MOTORING NOTES.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11087, 10 April 1933, Page 3

MOTORING NOTES.

CONSERVING THE ELECTRIC CURRENT SUPPLY. (By Albert L. Clough.) During the season of long days and frequent long trips, there was little need for worrying lest the battery might not be receiving enough charging to meet the demand for lighting and starting current. On the contrary, there may have been cause for anxiety lest it might be over-charg-ing. But now, with darkness falling early in the afternoon, restricting the long distance driving of the average motorist, with the lighting hours greatly increased and the Charging hours greatly curtailed, the conditions are radically changed, for, during the ensuing six months, there , will be occasion for solicitude as to whether the income of charging current received by the battery is proving equal to the current supplied to - the lights, the starter and other electrical devices. If it does not, it is only a question of a short time before the battery "goes flat” and has to be recharged from an outside source. However, something can be done to lessen the demand for current. Avoid burning any lights needlessly. Don’t burn headlights on adequately , lighted streets, but use side or fender lights or any form of illumination which is permitted by the law. When the car is parked, do not light up unless safety or legal requirements demand it. Avoid using electric fan heaters, defrosters, carburettor heating devices, or other electric auxiliaries more than necessary.

Above all, do everything possible to make the engine start readily, for d it is slow and difficult to start the

battery will be subjected to demands tor current that will soon result in its exhaustion. Remember that un-

der average conditions, it will take tally one-half hour’s driving, with no tights or auxiliary current consuming devices in use, to restore to the battery the electrical energy taken out it by one minute's operation of the starter.

Car sendee comprising only short tri Ps about town, with many stops snd starts, many of them evening tr *ps, is bound to deplete the battery a short time, but occasional long fans of a hundred miles or so on Pleasant week-ends will go far to off--s®t this condition and keep the bat- ; tory from running down. Storting Difficulties. Ih starting a very cold engine, not on ly is the battery weakened by its Otto low temperature, hut the starter ®olor draws from it an extraordinStily heavy current, to enable it to tfank the engine against the excessresistance offered by the chilled °U on the bearing surfaces. This euormoug flow of current inevitably , results in a great drop in battery , T °ilage, especially if the battery is a °t fully charged or in a deterioratfid condition. Ignition systems are designed to , oper ate at normal battery voltage, while they can function at conquerable lower electrical pressure, toey may fail to deliver sparks at the tow voltage to which a cold battery ; a Hs when furnishing the unreasona ”ly high cranking enrernt called for. he very high electrical pressure, which sparks at the plugs, is merely , f .battery voltage, multiplied a cer- , km number of times by the ignition e °H. and if the batterV becomes too jtftetly overloaded through its crank- ® e ffort, the sparking current may J ot n:s e to a voltage high enough to • the sparking-plug gaps. Even the plug-gaps are set exactly an ttoy should be such a failure of igni°n may occur, but if they are too