Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 20, 2012:

actually, there was a 3rd possibility In the Larousse FR monolingual dictionary, "portée" (synonym for soie) can be:
2. Partie d'un arbre de transmission, ou d'un vilebrequin, qui tourne dans un palier
This corresponds to another translation in the Grand Dictionnaire of "portée" as "journal".
"Journal" is defined by World English Dictionary as 5. the part of a shaft or axle in contact with or enclosed by a bearing .
In the end, I translated "soie" as "journal" but also wrote a note to the client regarding the 3 possible translations.

Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 15, 2012:

narrowed down to 2 possibilities 1/seating or 2/surface

Looking again at Kashew's reference, "soie" = "portée de vilbrequin".
Also, another website said that "Les portées de palier (soies) et de coussinets de bielles (manetons) sont chromées afin de limiter le frottement." Seeing as both websites said that "soie" = "portée", I began to research this term as I wasn’t having any success with researching “soie”.

1/seating
I came across a few translations of “portée” as “seating” in the context of bearings:

REVERSO
portée de butée
bearing seating [TECH]

REVERSO
portée de roulement
bearing seating [TECH]

LINGUEE
portée de palier = bearing seat/ bearing bracket

GRAND DICTIONNAIRE
Portée=seating [roulement de palier]


2/surface
According to granddictionnaire.com, portée can mean "Surface géométriquement parfaite assurant un contact intégral avec une autre surface." Also some previous kudoz answers gave "surface" as the translation of portée:
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/french_to_english/tech_engineering...
and
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/french_to_english/tech_engineering...

Now, I just have to decide between the 2 options...

Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 15, 2012:

@Nikki Hi again Nikki. I could have simply said "pin" or "crankpin" and not bothered translating both terms if that sentence was the only occurrence of "soie" and "maneton". However, both terms appeared several times in a 3 page expert appraisal, so I really had to differentiate between the 2 of them. But I think I've finally got it. Explanation to follow...

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jan 15, 2012:

1st post Of course you cannot say "pin of crankpin", you just say "pin".

Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 15, 2012:

Oh no, this text is driving me mad! As mentioned in my previous discussion entry, I had decided to translate "soie" as "bearing", but I had already been translating "coussinet" as bearing. And of course "soie", "maneton" and "bearing" all occur in the same sentence as follows: "Nous pourrions envisager la rectification d'une soie de maneton, pour être certains de sa géometrie et voir le résultat sur les coussinets correspondants."

Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 15, 2012:

crankpin bearing (2) Also, kashew's reference says that the "soie" corresponds to the "portée de vilebrequin". While I haven't found translations of this exact term, I have found "portée" as "bearing" in Reverso and Termium although I wasn't entirely sure if their use of the word "bearing" corresponded with mine. But if so, it would be further proof that "soie de vilbrequin" = crankshaft bearing, and by deduction soie de maneton = crankpin bearing.

Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 15, 2012:

crankpin bearing? I came across an old kudoz entry, which I hadn't originally found since "soies" was in the plural. http://www.proz.com/kudoz/french_to_english/tech_engineering...
Going by Rachel's dictionary definition: soie/palier de vilebrequin = crankshaft bearing. I shall adapt this slightly to "crankpin bearing" since my text says "soie du maneton".

Michelle Desaintfuscien (asker) Jan 15, 2012:

@Nikki Thanks to all for suggestions so far. Nikki, thanks for those dictionary definitions of "soie", and I can see your logic about using pin for soie. But seeing as my text says "soie du maneton", i can't really say "pin of the crankpin", which is a bit redundant. I need to have a "smaller part" of a "greater part".