Subject: [alfa] Re: 164 Tensioner stud sourcing?

["Sasha Nackovski" <sashan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Incidentally, you will find that auto engineers Europe wide use M7 fasteners
on their cars, and in some cases much more frequently than Alfa. French
engineers love using M7 (and M5, an even more difficult to find fastener than
M7), but then French engineers tend to favour components that are diffucult to
find and likely to cause immense grief to anyone servicing their vehicles.
Germans are less enthusiastic about using M7, but still do so (eg. ATE
calipers). I have come across M7 on both Saab and Volvo, and of course there
is Alfa and possibly other Italian makes. I believe M7 fasteners are much more
readily available in Europe than other parts of the world. They are less
available here in OZ (you sometimes need a really helpful fastener vendor),
but are still possible to find. For example, when I lost an M7 nut for the
rear ATE caliper on my 105GTV, I was able to buy a packet of M7 nuts and bolts
from my local hardware store.

Why do Europeans use them? I think it is a combination of the fact that it is
the appropriate size for that particular engineering application, and the fact
that M7 fasteners are more commonly available in the country where the design
originated.  So, in a way, you are both right...:-)

Regards,

Sasha Nackovski- Melbourne, Australia.

Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 09:18:58 -0700
From: "V. Lalo Ruiz" <Lalo@domain.elided>
Subject: [alfa] Re: 164 Tensioner stud sourcing?

-snipped-

Anyway, it's hard to know what reasons existed for making these seemingly odd
thread selections without actually speaking to the engineer that made them.
Maybe they were betting on M7 fasteners becoming a popular and thus standard
size by now?  Maybe an M8 thread in the block would have cut into an oil
passage or water passage?  Whatever.  It is what it is and all I can do is
sit
there with my thread gauge in hand and wonder:

"What the hell were they thinking?"

- -Lalo
'88 Verde
www.LalosGarage.com
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