HARD STARTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1938, Page 28

HARD STARTING

MAIN CAUSE NEGLECT

THINGS OUT OF ORDER

With the carburettor in proper setting no difficulty should arise from it in starting an engine from cold. The modern carburettor is capable of starting a car frozen to many degrees below zero. They have been deliberately tested by manufacturers to this end. and one has only to consider how cars stand out all weathers in the streets of America and Europe, often snowed under, often frozen, to realise that. There should be no trouble at all in getting a cold engine started anywhere in rlew Zealand. The battery and plugs, and the leads and terminals are frequently allowed to get into such condition that starting is difficult. Some people even have their distributors in a filthy mess; as a matter of fact, it is amazing under what neglected conditions an engine will run and give efficient service. The engine,,will run; its proud owner will

often dilate on its splendid running. But not always will it start. The sparking plugs plays a big part in easy starting. They should be kept clean and with the gaps properly set. Although plugs, will give service for years it is a mistake to imagine that the service is good. A car will run on plugs that have long passed their prime, but it is ten to one that the starting up is always difficult, rough, uncertain, and lucky, if not, indeed, merely a fluke. There is nothing fluky or lucky if the plugs are in proper condition; so far as they are concerned, the start is inevitable and instant. The plugs used should be selected from makers' recommendations. Related to the plug and its well-being is the battery. The oil in the engine thickens when standing, and the thicker it gets the greater is the loading imposed upon the self-starter. Part of the strain can be relieved by keeping out the clutch during starting, and it can be further relieved if the crank handle is used to turn the engine over a few times before resorting to the self-starter. If everything is in order, as it should be, such recourses are quite uncalled for nowadays. A slow start means that something is wrong. The extra demand on the starter from the heavy oil in a cold engine causes more current to be taken from the battery, and the voltage drops. This drop in the voltage results in a weaker spark—coil ignition—and increases the necessity for plugs being in good order. With magneto ignition the spark has nothing to do with the battery,. but with the speed at which the engine turns over. The mass of cold oil slows down the starting motor, thence the 'magneto, and so the spark is weak. A freed engine and quick jerk over is the best method of securing a start from a magneto where everything is not in apple-pie order, but there will be no difficulty in obtaining a start from the driver's seat if things are kept right. Engines have not the personality that some drivers seem to claim for them. There is nothing astonishing that an engine goes or does not go. If it is in order it cannot help going; if it is not in order it will be uncertain in its going, and if it is out of order it won't go. That is not personality, but merely the condition of a machine. It is no use relying on the various components being in good order, however, if the leads which connect them are not also in order and the terminals bright and clean. About the engine where there is so much heat the leads perish in time, and particularly in damp weather are liable to leaks and shorts that will try anybody's patience. Leads should not be allowed nearer the hot surfaces of the engine than is avoidable. The battery terminals are another source of loss. They tend to dirt, not cleanliness, sulphating and corroding, a nasty green mass that some people merely pick away and push aside as if that were going make things better. Such terminals should be undone, cleaned up with boiling water to which a few drops of liquid ammonia have been added, reassemble (tight), and then smeared with ia jlight coating of vaseline or be covered by one of the anti-corrosive pads procurable on the market. All terminals should be kept clean and tight. According to the U.S.A. Department of Commerce, the yalue of the farm tractors produced in that country in 1937 totalled £53,600,000. This represents a gain of 25 per cent, over the 1936 output, and 85 per cent, above that of 1935, and shows the increasing use of the tractor, particularly in agriculture.