Good grief, what a manual. It's amazing the changes in the engines then compared to today. They are just about idiot proof now compared to the technical skill required to rebuild one then. It also seems like there are probably about 1/3 of the parts in an 80's flathead compared to this 40's engine. That's just based on the manual. It may be simpler once I start to break it down and actually see for myself.
Well remember when it was made, finding jobs for all the demobbed soldiers was just about the No1 priority of governments so businesses were encouraged to use labour intensive manufacturing.
Also machinery was very expensive but manpower was very cheap so complicated was not a problem.
Materials technology was in it's infancy so designing to the limit of the materials was a long way off.
Production technology was still in the transmission from steam to electricity
And tooling was still done with high carbon steel or at the best high speed alloy steel.
Things we take for granted like carbide tooling that can make thousands of cuts while retaining it's original dimensions was 30 years away.
Also remember that most of the workforce was manual so the hand eye co-ordination of the the average person was much higher than in todays push button society.
Most people could grab a length of wood and cut a dead square end by eye.
Mechanical things were new, popular , exciting and grabbed the interest of the general public so we were far more mechanically literate than we are today.
Half the male population would have had the same levels of mechanical skills as the average professional mechanic has now days beause most machines required constant maintenance .
