FACTORY TESTING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 420, 3 January 1933, Page 7

FACTORY TESTING

IIow a new type of transmission was tested out for 10,000 miles under the most exciting conditions is revealed by motor company of Birmingham. When, some time ago, it was decided to experiment with a free-wheel a car was built up with this device and driven for some months by many testers and several members of the staff under the most severe road conditions it is possible to find in the. British Isles. The intention was to run the car until the free-wheel device f ailed, but as the tests mentioned developed no sign of failure or wear it was decided that a more intense test was necessary. As a result, the experiemental department evolved apparatus which allowed the free-wheel clutch to be tested out for the equivalent of 10,000 miles running under conditions which were far more severe to these components than the same distance of London trafiic. The engine gear-box, and propeller shaft were coupled up to a dynamometer which gave the exact effect of the load of the rear wheels, and, on the overrun, the momentum of the car. A system of cams, electrically driven, was attached to the throttle and clutch. The engine was started up and the cam gear opened the throttle until 3500 r.p.m. (equal to 65 m.p.h.) was reached, then a snap and at the same time the clutch was withdrawn. As the throttle was again opened, so the clutch was engaged, and the whole operation repeated — every 28 seconds. The "stationary car," as recorded hy the dynamometer, was run in this. way for 10,000 miles at a maximum of 65 lmp.h. and an average of 46 m.p.h. The test occupied over 217 hours of day arid night running, and during this time the throttle, clutch, and free-wheel were operated nearly twenty-eight thousand times. When dismantled, the parts under the test showed no wear 'whatevei", and as the test could safely be taken as equivalent in severity tq. the running life ' of a car under normal conditions, it ! was v decided to ineorporate them in the production models. .