As an engineer in a big manufacturing operation, let me offer an hypothesis based on modern manufacturing practices.
I can say that marks on parts often offer nothing more than a way to identify changes in the supply chain. For example, Campy could have had one run of spindle blanks forged at a preferred supplier, and another run forged at an acceptable alternative supplier "z." Once the part is old enough that this info is not needed for quality assurance (presumably 30 - 50 years is getting old enough), there's no loss to Campy in "losing" the history.
Ken Freeman Ann Arbor, MI USA
-----Original Message-----
From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
[mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Fred Rednor
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 8:54 PM
To: KvnMuadib@aol.com; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]campy spindles
> hey now, does anyone know what a z under the 120 ss on a campy
> spindle means?it is part of a 68 mm english threaded bb.
> thanks...kevin ruberg howell nj usa
It means... nothing! Not every marking on the Campagnolo spindles is significant. Unfortunately, some of the other markings are ambiguous, but that's what makes those Campagnolo bottom bracket spindles so interesting. (After all, otherwise, you're talking about a piece of metal.) Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
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