Shock dampers

[Ewan Gallie]

I’m approaching getting the shock absorbers serviced because they’re not at their best and the rear ones are leaking quite a lot. It’s not a job I can do myself having very limited garage space but I have a good helping hand not too far away. I have studied the Technical manual so that I can seem reasonably intelligent while communicating with a non English speaking mechanic; but I don’t understand what the term ‘“scotch” the front wheels’ means. I wouldn’t like to miss some detail, lost in translation, because there might be something unclear to me. The term is used on page 2 in chapter B/O/1 for example.
Many thanks in advance for any help.
Ewan

[John Robins]

Ewan,

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/scotch

Def'n number 3

For our use, put a chock in front and behind the wheel so it can't rotate and allow the car to fall from the axle stands.

[Stephen Blakey]

There's a pub in Hathersage called the Scotsman's Pack. There used to be a small poster in it saying the name is a corruption of "Scotchman" whose job it was to walk along behind horse drawn wagons, carrying a big wooden wedge so that if they came to a standstill on one of the many hills hereabouts, he could shove the "scotch" behind a wheel to prevent the whole plot accelerating backwards. There was even a sepia photo of a wagon and scotchman.

The current explanation of the name is that packmen from Scotland sold their tweeds there to the local farmers. I await next years version.

They do say that if your house hasn't got an interesting history, you should invent one. I naively assumed it would be just the one history.

[Robert Craven]

I read the wrong definition no. 3 - etymology - from John's link and couldn't see what the Australian slang had to do with wheels.

[Ewan Gallie]

[John Robins]