I enjoy wrenching and learning on these old cars and will probably continue as long as I am able to, and getting much needed advice on here is vey much appreciated. But one of my pet peeves is trying to find out the name of something that I need a replacement part for and everybody seems to call it different, from the manufacturer to the supply houses.

I’m sure most of you have run across the same problem. Even the repro houses differ in what a part is called, as do the repair manuals, etc.

I need to replace the yoke on my driveshaft. Everybody in the world calls it a driveshaft, at least in my part of the world, been calling it that since I was old enough to hold a wrench. Evidently somewhere along the way someone started calling it a “propeller” shaft. A propeller shaft!! Well, if it is a propeller shaft, then I’m missing a propeller!

 

When I hear of a propeller shaft for a Corvette, I think of the rear "half shafts". On later Corvettes, the driveshaft is sometimes referred to as a drive tube. Jerry

 

Yes there is a fair amount of different terminology especially between us and the British who love their cars and like working on them. Typically they do indeed refer to the driveshaft as the "prop" shaft. There are many others. C.J.

 

GM terminology for various parts varies from what is commonly popular and "shaft, propeller" is one of them. Another is what are commonly called "sway bars" by the masses. I use a more generic engineering term, "anti-roll bar", but don't confuse that with "rollover bar" (and commonly called "roll bar") that is added to production-based race cars. GM's term is "shaft, stabilizer"

The old paper GM P&A catalogs have indexes - for the whole book, and then one for each group. So sometimes if I'm looking for a particular part I do a "noun search" That is, I look for the part name in either the whole book index or the applicable group index if I know the group, but some parts, in addition to having uncommon names, aren't always in the group that seems obvious.

A good example was back in the seventies. A friend's new '76 Cosworth Vega was missing three anodized aluminum trim pieces that were part of a custom exterior package option for common Vegas, but were included with the Z-09 Cosworth Vega Special Performance Equipment Package.

Of the three, one went across the bottom of the grille, and the other two from both ends of the center piece, then wrapping around the bottom of the plastic headlight housings. The dealer found the center piece in Group 1, Coolant, Grille, Oil System, but they couldn't find the end pieces. At the time I was buying a lot of parts for my SWC from the same dealer, so on a trip to order or pick up some parts I said let me give it a try. I probably spent about half an hour but finally found them. I looked at Group 12, Body Moldings, Sheet Metal, Group 8 Front End Sheet Metal, heater, and maybe some others, but no dice.

Finally, for a reason I can't remember, I looked at Group 2 Chassis Wiring, Lamps and found them. Go figure!

Duke

 

Driveshaft and yoke were terms I heard all my life. Never heard of "prop shaft" until dealing with turbine aircraft engines.

 

Goes back many years

 

[QUOTE=SWCDuke;1605048660]GM terminology for various parts varies from what is commonly popular and "shaft, propeller" is one of them. Another is what are commonly called "sway bars" by the masses. I use a more generic engineering term, "anti-roll bar", but don't confuse that with "rollover bar" (and commonly called "roll bar") that is added to production-based race cars. GM's term is "shaft, stabilizer"

"Anti-roll bar"...one of my pet peeves. Functionally it is a pro-roll bar. Originally called a stabilizer, its purpose is to stabilize or harmonize the wheel loads on an independent axle pair. In a turn, outside wheel gets loaded the link(a torsion spring) applies a corresponding load to the inside wheel, stabilizing the pair. Probably became an "anti-roll bar" when somebody stuck it on a straight axle thinking it would be a good idea - it isn't.

 

Plenty of solid rear axle cars have rear anti-roll bars. They work the same as on independent suspensions. While resisting roll they transfer load to the outside tire taking advantage of the non-linear slip angle versus cornering force characteristics of tires to establish or alter a vehicle's dynamic response within the understeer-oversteer spectrum.

Duke

 

My early years of driving included negotiating traffic “circles”. Not friggin British “roundabouts”. People “disappeared “. They didn’t “go missing”. And i never figured out where “random” was to be present at that drawing of the winning lottery ticket.

 

I hate to be vague but I have been working on both the C-4 and C-2 a lot and can't recall the specifics. But recently there was an instance where the shop manual gave one name for the part in the exploded diagram showing all the parts, then called it by a different name in the text telling you how to install it.

 

That’s funny, and not surprised!

 

This is a big issue with me too. P & A is fairly clear on maintenance and power train that would be commonly used in a shop, but pity the poor body shop, especially if for interior parts.

 

If I spell this right: (acranyms) ! Many speak with them and It is hard to know what they are talking about. I know nothing about ron, pon, poa, stv, above p&a, and the list go's on. Some new to this haven't got a clew! I do know FI as fuel injection, lol, wtf, Propeller shaft, yes that propels the car in either direction, but I get thrown off. When I went to my lengthy class on a plane there were 13 pages of acranyms!! Some were made out of a 4 letter word. One more letter and the word was complete. Suv, abs, pvc, I know RV.


Dom

 

IMHO they are a PITA, and NFW will I worry about learning them all, SMH. The more you try to learn, the more things get FUBAR. OTOH, once you learn them they save you the trouble of writing long stuff out. But as for knowing them all, DILLIGAS?

 

One acronym I learned early in my automotive career RTFM ,said by and explained by a GM rep. That one was those most important one . Hope you all can figure that one and the "F" doesn't represent "first" .