Quote: regarding the issue of trans vs engine with the numbers not be in the same alignment.
Isnt it possible the production line worker saw the mis-alignment and corrected it before stamping the matching item?
On the trans, I believe that you are 100% right on that. The misplaced 7 probably was not deep enough, so they stamped it by hand separately. I had to do it myself at a previous job.
The block, I believe, was not done by ma-mopar. Too wide, too tall, etc. The machined pad being "too deep" I don't believe is true. It could be core shift, machine set up, etc., during original manufacturing. That doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't have been done at a dealership, etc., for a factory replacement. But, I'd be willing to bet 99% of the replacement motors were never stamped.
I worked for Stahl's Specialty aluminum foundry from 1993-1998 in the quality conrtol department.
The automatic stamping machines had their stamps changed out every shift. If a stamp was getting worn, allot of the times they would shim it to get more use. Which causes 1 stamp to gouge deeper into the metal than the rest, or sometimes, they would do nothing, and a few characters would be very faint.
I'd say 80% of the products were hand stamped. Replacement stamps were kept in the tool crib and workers would change out and return letters/stamps every day for the correct ones they needed. There was obvious room for human error, but the 1st thing for the day as an inspector was to check all the lines for correct dates/part #'s.
