advantages of having four other 196 engines on hand is that I had another flex plate ready to harvest.  It only slowed me down about 15 minutes after I quit inventing new cuss words.  It is Sunday too, and I'm a little ashamed but I don't think the neighbors heard anything.  When I'm working on a car on Sunday I'm thankful to be alive and I'm in church anyway.

I'm trying to get that motor installed today. Hey, I just recalled the long discussion on the list about "motor" versus "engine" a few years ago.  No one seems to care now.  Maybe we grew up.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)

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