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TR2/3/3A What is a "knave plate"

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TR3MT

TR3MT

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Just for something to do I have been compiling a list of British vs. American English names for TR items, mostly out of the TR2 Service Instruction Manual (Pub. No. 502602. I have come across the word "knave plate". Anybody know what this is referring to?
TR3MT
 
Actually a "nave plate" - a true hubcap (not a wheel disk).

Covers the wheel's hub (also called "nave").
 
Thanks Darrell. I had been wracking my brains trying to remember where I had seen that word and what it meant.
TR3MT
 
In England a nave plate was a decorative plate on a wheel that hid the hub. A hub cap was fitted to the hub to keep the grease inside.
A relative of mine made wagon wheels, and his screw-on brass hub caps were very decorative. He'd hate to hear the term used as it is today.
 
When I saw this thread title I just started smiling.

I first saw the term "nave plate" in our GT6 manuals 20+ years ago when we got the car from my father-in-law. Pictures made it clear that the term was applied to what I called a hub cap or wheel cover. I just excepted the term and never questioned where it came from... even though friends from the U.K had never heard of it!

Thanks to TR3MT for asking the question and Nutmeg for the explanation.
 
Yep. And navel is a derivative, as it's the center of your body. And then there's the nave of a ship. And the nave is the area where the congregation of Anglican/Episcopal churches sit. The meanings are pretty descriptive.

Gosh, I sound like Cliff Clavin!
 
The French word for this is "enjoliveur" which literally means "to make something look beautiful". The French-Canadian word is "cap de roue" which means "wheel cap".
 
Andrew Mace said:
Yeah... except that what you said a: made sense AND b: was true. ;)
Click to expand...

I'm framing this and showing it to my wife! :smirk:

Anyhoo, back on topic, here's a list of British => American car part terms that's kinda fun.
 
Mickey - that Anglo/USA word list is great. Thanks for posting it. Until now I've never ever known exactly what "tickover" was. I'd always thought it meant when the engine first fired!

:encouragement:
 
I can still recall, when I was an 18 year old, trying to get my head around why in the world I would want follow the direction to wash the carburetors' pistons in ~paraffin~.
 
Not on the list are British terms I frequently hear on message boards on the U.K. The phrases I will never be able to use are "nearside" and "farside". If you are like me, you would perhaps think that "nearside" applied to the driver's side of the car when in the driver's seat (near to the driver) and "farside" would be the passenger side.

Nope.

Nearside is the side "nearest the shoulder of the road"... so the passenger side... or the left side on a LH drive car. Since I have RH drive cars I never use the terms nearside and farside on U.K. message boards. I stick to "left and right".
 
"left and right" - and half the time I see them, I don't know if they mean *facing* the engine, or *as sitting in the driver's seat*

:confused:
 
Doug,
Actually, it's nearside and offside, and originally had nothing to do with the side of the road, except by coincidence.
Nearside is always the left side, and the term is older than motor vehicles, it refers to the side from which you mount a horse.
 
Interesting. You learn something new every day. Thanks for the additional information!
 
Coming in to this a bit late....

But my '58 TR-3 (when I was a 19 year old college student in '70) came with an owner's guidebook that mentioned "nave plates". I remember laughing at the term. My room mate also had a TR-3 (which he still has) and we were always joking about our nave plates.

In ~THIS Online TR-3 Manual~ you can see the term "nave plate" used on page 43 (and other places too)
 
Thanks for the interest shown and help received in this thread. I now know it's a "nave" plate, and from our grammarian, I was racking (not wracking) my brain. Mickey's British-American Automotive Translation link was good. A couple of my favorites not on the list are: "olive", a compression sleeve, and "nip up", to tighten.
 
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