IMPROVEMENT OF OLD CAR

Shannon News, 2 November 1928, Page 4

IMPROVEMENT OF OLD CAR

' In driving a cheap, old car, a certain jerking is sometimes noticeable until the car gets well under way/ With the latest differential on; a ear,, it will move off as; smoothly as an expensive,- new; car. To overcome the adverse com-, ntcn.t that in heavy hill descents the : free-wheels would mean that the brakeswould be used too much since the engine is not acting as a brake] M. de; Lavaud puts a small lever or button within easy reach of the driver, and a ; single pressure on this"... transforms the system into that realiserl from the ordinary "differential. The wheels follow: the lower engine ratio and act as brakes. . ■ /

The various parts of the differential are an- follows:—The body—similar to that of the ordinary differential, having similar dimensions and., assembled in the same way, the body being in two portions bolted together with the crown wheel which itself is driven by usual bevel-pinion at the end of the propeller shaft; rollers exactly cylindrical and placed in the body; two roller races; two cages which maintain without play the equidistance of the rollers; three springs housed in the body of one of the cages, and, bottoming on the one cage, each presses on a ball seated in a dimple on the other cage; a drum external to the differential cage on which it is centred by balls; and a spring loaded plunger fixed on the outside of the differential body and connected so that the load on the plunger under action of the spring actuating a friction shoe and pressing it on to the brake drum-,' thereby creating a drag on the cages. Air. De Lavaud sees no reason why all cars before very long should not be furnished with such a differential, certainly in Europe, where his designs were created and where strong interest has been shown by automobile' manufacturers.

The appearance this year of M. De Lavaud's own six-cylinder low-hung automobile fitted with all his latest inventions is awaited, with considerable interest.