SPEEDING THROUGH

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 10

SPEEDING THROUGH

Epitaph.—He had the right-of -way but the other driver was a woman.

According to estimates of General Motors’ statisticians, the automobile industry consumes considerably more hardwood than the furniture and building trades combined.

An overheated engine is caused by a leaky radiator, lack of water in the cooling system, faulty or dirty circulating system, driving long distances in first or second speed, poor operation of fan, advanced spark, or the need of oil.

The practice of keeping your car in gear and using the engine to keep the car from coasting backwards when halted in traffic on an up-grade is a bad one. It is particularly trying on the clutch, which, in slipping, has to act as a brake.

Whether to provide a greater or lesser separation of the breaker points may be decided in the following manner: If the gap is too wide, the engine will miss at high speed; if the engine misses at low speed, the gap is too small.

A car that is frequently washed requires considerable attention to spring lubrication. The springs will sometimes receive more water during a washing than during a run in the rain.

Battery troubles can often be traced to failure to build up the battery when there is opportunity. Instead of driving at the speed for maximum charging when the battery is low, many drivers speed up, lowering the charging rate. Many allow lights to burn when it is not necessary.

Turning the wheels straight ahead or in toward the kerb when parking or when starting away from the kerb can always be simplified by allowing the engine to move the car slightly forward or backward Unnecessary wear is inflicted on the steering assembly by turning the front wheels while the car is not in motion.

Automobile theft insurance companies run little risk in Berlin. Police recover more than 99 per cent, of all the cars stolen, the president of the police commission reports. Of the 420 cars purloined last year 418 were retrieved, although the hunt in many cases extended to all parts of the country. The number stolen was nearly two per cent, of all the cars in the city. Sales and resales tax provisions are said to assist the police immensely, and in addition there is a heavy fine for dealers buying used cars of unknown pedigree. If the motor owner is wondering whether the new cars are so much better than his old on©rhere are some figures that may interest him, says an American writer. In the matter of replacement parts and service supplies, the average car in 1919 cost 45 dollars. In 1923 the cost was 40 dollars. In 1925 it had been reduced to 33 dollars. Last year undoubtedly will show another cut and 1927 is expected to establish the lowest record of all time.

The clutch on a new car is likely to work a little more abruptly than one on a car that has been broken in. The plates on the new clutch take hold so gently during the first stages of clutching that the driver imagines they are not taking hold at all. He may then let the pedal back through its final engagement much too suddenly. When the clutch is older its plates grab a little more. The driver notices the engagement of the clutch taking effect sooner and thus is more careful during the final release of the pedal.

It is important to scrape off all the carbon around valves before grinding and removing them. If a valve is first removed without being cleaned, some of the carbon particles around it will fall down into the intake and exhaust pipes. The carbon in the intake will thus draw right back into the engine the moment it is started, and some of this may lodge under the valve and cause it to seat poorly.

The extent to which Berlin is backward in auto traffic development may be indicated by the fact that the first general service “ambulance” for the assistance of distressed motor-cars nas just made its appearance on the city’s streets. The proprietors of the wrecking oufit, which is equipped with various modern repair and towing devices, are making a big play on the pioneer character of their enterprise. Small Town Constable: Say, don’t you know enough to dim your lights going through town? Motorist: Sure, I do. How far is it to where the town begins?

I Good roads mean reduced petrol con- ; sumption. Cement, concrete and bitu--1 men roads have been proved to show ; almost identical results, but they show I a saving of from 10 per cent, to 30 per ; cent, over petrol consumption on gravel or macadam surfaces.

After the conference with the Main Highways Board last week, a Southern delegate said this to a Dunedin representative: “I’m glad you mentioned the Bruce County Road; I always take my teeth out when I motor through the county.”

The safest way to hold the steering wheel is to grip the rim of the wheel with one hand and one of the spokds with the other. This provides ease of steering and prevents the wheel from being wrested out of the hands if the car strikes a bad hole in the road.

Moisture of grease on the surface of a distributor housing will sometimes cause serious missing, because the high tension current skips across the surface of this foreign matter instead of through its regular channels.

The most useful article for making temporary repairs on the car while on the road is iron wire, common baling wire. Make a coil around a broom handle, slip the wire off, and it is in convenient shape to carry in the tool box.

Tools that shake around under the seats or back under the deck the roadster or coupe are not getting a square deal and thus cannot be expected to be useful in an emergency. Pliers that have come apart may be useless, while one bolt lost from a jack may mean a genuine breakdown.

“On an Australian road a motorist had his windscreen smashed in extraordinary circumstances. Approaching Stanwell Park a hawk swooped down and crashed through the windscreen, at the same time killing itself. The reason for its attack was apparently the small bird mascot on the radiator cap of the car.”

Lee Barton William, of Pittsburg, Pa., has invented an automobile which he says runs on air. The engine starts on gasoline, but after it has attained a speed of 10 miles an hour the gasoline supply is shut off, and the air starts to work.

A motor known as the “murder car,” equipped with cameras, fingerprint reproduction apparatus, and searchlights, to enable the police to detect crime, has been placed in service in Berlin.

One of the effects of the new compulsory automobile insurance law in Massachusetts is the return of the horses. Operators decided to again rely on the horse when insurance rates were practically doubled on truck fleets by the application of the new code.

There are only three factors which govern the cost per mile of tyre operation. The first is the quality of the tyre; the second, the conditions of operation, and the third, the care of the tyre by the owner. In order to cut down the cost of their mileage, all three factors must be regarded as important. It is of no benefit to buy the best tyres obtainable, put them on a car, and then forget about them.

The most colourful car now seen on the streets of London is a luxurious limousine owned by the Emir of Kano. This is a car without even a speck of black paint on it. The religious beliefs of the owner forbid him using black in any snape or form, and the car is a blaze of every hue, red, blue, green and yellow—in fact, every colour except black.

General dissatisfaction with the Massachusetts compulsory insurance law has led to innumerable suggestions for changing the methods of working out the law, according to the National Automobile Club. There are three zones at the present time and those living in metropolitan areas pay a higher rate than those living in the countr3 r .

To get at inaccessible nLits the sets of box spanner heads with a common handle fitted with ratchet and universal joint are admirable, but, failing these, a set of ordinary box-spanners, hexagonal outside as well as inside, and telescoping into each other, will meet most cases. The appropriate size is slipped over the nut, one, or even two, of the larger sizes used as extension pieces, and the whole, having now emerged to a get-at-able place, turned with a tommy bar.

Split pins should have legs folded together before withdrawal, to do which dirt must be removed from between them, or they will not close. Stout split pins are best removed by tapping out from the leg end; smaller pins can be extrated by gripping the head, in the cutter jaws of pliers and levering out with the nose of the pliers as fulcrum, but care must be taken not to grip the head so hard as to cut off the pin. In desperate cases both head and legs of the pins may be cut off with a small chisel, and the body driven out with a small punch or a nail with the point filed flat.