HIGH ROAD AND BY-ROAD

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20284, 28 August 1937, Page 28 (Supplement)

HIGH ROAD AND BY-ROAD

VISITING THE CITY.

A COLUMN FOR MOTORISTS.

HINTS TO MOTOR DRIVERS. City speed limit:—3o miles per hour. Give way to the vehicle approaching on your right. This includes a bicycle. Give way to pedestrians when walking in an authorised pedestrian crossing. on not nverraTce or pass another vehicle within 30 feet of an Intersection or bend. Do not fail to signal 30 feet before turning a corner. Do not pass standing trams, except while stationary at a safety zone. All motor vehicles left standing must face the way traffic is proceeding. close to and parallel with the kerb. Do not park over Are plugs or in front of right-of-w'ays. Parking lights are not required if car is left under street light. Do not fail to signal when pulling out from the kerb. Remember the're may be a fool around the corner, and for yourself, remember the other fellow.

CURES FOR MISFIRING.

A misfiring plug, particularly one suffering from an Intermittent fault, is often difficult to locate, especially in the case of a six-cylinder engine, says the Autocar.

If the suspected misfire should occur at some partcular speed (probably at a slow tick-over), set the throttle to hold this speed steadily, and then allow the engine to cool down so that the plugs are all fairly cold.

Start up the engines and allow It to run for some minutes. The faulty plug will then feel appreciably cooler to the touch than the others.

When a misfire is du§ to oil on the plug, it Is sometimes possible to put it right by holding the high-tension wire about a quarter of an inc-h away from the plug terminal while the engine Is running, allowing the spark to jump across. A few years ago many external gaps on this principle were sold as "spark intensiflers.” With the advent of coil Ignition the spark-gap terminal was no longer In demand, but its use can be justified on many engines with magneto ignition. Plug terminal nuts, if lost, never need to be a cause of worry, for if the cable is given a twist it will never jump off the’ plug, yet it can be removed or replaced while the engine is running, and thus a quick method of observing whether a spark is passing is provided.

OAUBEB OF BTRAIN.

In the House of Commons at the last sitting before the Whitsun adjournment a question was asked whloh we consider to be of some importance, but It has received little or no publicity (remarks the Motor editorially). A member asked the Minister of Transport whether any statistics existed in bis department showing the extent to .which drivers of motor vehioles suffered from strain. The answer by Mr Hore-Bellsha was that he knew at preseht of no practicable means of obtaining trustworthy statistics of the Incidence of so Intangible a symptom as nervous strain.

If that answer Is true in Its relation to the ascertainment of the statistics referred to, It Is possible' and permissable for us to refer to some of the causes of strain which are calculated to render drivers of motor vehicle's victims of neurasthenia. There was a time when It was possible for a driver to keep his eyes fixed on the roads and to concentrate his whole attention on driving his vehlclel.

That time has passed. To-day we are able to compute the number of offences which a driver can commit at nearly 2000. With every turn of a wheel he knows that there Is a possibility that he is, or may be, doing something that may be indiotable. That Is by no means all. In the course of a single mile he may find innumerable signs, the meaning of which he must interpret. They are overhead and they are on the road. They are In positions where* they may be easily missed. It is his job, in addition to looking out for suicidally-minded pedestrians, uncertain and erratic cyclists, anil obstructions of varying description, to watch for and observe signs.

If it is impossible to arrive at statistics showing the extent of strain, it Is no difficult matter to arrive at its causes. We talked a while ago to a particularly intelligent constable, who told us he hated motor cases because in the main, except for flagrant offences, his sympathies were with the motorist. We said we supposed he had

"l-lopkers Summons Headings," more than half of which contain motor offences. He produced a finger-marked copy, and said he did not know what half the regulations meant, and if the police rang up the Ministry they did not know either, or if they did, would not tell. One thing they mean is that £4420,000 from fines goes to the Treasury yearly.

Those In charge of garages are often facet! with the problem of finding a suitable cleaneT for concrete flooring. The following method, tried on a concrete floor, conbined simplicity and economy, and worked well. In the first place, the floor was swilled down with a strong solution of sulphuric acid and brushed with a stiff broom. This was repeated at frequent intervals, using a more dilute solution on each occasion, until finally a weekly application of a very dilute solution was all tiiat was necessary to ke'cp the concrete entirely free from grease incl oil.

SPARKS.

GLASS DISTRIBUTOR CAP.

One of the difficulties associated with oil ignition is the impossibility oi seeing the contact breaker and distributor mechanism in action, thus making the location and diagnosis of certain faults more difficult than it should be. This problem has now been met by an English firm which has introduced a glass distributor cap In four and six-cylinder "semi-square” form which suits the majority of ’British cars. A larger circular six-cyl-inder type Is also being made for certain cars of American or Continental design.

The transparent caps are of tough, clear glass, and they embody the hightension carbon brush and the hightension terminal poles. Apart from the mechanism being visible at work and the character of the spark observable, the contacts are renewable, although in practice their life should belong as, if they suffer local burning and pitting, their cylindrical shape en ables them to be turned round to an - other position.

ELUBIVE NOISES.

Motor-car owners attempting to diagnose noises In their automobiles, should hear In mind that one of tip greatest aids to this process is allowing the vehicle to coast. If the noise is in the engine, that fact will be re vealed by its disappearance when the power plant is allowed to idle. If It is in the body, It will be apparent by its continuance. Allowance should be made, however, for the fact that some noises in the body are due to vibrations caused by the rotation of the engine. These, of course', will be concealed when the. car is coasting.

Each time a car passed me at high speed the displacement of air was sufficient to rock the car in which 1 was sitting,” wrote a correspondent to a daily paper.

A van which has no floor in the accepted sense of the word has been put into service by an English firm manufacturing jam and marmalade. In place of the usual floor is a light aluminium sheet, and the goods are carried in trays which rest on aluminium brackets inside the body, a system which has kept down the’ unladen weight considerably. Side loading has been adopted.

Japan Is to develop its motor car industry; an Increased tariff will be put upon Imported cars, and the numbed assembled In Japan by foreign manufacturers is to be limited to 10,000 annually.

For three successive days a fox visited Tetbury and wandered about the market place. It was scared off by an A.A. man In uniform. "Perhaps the! fox feared he wanted to make him a member,” says the Motor.

In future a 50-year-old law Is to be enforoed In Ontario to stop the ooastlng of sleighs and toboggans on the roads. Authorities consider that rrfodern traffic has made this amusing praotloe too dangerous.

A soheme Is under -consideration by the Kingston Town Oounoll (London) for transforming a part of the borough and providing an underground oar park, with shops on the ground floor, offices, and a news theatre above, and flats on the top floor.

‘‘A polioeman doe’s not need engineering skill to Judge whether a tyre has a reasonable tread or whether the tube is showing through an otherwise smooth service." (Letter to a daily paper recently.)

A driving Instructor states that women are better-- pupils than men. They are docile, more attentive, and don’t advance theories of their own. Afterwards, of course (adds the Motor), our staff cynic observes, they go off and do just as they like.

Ingenious architects In the rapidly growing towns -of the far western States of the' United States of America have devised an effective method of building against the present congested traffic conditions. New stores are being constructed of one storey only, with the entire roof space devoted to car parking. Customers drive up a ramp, leave their cars with an attendant, and take the lift to the counters of the' shop. Their shopping compleed, they can drive down an exit ramp to the street level.

The Chief Constable of Swansea announced that he' would shortly have a vehicle on the streets of Swansea fitted with a loud speaker, to be used for educating motorists and pedestrians on road proble'ms. He believed that was the only way to tackle the problem. Will Welshmen have to learn English or Englishmen to learn Welsh?