Is our view of old engineering distorted by the products which survive?

A *broken* Apple laptop? How could that be? (BG)

--Winston

Reminds me of a design Nikon had for potentiometers in some of their pro cameras. Eventually they fixed it, but oddly enough, not on the most expensive model at the time.

Does the barrel travel through your face before landing on the ground? :-)

I wonder what process causes the change in the properties of the plastic. Anyone know?

I remember a few of those. I think my parents might still have one. Looked cool, in a lurid '60s kind of way

Thanks, Ed. That's an interesting list.

Best wishes,

Chris

Damn that sucks. No way I'd buy one of those new bikes with a drip tray under it!

Best wishes,

Chris

No problem. I understand. If I ever find a broken Apple laptop, I might pull it apart out of curiousity and find out for myself :-).

Best wishes,

Chris

Is that essentially quenching starting at room temperature?

Best wishes,

Chris

For a whole, folks didn't!

It looked like Harley was going to die, but President Reagan's administration gave them sort of a bailout in the form of stiff import tariffs for jap bikes. That, along with some management changes, gave Harley a new lease on life.

After that, Harley somehow achieved the status of a sort of cultural icon, and was seemingly able to sell everything they could push out the factory door.

Vaughn

No, the design is pretty fail-safe. Like other break-action shotguns, the barrel butts up against a solid vertical surface on the receiver. So when the barrel breaks off of its lug it just falls off. I imagine it could shoot forward from drag of the shot load and wads before the pressure is out of the chamber and cause the shell to blow up in your face, but the inertia of the barrel apparently was enough to keep it from moving that far, that quickly. Both times I was standing at a concrete trap position -- a circular pad about five feet in diameter -- and the barrel just landed on the concrete. d8-( It scared the hell out of me, though.

They often used excessive amounts of plasticizer back in the '50s and '60s, to keep the plastic flexible. But the plasticizers were volatile. When they dried out, the plastic shrunk (you've probably seen this on old plastic parts of mechanisms) and became weak and brittle.

I don't know - think of it this way...

a small drip from the bottom point will drip out the micro carbon chunks that grind away on things. This was likely the early way before some detergent oils were developed to keep them floating around and out of the oil sump pump.

I have my air tank that way - sizzle a little and the water is let out. It acts like a leak - but it is a useful leak.

Martin

Mart> Vaughn Sim>>

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And my late friend Trev Deely, the Canadian distributor, helped finance the buyout!

Steve R.

That's why their proper name is " Hardly Ever Run"

I like my '78 Suzuki farm bike, good fun & electric start. Cost me $175 in '83, only replaced 1 chain & sprockets and several batteries.

Alan Alan, in Gosnells, Western Oz. VK6 YAB VKS 737 - W 6174

Never ever buy an AMF Harley..unless you are planning on doing a full custom rebuild into something else.

On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:50:27 +0800, the infamous snipped-for-privacy@iinet.net.oz scrolled the following:

Not a hard bike to afford. But don't you sandgropers know to call them by their proper name, "SuckSuzi", Alan? ;)

--a former Kawasaki ("Cow") owner.

-- To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

My first bike was a Triumph Thunderbird in '57

I also had a Yamahahahahahaaa and another Suzi PE for my sons

Alan Alan, in Gosnells, Western Oz. VK6 YAB VKS 737 - W 6174

Do you know the names of any of those plastics and plasticisers? I'd be interested to know.

Best wishes,

Chris

I think this is debatable. The oil at the very bottom of the sump is likely stagnant anyway, so contaminants there probably don't circulate through the engine much. And if your bike leaks oil, the chances are that at some point the oil level will get low. If it gets too low, that'll wear out your engine a lot quicker than a few contaminants. Lastly, it creates a mess everywhere, so I'm doubtful that Harley Davidson created the leaks on purpose.

It's also my understanding that you shouldn't put modern oils with high detergent and dispersant concentrations into older engines which only have a gauze oil strainer. Those additives are meant to dissolve all the contaminants and keep them in circulation until they can be removed by one of those cartridge-type paper filters. If you don't have one of those, anything small just stays in circulation and causes wear. Better just to let it fall to the bottom of the sump.

Best wishes,

Chris

Nope. I was once a materials editor for a manufacturing magazine, but they didn't bless me with a good memory.

-- Ed Huntress

I tend to agree, but when laying it over or driving around curves and bumps the oil will be 'all shook up'. A user adds from the top and if they know that every other day or once a week to add a can it seems to work for me. I remember old cars a friend had that used 2 quarts a tankful. A car ready for a ring job or bore.....

Martin

Mart> Mart>> I don't know - think of it this way...

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Thanks for the link, Jim. That's interesting.

Best wishes,

Chris