MOTORS AND MOTORING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 263, 26 July 1918, Page 9

MOTORS AND MOTORING

(By "Clutch.") Tho Ideal Road. What almost every motorist desires, although tluj wish may never havo been expressed, is a standard type, of road to replace the many miles of miscellaneous highways that wend their uneven way across the country. According tn motor journals publ.-shcd in the United States, the ideal road is being developed, and a movement tor' the. standardisation of main highways is taking shape with encouraging rapidity. The type of road which some prominent engineers declare will be adopted <13 the .1 merican standard combines two well-known road materials and devotes them to the purpose for which they by'nature are best suited. Tho baso is of concrete, varying in thickness according to traffic conditions. Experience suggests that upon all roads likely to carry motor wagon traffic there should be at least a thickness of siu. An advantage of the concrete base is the fact that, being lmuiolitliic, it is of uniform strength, which means that stresses are distributed throughout the mass instead of 011 a few inches us with the ordinary road surface. Loosening Obstinate Nuts. Loosening obstinate nuts is a task that teases the amateur worker, particularly, when the nut is-a large one,' like the union nuts <111 some exhaust pipes, which get very tight if they are not of bronze. It is often a surprising help to tap round them; on each flat, with u light hammer, using a glancing blow directed towards the left. • Some direct taps all round may b'e given first, to jar the metal, and then three or four glancing blows on each flat in turn, round the nut at least threj times. One can remove hub caps without a spanner in tins way, and with far lesa damage than v.ouid be supposed. If this treatment fails—and it does not often fail if you can get at tho nut to tap it properly—tiie nut may be warmed with a blow-lamp mui tried warm. While warm a little kerosene can be brushed round it, in the .hope (hat some will find its way in. This warming tip may be tried three or four times belore giving tip in despair. Tapping and warming alternately are-also good. If you can get a large spanner into position and hit it a .mart blow with a rather heavy hammer, the jar will frequently otart a nut that would remain immovable under mere human pulling at tho spanner.

Here and Thero. Very often trouble with the carburettor can be eliminated by removing the pipe line and cleaning it. Usually there is a strainer at the base of tho carburet-, tor, or at some point in the pipe line. This strainer, or trap, frequently becomes clogged to such an extent that tho carburettor does not obtain sufficient flow of petrol. Uefore changing the adjustment of tho carburettor it is advisable to determine whether there aro any obstructions and remove, samo from the lino.

In a recently published book on petrol tho following significant statement ismade which should be remembered by every owner of a car: "If a petrol engine, producing 5 cubic feet of CO per minute, were allowed to run in a tightlyclosed garage that was 12 feet high, Jo feet loug, and li feet wide, that is, having a capacity' of 2750 cubic feet, it could produce in atmosphere, if tho latter were thoroughly mixed, containing about 1 per cent. CO. in about live infinites. This percentage of CO in air is a fatal proportion, and would probably kill a person in less than a minute. In fact, an exposure, for as long as twenty minutes to an nir containing as little a't 0.25 per cent, CO would make most peoplu very ill."

Unusual noises and improper car operation are symptoms of trouble. Catch' Uto trouble at the beginning and you may save the price of a new part ami possibly a week's delay. If ever there was lime, when knowledge about the mechanism c? a car brings a big return in money, tha" time is now. Don't be satisfied with just ordinary operation. That ;i car is moving does not necessarily mcai) that you are being transported cheaply and efficiently. It is a good plan to draw up the studs or nuts holding down the cylinders of (lie motor from time to time, und a to.to fill just similarly those which hold t.h-' engine to the frame. Even so slight an amount, of play as inny bo permitted b; : a half turn of slackness is local ami exists only in one or two points of tin system. Lost motion between stationary par Is may be <|iiito i\s injurious as thai between 'those'which move. It is not much the possible .play as the concentre Hon of a load on 'the remaining fastenings which is to be guarded against. Too much stress cannot bo placed upor. the importanco of not having "excessive'' slackness in the steering gear. Oihenvisi. the steering gear becomes extremely dangerous, especially when rounding corners. Any slack can lw detected by ascertaining how fur the steering wheel can lx> moved in either direction before it causen either of the front .wheels to move. A. very --light slackness is permissible, ami comluecs to easy driving. ],ightini;-up time: To-day, 1.-19 p.m.) next .Friday, ■1.5(1'p.m.