The Metric System

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Mike69cuda said:
I think the metric system is an incredibly clever conspiracy by tool manufacturers to sell us twice as many tools as we really need. I spent a fortune just on metric crescent wrenches alone! Ha!
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Yes. And having to buy all new 9.525 mm drive ratchets. Ha!
 
Unconventional said:
I think my '89 Cherokee was both. Drive train was metric body was standard? Or some combination of that sort.
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Ya Jeep was bad for that. Drive train vendors were a little late to the game. Still that way I think. Dana, international...
 
Bodyperson said:
Ya Jeep was bad for that. Drive train vendors were a little late to the game. Still that way I think. Dana, international...
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Every body bolt on the 88 and up chevy truck is metric exept the front bumper filler. 1/4 inch
 
Unconventional said:
I think my '89 Cherokee was both. Drive train was metric body was standard? Or some combination of that sort.
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My 88 Chevy truck was a combo too. Everything that was bolted to the engine was standard and everything bolted to the accessory drive bracket was metric. A ***** when you get to that last bolt that doesn't screw in. LOL
 
toolmanmike said:
My 88 Chevy truck was a combo too. Everything that was bolted to the engine was standard and everything bolted to the accessory drive bracket was metric. A ***** when you get to that last bolt that doesn't screw in. LOL
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Thats when you get out the 12.5 impact. LOL
 
Back in the 80s somebody at our place decided we would go to the metric system. They made all the new part drawings in metric. Seemed like a good idea at the time. However all the NC mills, lathes, CMMs & other stuff was all programmed in inches. Had to convert every dimension. Then had to convert all the measurements back to metric to see if they matched the drawings when they were done. What a goat rope.

Thought we would fix some of that. Bought ovens that displayed temperature in C rather than F. Somebody set an oven to 160 C rather than 160 F ( some number of times). Quite a bit hotter. That was the end of those parts.

We finally gave up and went back to inches rather than recapitalize The whole plant.

Never have had a fondness for the metric system since that.
 
4spdragtop said:
I like the old imperial, but metric is so much simpler...everything divisible equally by 10.
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until you jump dimensions
if 1 meter is 100 centimeter, then howcomes 1 liter is 1000 cubic centimeters?

the funny thing is, i grew up on the metric system and untill i bought my duster i didnt own a single SEA tool, but it drives me bonkers when people call our V8s by liters, its an engine, not a mountain dew

(this happens a lot with my bronco, its got the 351 in it, and the jokers at the autozone ask me all the time, is that a 5.0 or a 5.3 ? no, its a 351)
 
Because your converting mass to volume or vice versa. Same way 1 cubic meter equals 1000 litres.
Do inches convert as easily to pounds??
diymirage said:
until you jump dimensions
if 1 meter is 100 centimeter, then howcomes 1 liter is 1000 cubic centimeters?

the funny thing is, i grew up on the metric system and untill i bought my duster i didnt own a single SEA tool, but it drives me bonkers when people call our V8s by liters, its an engine, not a mountain dew

(this happens a lot with my bronco, its got the 351 in it, and the jokers at the autozone ask me all the time, is that a 5.0 or a 5.3 ? no, its a 351)
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Having worked in the aviation maintenance field most of my adult life I've seen it evolve...

The US military manuals were published in US inches almost exclusively until around the early 1970s.

New development since has been for the mos t part void of any size references in procedures. Dimensions shown in charts/diagrams are required to show dual dimensions (US Standard & Metriv)

As a Technical writer for an international parts manufacturer, and writing to (ATA - Airline Transportation Asscociation) Standards, EVERYTHING is displayed in dual format.

Metric makes sense to me, with one exception -Temperature is silly in °C!
 
The people that ***** the most about metric know exactly what a 2 liter bottle is though
 
I had almost made the transition until I bought my cuda a year ago. Now I am back to two of everything. One nice thing about metric cars is that every bolt seems to be a 10, 13, or a 15.
 
Airplane ditches and crashes have been blamed on choosing the wrong conversion factors by fuel truck operators. The planes just ran out of fuel. I doubt I will ever get on another plane.
I'm comfortable in either system but riddle me this; If you bore a 360 out to wait-for it....... 4.04 inches;you get a 367.14 cuber. What's that in metric? 6.0162525 liters. And a stock 5.9 Magnum is 5.897709. What the heck; try telling your friends you have a 6.02 .. What's that? NOT!, Yur gonna call it a 367......
Just like I call my bored out 360, a 367.(It's actually a 368, but I pulled a Chebby on it. For a few years, they called their 402s ,396s.) IMO, I thought 367 had a better ring to it; and besides, it's actually a 6 liter now; so don't call it no steenkink 5.9; and don't even compare it to a 5.57, everybody knows those were the bomb. No Sir, it's a legitimate 6l,lol.
 
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diymirage said:
until you jump dimensions
if 1 meter is 100 centimeter, then howcomes 1 liter is 1000 cubic centimeters?
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It’s because volume is 3 dimensions. Length, width and height. When it’s only length, the factor is 100 (10x10) and width this assumed to be 1.

When you add the other dimension, in this case height, the factor is 1000 (10x10x10).

In the Pharmaceutical business, all we use is metric because it is Globally universal and far more precise than the English system. It is also far easier to do calculations with.
 
My job is 100% metric but with a background in machining, I still convert small numbers over to standard to be able to conceptualize what I'm actually looking at.
 
Mike69cuda said:
One nice thing about metric cars is that every bolt seems to be a 10, 13, or a 15.
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Unless the car you're working on is Japanese. Then the heads of the bolts will be 10, 12, 14...

I do like the idea of the metric system and I'm comfortable using it, but there are some imperial measurements that are more intuitive. One example is ambient air temperature. If you walk outside and it's 100 degrees F, it's really hot. Likewise 0 degrees is really cold. Another example is speed as it relates to driving a car. If you're going 100 mph, that's pretty fast. 100 kph, not so much.
 
Keystone said:
Unless the car you're working on is Japanese. Then the heads of the bolts will be 10, 12, 14...

I do like the idea of the metric system and I'm comfortable using it, but there are some imperial measurements that are more intuitive. One example is ambient air temperature. If you walk outside and it's 100 degrees F, it's really hot. Likewise 0 degrees is really cold. Another example is speed as it relates to driving a car. If you're going 100 mph, that's pretty fast. 100 kph, not so much.
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Unless you're in Missouri. Here, 100 degree's isn't hot until the humidity hits 90%
 
Having any machine with both is a huge pain and the Manufacturer should be shot!

I work on commercial restaurant equipment and some still come with both, make up your F'ing mind. I understand suppliers and cost are involved but why is it field technicians have to deal with this crap and carry a heavier tool pouch.

My auto mechanic son still sees it too, he was brought up on metric and prefers working on SAE/Imperial cars.
 
I got so used to using metric building trains, when it came time lay down the new flooring in the kitchen I measured everything in metric.
 
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