What do these sizes mean?

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Jun 27, 2006 | 05:47 PM

Red97Z

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From: Trenton, NJ

What do these sizes mean?

In every catalog and on every website, automotive lines are sold in sizes that are like -4AN, 6AN, 8AN, and numbers like those, my question is, what do these sizes mean? Why can't there be an easy way to size the lines like 5/8 and 7/16 lol.

Jun 27, 2006 | 06:54 PM

Low N Slow

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I'm not positive but I think -4 = 4/16 or 1/4 -6 = 6/16 or 3/8 -8 = 8/16 or 1/2

Jun 27, 2006 | 08:28 PM

dhdenney

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Now that's some **** I didn't know, lol.

Jun 27, 2006 | 08:38 PM

Red97Z

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I always felt kind of stupid for wanting to ask it.

Jun 28, 2006 | 06:02 AM

leadfoot4

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"AN" stands for Army Navy. The -4, -6, etc are "military speak" for the number of 16ths in the size. Yes, you could reduce the fractions, but then the denominator in the fraction would change, ex. 1/2, 3/4, 7/8. So, for the sake of consistency, the military uses 16ths as a common denominator.