Marley says
I’M OLD enough, Eric, to recall the precise mindset to which you refer with the copper-core ignition-leads versus newfangled carbon-core jobs. The fact that a lot of backyard mechanics managed to stuff the carbon lead by tearing it off the spark-plug instead of gently prising it off gave rise to the theory that the carbon ones were rubbish. It then followed that we should all turn back the clock and retro-fit copper-core leads and all would be right with the world once again.
Nowadays, of course, we know how to handle the carbon-core leads and we’re all (mostly) happy to admit that they’re a superior product, especially, as you point out, when it comes to radio-frequency interference on that flash, push-button AM wireless. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, tune your car radio to an AM station and then pull up next to a tram. The stray RF will play hell with the AM signal and you’ll be listening to white noise until the tram moves away.
But I continue to be amazed at the number of people I bump into who still hold old, outdated technology dear, insisting that it’s a better mousetrap. A few blokes I knock about with still swear by ignition points and reckon that electronic ignition is the work of the devil. Others I know have taken perfectly good fuel-injected engines, removed the injectors and fuel rails, changed the manifold and fitted a carburettor. A carburettor!
My old mate Bondini used to reckon drum brakes were as good as discs, but he was technically mad, and not to be trusted on most topics. Just the same, he clung to the knowledge that big trucks still used drum brakes, so they must be the superior product. And you know want, the old bugger almost had me convinced for a while there. Until I could bear the mystery no longer and looked into it. Turns out, big trucks use drum brakes purely because a disc brake can’t offer sufficient swept area while a big wide drum can offer almost 360-degrees of contact between the drum and the shoes. In a 38-tonner, swept area wins over brake cooling while, in a two-tonne car, it’s the opposite. Apparently.
There will come a time when disc brakes have been developed to the point where they’ll offer enough swept area for trucks, at which point they start appearing on prime movers. Maybe that’s already started to happen. Anybody from the trucking industry listening? Has this transition started to take place yet? Or am I, as usual, years off the pace here.