MOTORING NOTES.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 12, 4 June 1920, Page 14

MOTORING NOTES.

CLEANING VALVE STEMS. A very simple way of cleaning valve stems, which are under suspicion of harbouring carbon deposits, is to inject a little kerosene in the air valve of a carbufettor while tho engine' is running. In this way a little of the kerosene finds its way down 'the valve stem and softens and washea off the carbon. It is no'bad idea to do this onc,e a inonth or so. MOTOR-CYCLE LIGHTS. To those who have electric lighting sets on their cycles, a writer in the "Motor Cycle" -gives four points to which the unaccustomed user should att,cn d : 1 — Keep your cclls fi'lled up with acid to the correct level ; 2 — Don't t-ake it for granted that the dynamo is charging ; to inspect the ammeter by night a niatch must usually be struck ; 3 — Carry a complete set of spare bulbs ; 4 — Carry a spare lertgth of fuse wire. Contrary to popular supposition, short circuits are oxtremcly raxe with lighting sets. PROTECTING M UDGARDS.

It is easy to scratch and smear Ihe front mudgards with grease when doing work on the engine, and the motorist would do well to follow the exainple of the besfc garages in protecting these at times of engine repair. Se.eure a heavy piece of clotb or other suitable matenal — oileloth or imitation leatheT — large enough to complctely cover the fender from tip to the point where it attaches to ihe running board. Throw this protective cover over the mudgnard when making repairs or adjustments under the hood and you will keep the enamel in much better condition. MOTOR FUEL FROM GASWORKS. A petition to Parliament, promoted by the various automobile organisations of Great Britain, points out that the use of benzole is restricted only by the shortness of supplies, and that, whereas in 1914 the production of benzole in. Great Britain was 21,000,000 gallons, dei*ived principally from coke oven works, in 1918, 180 gas works were equipped with scruhbing plant which yielded a further supply at the rate of about 10,000,000 gallons annually. Lasb ysar the output from gas works hal fallen to approximately 3,500,000 gallons. It is estimated that more than 30,000,000 gallons of benzole as inotor fuel could be produced from the existing gas works of the country if scruhbing were universally adopted, and it is with a vievv to renderin.g it obligatory upon gas undcftakings to extract this benzole that the petition is bemg promoted. TURNING LORRIES. The device d,escribed below has been produced to enable a motor lorry to turn within its overall lengt-h in a eonfined space without the excessive amount of manoeuv- j ring at present required. It consists of an attachment to the front of a standard type lorry comprising a kind of jack mounted on a- pair of smali riibber-tyred wheels. To turn by use of the device, the car is stopped, and the speed lever put into neutral. A hand lever by the driver's left hand is then moved into one of the four notches in a quadrant, and this connects up the engine to the jack by means of a dog clutch through a worm g,eav, and this causcs the wheels to corrie to the ground. The front of the lorry then slowly rises until the road wheels are quite clear of the ground. This disengagem,ent of the engine is then an to inatically effected, when the driver moves the hand lever to "left" or "right," which causes the er.gine to be connected up to the jack wheels, and these slowly rotated, moving the lori-y round in the required direction. It is not proposed at pre&ent to manufacture it as an attachment to existing lorries, hut to produce a construction, which can be incorporated in future models of existing designs with but little alteration.