Measure once, measure twice, measure three times.

Ok, so I measured all the valve clearances, all on tight side of allowable tolerance. Measure a few spare shims I had, then just for something to do, measured the feeler gauges with the old micrometer. "hello, something not right here" so re-measured, then measured a few other things like a drill bit. Something definately not right here, so had a think, had a scratch blah blah blah, then the penny dropped. WRONG FEELER GAUGES! Despite double checking before I started, I had used an Imperial set of gauges instead of metric. I have re mesaured all the clearances, and they are all in the middle of allowable tolerance. I thought something was strange considering the low mileage of the bike, I must be losing it as I get older.

So come on then, does anybody else want to confess the sin of stupidity:laugh:

Ride safe Doebag

I would if I understood the question. :blink:

Wasn't there something similar involving the more recent Mars landers? Someone calculated something in the English system and it should have been metric?

Alright, I confess!
My sin of stupidity was marrying my practice wife.:ohmy: :blink:
Fortunately I got my head together and in '95 married the woman I should have married in '83.:woohoo:

I tend to be one of those guys that doesn't read the directions, and can figure it out by myself. I usually "reverse" engineer something and that's how I learn. I am always putting on my gloves, and then fastening my helmet. Dang, will this ever stop?

I just want to know why it is when I'm rolling up an extension cord, and that plug-end is swinging, that it always tends to want to hit me in the family jewels? :blink: Anybody have this happen? I thought so. Now I turn sideways when rolling it up. :huh:

Post edited by: CoreyClough, at: 2005/11/04 09:04

Cant figure out why you would have "imperial" feeler gauges anyway? (I've actually got some but they're kept in that draawer wi imperial spanners and allen keys and all sorts o wierd stuff for Briggs n Stratton n Harleys n things I try to stay clear of!) :lol:

It is easy done dude, suppose I'm lucky as mostly grown up on metric measurements. Could be a good excuse to browse some tool catalogues before christmas!! Ho , ho!

Mcdroid
I saw that to on some cable channel. Something about stupid mistakes that costed millions. Thats why that Mars land rover crashed into the planet instead of a soft landing. The booster rockets were supposed to shut off 1000 yards above the planet, but the programers programed the computer to shut them off 1000 Meters, $187 million dollars crashed into the planet.......

kawasaki_kev wrote:

Cant figure out why you would have "imperial" feeler gauges anyway? (I've actually got some but they're kept in that draawer wi imperial spanners and allen keys and all sorts o wierd stuff for Briggs n Stratton n Harleys n things I try to stay clear of!) :lol:

It is easy done dude, suppose I'm lucky as mostly grown up on metric measurements. Could be a good excuse to browse some tool catalogues before christmas!! Ho , ho!

In my alter ego, I have a '66 Triumph Herald Estate (station wagon) which is all Imperial Measurements.
The British Motor industry went through a strange period in the late sixties/early seventies of having mixed metric/imperial sizes on the same vehicle from some manufacturers, say where a modern chassis and suspension had been fitted with the previous model years engine/transmission on a change over year.

I just KNOW i'm not the only one who done this.....:whistle:
You got yer trusty multi-tap ext cord out, and yer dremel, drill, maybe sander out....yer working away....yadda yadda ya. Go to use one and it dont work! "ACK!" you think. Then there it is, plugin dangling cause you forgot to plug THAT one in.
In the pro sound industry, we call this a "hi impedance air-gap"......:blink:

Not a mistake, but I'll post this for it's curiosity value.

I had my 750 cases on a CNC machine a while back to plot the various points before making an outrigger (a bearing support plate in the US). To my surpise, the distances between centres of the various shafts in the engine were all round units in INCHES, not mm.

That is very interesting...why would the Japanese work in an unfamiliar measurement system, unless bearings are standardized to the English system?

cut it three times and still to short!been ther done that.if thats the worst thing you ever do,youre still better than 99% of us!good luck,happy wrenching