This is going to sound dumb

Left and right is in relation to when you are sitting in the car, behind the wheel. Same with front versus rear.

Remember there are no dumb questions, only dumb people... j/k

 

In the parts books, SX = LEFT, DX = RIGHT.

 

As a technical manager I see a lot of incomplete descriptions. Your question is not at all dumb, it is the description that is incomplete since there is an implied "frame of reference" of "as viewed from the driver seat facing the steering wheel" that was not documented.
I hope this reassures you so you can send us the next question, we just eat them up,
Ron

 

This is why aviation and marine folks speak in terms of port and starboard as it implies that the observer is looking forward. So, port=left=SX and starboard=right=DX.

Bill

 

In the UK mechanics always say "nearside and offside" in relation to the curb, or is it in relation to the driver - amazing how confusing simple things can be. Personally I say left/right from where I sit in the car. Which seems to match all the workshop manuals I have ever seen.

 

I always though it was this side and that side. This side being the side you're working on, and that side being the side you're not working on. LOL!

 

Nearside/offside comes from the wacky world of horses. You get on on the near(right side). No, I don't ride and I don't like them.

 

Using the same vernacular as when working on a car, the near side of a horse, the side you mount from, would be it's left side.
(I had them and loved them but cost as much in maintenance as a Ferrari)

 

Just think of left hand drive cars and right hand drive cars, which side is the steering wheel on? That's how I learned to remember.

 

The tattoos might be a bad idea. You tell the tattooist you want an "L" on the left hand. Remember, he will be facing you. Does the "L" go on his left or your left? If he gets them wrong you will only be able to work on front-engined cars.

Better yet would be to get "left" and "right" decals and have a knowledgeable technician properly apply them to the car.

 

Port and Starboard makes a lot of sense, as Port is always the Left side of the ship in relation to the Bow. And Starboard is always Right.
However if you’re down in the bowels of an unfamiliar ship and don’t know which end is the Bow (front) or Stern (back), (much easier than you might imagine) it becomes irrelevant (because you’re lost) and the best way to relocate yourself is to find your way Topside (up).
Once Topside and you’re relocated, Port once again becomes Left and Starboard Right, as long as you remember how the terms Port and Starboard correlate to Left and Right!
An easy way for young seamen, or tourists on the cruse liner of their choice, to remember these important correlations is that the words Port and Left, are each spelled with 4 letters.
Even old brain fade boat guys like my self can generally remember that! (Now if I could just find my engine room and that waiting cup of coffee).
John

 

JTR... wow. And I used to keep the little phrase "red right returning" in mind to remind me of buoy colors.

There's nothing quite like the charming sound of a 6 ton keel dragging through ocean floor when you forget the little phrase...

 

I just wanted to make a minor point that, even if you know and follow this labeling correctly, it's still possible for it to sometimes be misleading depending on the usage (so it never hurts to check, double-check, try to verify in another F refererence, etc.). The particular example I'm thinking of now is on a TR where they've labeled the fuel pump relays "LH fuel pump" and "RH fuel pump", but the "LH" and "RH" signify which side of the chassis the fuel pump is physically mounted on -- not the bank it serves (i.e., the "LH fuel pump" feeds fuel to the RH 1-6 bank).

 

And an easy trick to remember which side of the ship shows which color (red or green):

Remember the phrase "Port wine is red" (the port side of the ship will be shown at night by a red indicator).

 

That's the way I was taught to remember it when I first started working on boats.

 

I remember a cartoon about teaching country lads how to march in time to the command left/right,

they tied a bunch of hay to the left shoe, and straw to the right shoe, and the drill sargeant said "hay/straw hay/straw" instead of left/right.

More scientific solution would be to place the car facing north and use east and west based on the sun rise/set instead of right/left. An in car GPS or compass would help solve this problem completely.

The frame of reference would then be the earth/sun orientation. Of course purists may prefer to use the center of the universe as the zero point but the problem is the universe has no center or boundary.

Regards,
Ron

 

Boy... I would have flunked out of marching.... what's the difference between hay and straw?

 

You know, it wasn't originally a stupid question, but...............

 

That's what I thought... I think he's pullin our leg

 

I would recommend not to connecting anything!

Just lay on your back with your hands behind your head, and slowly raise until your elbows touch your knees and then gently go back down. Repeat this process until your abs are as good as new.

As far as sides go, I don't think it makes much difference, as your abs are in the middle.

Sorry.... Just exercising my oblique sense of humor.

 

In some notations in the 308 service and owner's manuals, they refer to the flywheel end of the engine as the rear end and the pully end of the engine as the front end of the engine.

Now everyone knows the 3xx engines are all transverse mounted and the front of the engine is actually on the right (as you sit in the car) and the flywheel end of the engine on the left=port=sx.

This makes the two left carburetors the front=fore=bow and the two right carburetors the rear=aft=stern.

It's only important to remember which is the front of the engine when manually rotating the crankshaft. The manual says never manually rotate the engine left as it can loosen the timing belt bearings.

Does that mean left when facing the front of the engine or standing behind the engine (flywheel end).

One way to remember left from right is clockwise=rightwise and counter-clockwise is leftwise.

Geesh, it's all so confusing.

 

Nope.

My wife trained at Quantico, and she can still recite a cadence they used that had, "Hay foot, Straw foot" in it. I can't recall the rest.

Here are a couple of pix so you can tell the difference.

DM
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login