Who around here is good with the laws of physics?

When working on cars, theres always been a few things I've noticed that shouldn't be.......

Say you have a gauge sender threaded into an adapter, which threads into a larger hole in the block. Why is it when you go to remove the sender, the adapter bushing always turns as well? You would think the larger surface area of the adapter/ engine block friction would be greater than the small sender unit. This happens with both pipe and flare fittings...

Drain plug gaskets.... you undo the plug and have to use a wrench on each turn because the gasket stuck to the pan, not the plug. Then when you barely touch the gasket, it falls off easily.......?

Anyone have any answers, or other scenarios, post 'em up!

 

Karma...

 

[QUOTE

Say you have a gauge sender threaded into an adapter, which threads into a larger hole in the block. Why is it when you go to remove the sender, the adapter bushing always turns as well?![/QUOTE]


Because your other hand should be using a second wrench to hold back.

 

"You cannae change the laws of physics" - Montgomery Scott,chief engineer,U.S.S. Enterprise
Paul

 

James Watt, right after establishing that 1 horse power = 746 watts, created the 11th law of physics (Newton nailed the first ten, you see) and the 11th law of physics says that 'known physics do not apply to hot rods' and the 11th Law gave rise to what is now known as 'Murphys' Law' (Murphy was the horses name, you see).

 

They've always worked for me...whether I understood them or not, or was aware of them, or not. But I agree with your observations/

 

It isn't the laws of physics your talking about here. It is "Murphy's" laws.

1) What can be screwed up, shall be screwed up.
2) What was onced screwed up, shall always be screwed up
3) Ya can't fix it once Murphy has a hold of it.

and Mac's rules, don't forget them, they are critical to live by

1) **** em, just **** em
2) See # 1

 

These are things that you just put up with. Don't ****yze it. Why when you drop something under a car it always goes to the center most area so you have to crawl on your back or belly to get it? How come no matter how good, expensive or hi-tech the gas can is it ****in leaks fuel down the side like a ****in old drunk at the end of bar droolin on himself? Why does a car **** up when you're showing it to sell but it's perfect shortly after they leave? How come that sound you want to track down never happens when you want someone to help or hear it with you?

Like I said, don't ****yze it just put up with it. That IS the law of physics.

 

"In an insane world, a sane man, must appear insane". Solution, grab two wrenchs to begin with.

 

I fought the law and the law won...

Here's one for you...

Why is so hard to make a GOOD electrical connection...
And so EASY to make an accidental short circuit?????

 

Accident's just don't happen, they are created......

 

"It is difficult to make anything foolproof, because fools are ingenious"- Benjamin Franklin

 

This explains it all.

 

lol....

 

all i know about physics is, if i trip i fall down. the strange thing is it has allways been that way.

-danny

 

I heard a similar question once in a shop i was working in. One of the old salts (Al Moorcroft) answered the guy (a customer of recent English emmigration) with another question. He said, "Not everything needs an explantion. For instance, why dont hens fart? They dont you know."
I can still remember enjoying the next 15 to twenty minutes of enjoyable silence that followed while the rest of us worked away under the hood hiding our grins.

 

And to that I add......awwso.......

 

If you can find out where the flame goes when you blow out a candle, all of your questions will be answered.

Bob

 

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.

It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."


Mark twain

 

never fails, how come every time i fix a dent in a fender, a customer calls me the next day and tells me their brakes squeak, and they were fine when they dropped the car off?

 

I've always referred to it as:

the Perversity of Inanimate Objects.

 

How many threads on the adapter vs sender? More on the sender then the adapter?

Cohesion the surface area of the pan surrounds the gasket on all edges but the plug leaves the outside of the gasket exposed.

or not

 

Reminds me of a guy who got caught screwing a pig. Of course I asked. "How did you get caught"? He said the pig squeeled on him.

 

Some observations:

If you drop a bolt, washer, nut, wrench or socket, It will end up dead centre under the hardest part of the car to get to.

An odd bolt, the one you don't have another one of will break or strip 5 minutes after the Parts Store Closes (used to happen on Saturday afternoon when the stores weren't open on Sundays).

Carburetors will work fine for years, but somehow a chunk of **** will find it's way past the fuel filter into the needle and seat on a very dark back country road at 1:00 am, and of course you don't have a flashlight in the tool box (using a lighter is not recommended).

You will get a flat tire when you are late for a job interview, late for work or late for a date - OR - when you have the car loaded down with 600 lbs of **** in the trunk, all of which has to come out to get to the spare and jack.

The shifter will jam only when in a final round or a very important street race (pride on the line).

 

my Dam toast always falls ****er side down too...what the hell is up with that?

man you have waaaay too much time on your hands..

 

I've been studying these so called laws of physic's all my life. The only thing I have come up with is....I still don't fully understand all I know about them yet. I want to gather more data but I'm skeered. Because when I do that it turns out to be one of those slipped off the nut with the lug wrench , hit the car with my head, fell off the jack and shot the hubcap into the street with the lug nuts going everywhere, while I fell backwards onto the sidewalk and hit my head again on the porch steps deal.

 

Someone mentioned friction, how true. But this is a simple mechanics solution. The smaller threads are under more force and higher friction than the larger threads.

Think of it this way, you have a water hose connected to your house plumbing. You turn it on and water flows out the open end and you put your thumb over the end to block the water flow. You have to exert quite a bit of force to totally block the water otherwise it just sprays all over the place. So you put a nozzle that you can shut off on the hose. Fine but the dog had gotten hold of it before you started watering the lawn and there is a small hole, you put your finger on the hole and it takes much less force to block the water escaping the hose.

Not taking into account the coefficient of friction of the differing materials, and that has a huge effect on things here, the pure mechanics of the situation say that you are putting much more force on the smaller threads than the larger ones at similar torque ratings. In other words you put as much whammy on the small threads as the larger ones when you put them in. Given that the smaller threads are also finer there is more contact surface and more force to jam the fittings together.

Want more? Look up Joseph Witworth and why he chose 51 degrees for his thread pitch and his particular thread counts. It's pretty cool stuff.

 

I have never completely understood anything

 

What has always puzzled me is what happens when I'm trying to find something. It's always in the last place I look!

 

I love colorful charts, they explain many things.