I work on different vehicles from time to time, and about a month ago I was working on a backhoe. I think I was taking out the starter motor, and I found that there were both standard and metric nuts that I had to remove. I thought to myself, why would the engineer find it necessary to use both standard and metric on the motor? Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to just use standard nuts? My thought is, the company that manufactures the backhoe is working with a wrench company that makes both standard and metric wrenches so that people trying to fix the backhoe have to buy both standard and metric wrenches. Am I missing something? Has anyone else noticed this? Or is there a good reason that the backhoe was made with both standard and metric nuts?

This is complete nuts too me :P

Yes, maybe it is a bad idea, but it still seems like a good posibility to me. Nice pun by the way:).

its a corporate created and induced supply demand that companies keep you in , that is keep you buying more things like more tools. It is in the same way that hot dogs and hot dog buns never come in the same number, or how batteries only come in packs of 4-8 yet sometimes you need just 3 or 1, its so you spend more money

Did the specs call for both? I think it's more likely that you simply found that maybe metric tools seem to fit better on worn nuts. When I'm working on something, I tend to reach for my metric tools first because I'm more used to them. Even if the fittings are SAE, you can usually find a metric that does the trick. Metric and SAE threads are less compatible, but still, if something is a little stripped you can still make it work.

On the other hand, you did say you were removing a starter motor. It's possible that, say, an American manufacturer decided to use a Japanese starter motor to cut costs. Then the engineer would have to accomodate the metric fittings for the motor.

Its called having a set of metric and standard in your toolbox there isnt any conspiracy its just the way things are.
Having much experiance with nuts and bolts i can tell you its not hard to switch to a different sized socket or wrench. Lots of times when just taking apart a car you need lots of diffrent tools why whould you expect it to be "simple" or "rational" when its somthing as complex as a back hoe............. fag

NZ changed from Imperial to Metric in about 1968.
Ever since then everything made has been made in Metric.
Old stuff was made in Imperial.

However, what happens when something was made in Imperial.
Do they change it all to Metric, or leave it as it was?

The other thing is when something if broken & then fixed, should you put in Metric bolts etc?

When repairing something you can take advantage of this problem.
Like if its got a 12mm keyway thats slogged out. You can remachine it to 1/2 Inch (12.7mm) keyway & its like new.
Or the other way, you have welded up a keyway, should you put in a 12mm Keyway or machine it to the original 1/2 inch?

Or you are fixing a Imperial machine, you need a part, it arrives & its Metric!
Or you are fixing something that has Imperial markings on it, should you change it to Metric? or even a Imperial/Metric setup like just converting it to metric, for instance.
Changing a gauges measurements from
1/4 to 6.35mm -
1/2 to 12.7 -
3/4 to 19.05 -
1 to 25.4

I was talking to a guy about his lathe, the leadscrews were so worn out that the tool would get loose when it was within the badly worn part of the screw.
So I suggested making new leadscrews but in Metric instead.
It'd be a almost brand new Lathe then.
He looked aghast at me & said "Do you know how much that would cost?
I said "It'd be a lot cheaper than a new lathe, I know someone who has all the tooling to do it"
I think he thought I didn't know what I was talking about (3 lead screws & 3 machined brass nuts - fukkit - make a spare set of nuts - the lathe'd still be going in 2060!) and never went thru with it.
Waste of a bloody good lathe that was. Solid as, nice wide bed, sturdy as, quick change g/box & toolpost. Arrrrhh.

Theres other things like,
A 1/4 inch thread can replace a slogged out 6mm thread,

or you have to take the whole setup out and
dissassemble it,$
clean it, $
weld it,$
machine it,$
mark it out,$
redrill it,$
thread it,$
check it,$
reassemble it,$
check it again,$
assemble it.$$$$

Yeah, thats about it/E