BEHIND AND IN FRONT OF THE WHEEL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 70, 13 November 1931, Page 7

BEHIND AND IN FRONT OF THE WHEEL

"SPARK PLUG"

' ^ rr MOTOR NOTES BY

Coil and Magneto Failnres. Failure of an ignition coil or magneto due to breaking down of the windings is not due always to faulty manufacture. If the windings are exposed to moisture they will he weakened, and even if the instrument functions again when dried out a subsequent breakdown of a permanent nature may occur. Carlessness by the user is another factor causing such trouble. The engine should never be run with one or more of the hifh-tension wires disconnected, as this throws a heavy electrical strain on the windings. Too great a distance between the points of the plugs has a similar effect and they should be checked every 3000 miles. For a magneto the plugs should have a gap of 18-22 thousandths and for a coil 25-30 thousands of an inch, measured with a feeler gauge. Stalling. Stopping so suddenly as to stall the motor will result in serious injury to the clutch. Always throw out the elutch in time to prevent such a condition. Adjusting Spark. Never move the centre wire when. adjusting spark plug gaps, as this may damage the insulator and cause the plug to become inoperative. Move the side wire -only. In modern, highcoinpression engines the sparlcing gaps should be inspected occasionally and set preeisely according to the instruction manual. Unless the sparking gap of each plug is adjusted accurately, maximum performance cannot be attained. Fastening Plates. Here is a eonvenient and simple way of fastening dealer plates on new cars. Two rubber bands are cut from an old inner tube. The plates are fastened to the front and rear bumpers by means of these bands, which are slipped around the bumper bar and the plate. The bands are placed in such a manner that they do not interf ere with the numbers on the plate. Brake Hint. On some cars, usually the more expensive British and Continental makes, a circle of holes is drilled through the brake drums near their point of attachment to the hubs. Being quite small, these holes are liable to become blocked when the car is painted, but if this is found to have occurred, they should be cleared. These holes have a considerable value, for they are arranged to permit of the escape of any oil which may leak from the wheel bearings before it can reach the brakes and affect their efficiency. Normally no oil will escape, and if it is seen to be coming away, the cause should be found and removed.

Fixing the Kim. When changing a tyre after a puneture, care should be taken to put the rim on the wheel properly. It is not advisable to tighten each lug to its full extent before proceeding to the next. Instead, the motorist should go all around the rim, turning down each nut a few times and adopting this proeedure until all the lugs are down properly. If one lug is tightened while the others are loose, the rim is likely to be bent out of shape, and the tyre mounted in a lopside way. In addition, a rim that is unevenly held down around its eircumference is likely to squeak or work loose. He Won. Wrecked Motorist (operling his eyes) : I had the right of way, didn't I? Bystander: Yes, but the other fellow had a truck. Ease in Starting. A number of factors govern ease of starting, namely, mechanical condition of the engine, speed of eranking, and volatility of the motor spirit used. The beg-inning of winter is a good time to look to the breaker points of the distributor head and the spark plugs. Both should be clean and adjusted to the gaps recommended in the instruction booldet. On the cold winter mornings the oil in the crankcase becomes very viscous, making the engine very difficult to erank. This cuts down the cranking speed, thus increasing the difficulty of carburetion, and, in the ease of magneto ignition engines, seriously limiting the spark intensity. In winter, too, the shorter daylight hours mean longer running time with lights on, which means a weaker battery to do the morning's heavy task. What She Wants. ' Judge: Don't you know you should always give half the road to a woman driver? A.T.O.: I always do when I find which side she wants. Don't Use Old Tubes. The cause of much tyre trouble is due to the failure of motorists to dis- > card old tubes when they are no longer dependable. Old tubes do not hold the air as they should, and a loss of three pounds in a balloon tyre will cause premdture tread wear and injury to the body of the tyre, thus reducing its mileage. To get the greatest service from a balloon tyre the motorist must keep the pressure at the minimum recommended for the size of the tyre he uses. If his tubes are old, and will not hold the air at the right pressure, he is well advised to replace them with new ones. Such tubes will pay for themselves by the extra mileage he will get out of his tyres. Only the Horn. Used Car Salesman: What's the matter with the car you bought last week? Stung One: Well, everything makes a noise but the horn.

Rubber Goods. In purchasing rubber goods it Would be well to remember that there is not a rubber expert in the world who would undertake, simply by looking at it, to say whether or not an article of rubber manufacture was of good quality. The reason for this is that the shoddiest lcind of rubber product can be made to look just like a high-grade article. A tyre that would blow to pieces in ten miles can be made to look as one that will stand up for twenty thousand miles. With all this opportunity for fraud, the only safe course for a buyer is to patronise a reliable dealer or to buy goods which bear the trade mark of a responsible manufacturer. The Points. The need for frequent attention to the make-and-break points of a magneto or coil indicate a faulty condenser, assuming of course, that oil is not reaching them. Condenser def ects sometimes cause ignition failure, that may be attributed to breakdown of the coil or armature windings. j Rattles. One of the biggest objections the majority of people have to old cars is the rattles they set up when on the road. However, many of these are still on the road and doing good service in spite . of the noises. The knuckles on the end of the brakerods on old cars are likely to wear loose and set up rattles, as they have little protection from mud and wet. A simple cure for the rattle, as well as a good protection, is to smother the joint in grease and then bind it up with a piece of strong material, such as linen, about 12in. by 3in. « Split the end of this strip, and the two ends thus secured can be used for tying the binding securely. Brass Nuts. If the nuts holding the exhaust pipe unions are-of brass, difficulity in removal owing to the intense heat to which they are exposed will be overcome. Steel nuts are less likely to become "baked on" if they are brushed with powered graphite before fitting. Cheap Fines. A correspondent in a motor journal assures his readers that the following are the usual charges in the French courts for committing offences: — For exceeding the speed limit, 6 francs; driving a car with an open exhaust. 5 francs; having no lights, 3 francs; driving a car without possessing a driving licence, 5 francs; not sounding the horn when approaching dangerous cross-roads, 3 francs; and .-for obstfuction, 2. francs. As the franc is only worth twopence, it is possible to disregard the whole of the French traffic code at a total cost of about 5/-.

Erratic Steering. Very erratic steering is sometimes caused by the use of a new tyre on one front wheel, and an old one on the other. The fault is accentuated if the old cover carries a sleeve or heavy patch which has the effect of putting- it out of balance. Cycle Wins Most people if asked "which is the fastest over a distance of 300 yards, from a standing start, a whippet dog, a racehorse, a motor-cycle, or a 'sports' car?" would probably select the car. An interesting raee of this description was recently decided at a gymkhana in England, and resulted in the motor-cyclist covering the distance in 14 seconds, whiie the dog was placed second in 17 seconds, the hores third in 20 seconds, and the car last in 21 seconds. The car driver had, of course, to use his gears. The test was carried out on a grass track, and while the times are relatively slow, they alford an interesting comparison. Cleaning Terminals The corrosion of the terminals is due to the action of the sulphuric acid. When it occurs the terminal clamping nuts should be undone, taking care that the spanner does not short circuit between the terminals, so that the ends of the cables can be lifted off the terminal posts. The posts and cable ends should then be thoroughly cleaned, all traces of corrosion being removed. They should then be smeared liberally with vaseline to prevent the acid from acting on them again. When topping up see that the top of the battery is left clean and dry. The Woman Driver Many experienced motorists can with certainty detect the woman driver before reaching her car, merely by reason of the fact that so many have acquired the habit of driving along the centre of the road without any apparent reason. It is quite as easy and very much inore correct to keep reasonably to the proper side, even on an apparently deserted road Somebody will sooner or later be coming along behind. Discs Over Wire Wire wheels are becoming increasingly popular, but they take a good deal of work to keep them clean and are awkward things to wash. Spokecleaning is a tiresome job at the best, so motorists owe a debt of gratitude to the inventor of discs, which can be fitted to all types of wire wheels built to-day. These discs, if fitted over wire wheels, give the advantage of that form of wheel construction, and also the easy-cleaning advantages of the disc wheel. They are easy to fit and well repay their cost in the trouble and labour they save.