GAR AGE GOSSIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 6

GAR AGE GOSSIP

A tax of 13d a gallon lias been imposed on petrol in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Don’t pass other cars and then turn round and grin. They may be better drivers and their cars may be faster.

Do not let your attention be distracted from the job in hand, especially during the early days of ownership.

• Good brakes are the foundation stone of safe driving, and every driver knows it, yet there are thousands of motorists who pay almost no attention to them.

Nothing adds more to the peac,e of mind and the riding comfort of the driver than the certain knowledge that when he calls upon his brakes to function they will do it quickly and evenly and unfailingly.

Tlie danger of motor exhaust fumes was illustrated in London recently by an extraordinary incident in a tunnel traffic block. Ten people fainted, 30 were overcome and three were sent to hospital.

The longest paved motor round in the world is said to be the Pacific Highway, running from Vancouver, 8.C., Canada, along the Pacific Coast to the Mexican border, a distance of 1,476 miles.

Over 2,000,000 motor-cars were scrapped in tJ.S.A. in 1927. Motor dealers are co-operating in schemes to get rid of the derelicts and thus improve the market for new and superior used cars.

“Look, that fellow has stolen my car! ”

“Let’s go after him and have him arrested! ” “No hurry, give him time to repaint it first!”

Electric Horn

SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN NOT LIABLE TO FAULTS Of all the appurtenances which go to make up the sum total of a car, the electric horn is the least likely to go wrong. Simplicity is the “keynote** of its design, no matter what particular model is favoured. As befits its “make-up,'* it is perfectly easy to dismantle on the rare occasions when such an operation becomes necessary. However, when the electric horn fails to act it always seems, by some mysterious dispensation of Providence, to sClect a moment when its services are st needed. The source of the trouble may not be in the horn proper at all, but is sometimes caused by the wires from the battery getting lodged behind the horn motor cover, with the result that constant vibration causes the insulating material of the wires to fray, with the natural result that short-circuiting follows. The trouble might happen from other causes not connected with the interior mechanism of the instrument; for instance, in the battery itself, or from faulty contact in the push-button. Then, again, the screws which secure the projector occasionally work loose. All these little faults are easily located and can be easily rectified. There is one thing that should never be forgotten, and that is to give the motor a few drops of oil, say, three drops a month. So far as the actual interior of the instrument is concerned, the only attention required (and that exceedingly rarely - ) is to clean the “brush bearing** of the armature with a rag, and similarly wipe over the little dynamo and the dynamo shell. Sometimes it will be found that the carbon brushes need to be faced up with emery-paper.