The "brake spanner" controversy

Question

Sorry I caused a lot of head scratching (there's an expression I know only in English) when I answered "What other languages, if any, do people here speak" with an example of being only fluent in English because I could conceptualise the phrase: I need a torque wrench to tighten the brake spanners.

Well I check with my mechanic. There is no "brake spanner" as such. He said spanner is the British word for wrench (wouldn't know I live in Kansas) and he supposed that a tool for releasing the hold down springs could be called a kind of "brake spanner".

So, my friends, I want to change my fluency example to "give me the wrench for releasing the brake hold down springs". Knowing that, now everybody is fluent in English! Ha, ha, ha!

annierats, RosaVerde, and any others, I hope this offers a little clarity.

Answer 1

Hello Jubilado.

As both a bilingual speaker and a former professional mechanic (among other things) familiar with both British and US mechanics terms, I must comment that you chose a particularly unfortunate example.

I have not read your first post, or I would have been another one of the extremely confused readers. Be as it may, I believe that your current example still doesn't work, simply because the thing that you're referring to is not usually called a "wrench" (or a spanner for that matter).

That would be one of several kinds of "spring tool" or if you will, "brake spring release tool", such as this one:

or this one (retaining spring tool):

Working as a mechanic both in Britain and in the US, I learned that a "wrench" or a "spanner" is normally a tool used to release or tighten threaded things, such as bolts, tie-rod ends, threaded pipes and what not.

Therefore, you could have a brake-bleeding spanner or wrench, like this one:

Or you could have a brake adjustment wrench or spanner, like this one:

Then you have the brake spring release tools (I already showed one), and the brake shoe adjustment tool or spoon, which can also be a wrench, since it turns the adjustment star on drum brakes:

So, since I fail to see how this helps any with fluency matters (not having read your original post), I suggest that perhaps the discussion can be brought back on track if we concentrate on a different set of words?

Cheers!

Good information here. Thanks. I think my posting this time was a bit unnecessary. This helps with fluency matters because I understand everything you've written without having to consult a dictionary. - Jubilado, Dec 7, 2011

Hi Gekkosan , here in OZ we use extremely cold water to tighten nuts, anything below 14 C is known as " Spanner water "! - ray76, Dec 7, 2011

I never enter water below 26C I cannot afford the risk of stripping a thread. - ray76, Dec 7, 2011

There you go, Ray. That's precisely why it's called "wrenching cold". Difficult break-ups also tend to be wrenching. - Gekkosan, Dec 8, 2011