SQUEALING BRAKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 11

SQUEALING BRAKES

THE VARIOUS CAUSES The squealing of brakes is caused by the scratching of the brake drum by brass wire in the brake lining, high rivet heads, particles of steel from the drum or grit from the road, which set up vibration in the drum. To overcome squealing brakes all foreign matter should be removed from between the drum and lining, and if the drum is scored it should be smoothed with fine emery cloth. If the band is not perfectly circular and concentric with the drum it should be hammered into conformity with the drum. The perfection of the rounding of the band can be tested by applying the brake and trying to insert a thin feeler gauge between the lining and drum to find a place where the lining fails to grip the gauge. The use of an oily or greasy lubricant is dangerous and often leads to the \ iolent seizing of the brakes and serio is damage to the car, such as a broken axle, sheared rivets or stripped gears. The only lubricant that should be used in any case is dry powdered graphite, which will not collect dirt, and eyen this is a makeshift.

While the majority of motorists buy distilled water for their accumulators from chemists, some use rainwater which they have collected in a rusty iron tank or an exposed barrel, and a sreat many simply use tap water, because they have nothing else handy. A very easy way of obtaining distilled water quickly is to direct the steam from the spout of a kettle of boiling water against the side of a jug of cold water. The steam condenses on the wall of the jug and can be collected by standing the latter in a clean basin. The process can be kept up indefinitely, Provided that the kettle is replenished and the water in the jug replaced when h gets warm. The use of other waters is most injurious to the battery. • * * the engine and gearbox are separately mounted, with a flexibly jointed clutch shaft between them, the joints °f that shaft should be inspected regularly for wear and for the tightness of its assembly bolts and nuts; inetal joints should be thoroughly lubricated. Do not take for granted that die fabric disc of a disc joint is firmly held by its “spiders” if the nuts have s Plit-pins. Remove the latter, and it wui probably be found that the nuts can be tightened half a turn or more. Traffic police a* Slough. England, r; e t ar white sleeves upon which are * t ached red reflectors for directing traffic at night. A total of 292,820?000 barrels of gasoline was produced in the United States J Bl year, or 33,219,000 more than the Production of 1925.