Re: Re:
soturi said:
BSW or BSC?
did a quick google... most sites describe the sockets as simply "whitworth". should i even be worried about the difference, or just buy a decent "whitworth" set and be done w/ it?
thanks!
BSF, BSC and BSW relate to the thread count on British fasteners, from what I've learned. Whitworth and British Standard sockets and wrenches are sized by the width of the threaded portion of the bolt, not the head. The only difference is BS sockets differ from Whitworth sockets by one size - a 5/16 BS is a 1/4 W, and some sockets and wrenches will be stamped with both sizes.
Back when Joseph Whitworth standardized bolt sizes, he experimented with the optimal head size for each size bolt, and came up with the Whitworth system. As materials improved, the industry found the heads were, for the most part, larger than needed for the job each bolt was required to do. By changing the head size to that of the next smaller bolt, the heads more closely matched the load capacity of the bolt, and British industry could keep using their Whitworth tools.
On Commandos, many of the fasteners are SAE (also called AF), as the British cycle industry switched over to American bolt sizing in the late '60s. Only those parts which were designed under the old system kept the BS nuts and bolts. That's why most of the chassis fasteners are SAE, but the engine is mostly BSC
Anybody with older Nortons knows just about everything on them is BSC (also called CEI)