TROUBLES- THAT HELP

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 77, 24 December 1925, Page 6

TROUBLES- THAT HELP

HOW YOU BIND OUT ABOUT YOUR CAR. Being old-fashioned in motordom sometimes has its advantages, writes Air. Frederick C. Russell in the “American Motorist.” It was in the midst of a very heated debate as to ' whether the engine on the 1930 car should be up froiit or somewhere around the province of the fuel tank that I suddenly discovered that one of our group at the club appeared to be miles ahead of us all. even though he is known hereabouts as the Old Timer and sometimes has been discovered in the ancient act of cranking the motor of his car by hand. “You Do Not Have Trouble Enough.” The Old Times was laughing. “You modern motorists are a three-ring circus,” he startled us. “You are counting on getting twice as much out of to-morrow’s motoring just because you will have but half the customary trouble. Aly friends, I think you’re counting your chickens before they’re hatched.” In a chorus we demanded enlightenment. z “Your trouble,” he gladly volunteered the explanation, “is .that you do not have trouble enough. Haven’t you often wondered how it was that the pioneers in motordom got along i so much better than many of you j ‘advanced’ owners? We had so few modern conveniences. We were so painfully handicapped. The thing yon overlook, however, is that we had trouble. There are car troubles worth ' having, and we had ’em. That’s how ! we learned to avoid the sort of breakdowns that try men’s patience ‘find flatten their pocketbooks.” He told a story that left no room for argument. It was a chapter of a true story of the early days of the early self-starters when manufacturers were amazing the world with their scheme of admitting acetylene gas into the cylinders and then starting on compression. Those were the days i when enthusiastic motorists looked I forward to the day when starting would be no trouble at all, but they were also the days when wiser motorists were old-fashioned enough to appreciate that when the starter didn’t work there was nothing to be lost.

It was more likely to be a genuine gwln. The Old Timer in question liad enjoyed remarkable success with the forerunner of the electric starter, but be was not quite so unfortunate as to ue lost in luck. One day the starter did not start. That was the day he got out the old hand crank and discovered that compression was all wrong in two of the cylinders. The valves were not seating properly, and discovery of the fact saved him the expense of replacing those valves which doubtless would have been warped within a short time. “Stitch in Time Saves Nine.” Stories commenced to fly thick and fast, following this confession on the part of the Old Timer. One motorist remembered that it was through discovering a leak in the radiator during the winter that he saved himself a lot of trouble the following summer. Another told of his experience in going to a lot of trouble removing a tire just because lie did not first consider the possibility of valve leak. In searching for a puncture that did not exist he discovered a break in the tire and forestalled a trouble that was on the way;

The motorist who related a thoi oughly modern storv regarding th popular habit of switching from on make of car to another, however, rea lv started the ball rolling aud pti across the argument that there is muc to be gained by losing. If there i one thing about cars that vary fror

make to make it is the engine. They may have the same number of cylinders, the same arrangement, be the same size, aud seem to be of the same general design; but there usually is just enough difference’ to make the care that goes with one motor a source of irritation to another.

The owner in question had gone ■ from one six-cylinder motor to an--1 other. There- was no radical difference between the engines. Both old and : new engines were of the conventional ; vertical L-ligad type with force-feed j lubrication and other features so simi- ■ lar that the owner naturallv com- ; menccd applying the same old rules for lubrication. He always had used a medium grade of oil, and kept right on with this ' practice! when the new car rolled up to its doorstep. That’s where the fortunate trouble began. Pretty soon he was back at the service station complaining of low oil mileage. They told him that the engine was new and stiff and that the situation might right itself when the car got thoroughly broken in. But when the odometer showed the car to be safely past the first thousand miles, and the owner had fallen into the habit crfl stepping the gas. conditions were no better. The engine began to look like an oil gusher. Motoring began to look like trouble for the owner. His Oil too Light. It was in experiencing this trouble and in ascertaining the exact cause of the excessive oil consumption that the owner came to learn that he was on a fair way to ruin his motor through using too light an oil. The engine was of the high-speed 4ype, fitted with aluminium allov pistons of the' constant, clearance tvpe. It was designed to operate normally at a rather high temperature, and the design of its cylinder head was such as to render pinging, or knocking, virtually out of the question even when running fast uphill. Naturally the owner was stepping on the gas rather heavily. The engine was running too hot because it was not getting a. rich enough grade of oil.

Just this much trouble served to acquaint the owner with the new and peculiarly different engine he was then driving aud in the long run saved him a set of scored cylinders and associated ailments.

I rouble with a speedometer never is very serious in itself, yet if neglected or overlooked it may lead to a fine series of repair bills. Suppose, for instance, that you are driving a car with a speedometer that isn’t accurately adjusted. How are you going to know that the engine is always straining itself climbing hills unless the speedometer shaft gets a kink in it, sets up a racket and sends you to a speedometer specialist ?

One car owner tells of having driven a car three years with the speedometer fibbing to the extent of nearly ten miles an hour. He never used to shift gears on a hill until the speedometer showed about eighteen miles an hour, and at that moment the car was actually traveling about ten. He strained the engine day after day. He bent the connecting rods out of alignment. He loosened the bearings. He paid repair bill after repair bill. He would have spent the fourth year doing the same thing had not some very fortunate trouble befallen the speedometer and tipped him off. There isn’t any trouble that you have with your car that isn’t going to be of immeasurable assistance to you later. This is a philosophical way of looking at it, but if you don’t agree that it’s practical then don’t be puzzled some day when your supercharger kicks up its heels and leaves you in the unhappy predicament of not being able to climb some Pike’s Peak at the top speed you will have become accustomed to as a regular touring diet.

The motorist who starts looking around for help the moment he is perplexed over the car’s behaviour is court ing trouble of a very serious nature. He is letting his thinking apparatus go stale. Some day there will come a situa-

tion in his driving when he will have to think fast and cleverly. There won’t be any opportunity to look around for help. . One reason why so many drivers are helpless in an emergency is because thev haven't had sufficient experience in finding their way out of trouble. They were cither so unfortunate as to have the car always run as it should, or thev were too generously supplied with willing helpers'. Personally, when a driver informs me that he never has had to change a tire and never intends to, I feel like getting right out and walking. Taking the Ounce of Prevention. Many a new car Is saved an early knock or two just because its owner was lucky enough to have a little helpful trouble with the old car. One owner discovered just before he was ready to trade in that he always had been fooled by the oil level indicator. When it said “full” he always thought he had enough oil, but experience developed that the indicator was registering dilution. The crank-ease was full enough, but half the time the contents were 50 per cent, gasoline that had leaked down past the rings. That sort of trouble makes for better owners.