MOTOR NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 110, 9 April 1932, Page 10

MOTOR NOTES

The United Kingdom still pays the highest taxes in the world—£27 9s per vehicle per annum. J)r. Raymond Onwin, president of the Royal Institution of British Architects, urges the need for separate roads for traffic and pedestrians. Semaphore and light signals were in use in Bridge Street, New Palace Yard, London, as far back as 18G8. They were introduced for the benefit of pedestrians. Every man, woman and child in the United States could be placed in the motor-cars now in operation in that country, an dtransported simultaneously, according to recent statistics. Today one car is registered for each 4.6 persons hi America. Although many cars are designed to carry only two passengers, the number which would seat more than five offsets the limitations of the smaller vehicles. A choked petrol pipe is sometimes rather difficult to free, as the obstruction may be of a nature which will not give way to air pressure set up by blowing down the pipe with a tyre pump. If the pipe is of large enough bore it will often be found that a piece of outer casing can lie worked through it, thus pushing out the obstruction. The casing is extremely flexible, and will, therefore, find its way. around curves or even round' loops of reasonable diameter. On cars having an outside filler cap for the petrol tank there is always tll’e risk of drops of water finding their way through tire vent hole during heavy rain or when the car is being washed. A simple method of avoiding this risk is to solder a brass sewing thimble to the underside of the filler cap. A very small hole must be drilled la tho side of the thimble as near as possible to the soldered rim. It will be seen, with this arrangement, that air can freely enter the tank but water will be trapped in the thimble. At intervals, therefore, it is a good plan to remove the cap and shake out any water'which may have collected.

“I should like to see every corner of all our main roads properly banked according to the angle of the bend. Some people will say that this will encourage the road hog; I don’t agree. Corners should be correctly cambered

to mgke for safer motoring generally. —Sir Malcolm Campbell. The fact that a crumpled sheet of newspaper is one of the best means of cleaning the windows and windscreen of a car is fairly widely known. But very few owner-drivers realise that newspaper is an excellent means of cleaning the oily parts of an engine; it absorbs the oil and picks up. the grime more readily thaiv many kinds of cleaning rags. Moreover, it enables the latter to he economised and kept for finishing off the cleaning process; rags are generally more difficult to obtain than newspaper. An interesting experiment was reicently carried out by the chief engineer of one of tho leading motor-car companies in the United States to prove how much leg work it takes to operate a clutch on the ordinary car over a certain distance. Using a new car equipped with a counting machine to record every complete operation of the clutch, he took a 232-milo drive

over a course that included every type of driving the average motorist encounters —country, suburban, and city. At the end of the trip the counter had recorded a grand total of 848, meaning the clutch was disengaged 84S times and re-engaged 848 times. In the city driving of approximately IdU miles there were 198 ■ stops at intersections, and the clutch was used times, as compared with 24 stops and 96 clutch operations in the country It is to obviate this personal effort that so many car manufacturers are now incorporating free-wheeling and preselection gearing in tlreir latest models. SAFETY FACTORS. Although more safety, factors are added to automobiles each year, by the | manufacturers, they are pointing out that these are no guarantee against

! the neglect by car owners, which often the causes of misfortune emphasised are operating motors in closed Garages; failure to check batteries at ; least once a month; and omitting to ! grease cars every thousand miles run. Many radiators have been rvmmd when cold water was poured into them whiles they were excessively hot and oiling svstem become clogged because the filter cartridge lias not been renewed each 10,000 miles. . . Draining and thoroughly flushing the entire cooling system twice a year will add life to the motor, and au inspection of the ignition system in the fail and spring will reveal any wear which mav lead to trouble. . Most defects which develop m automobiles are the result of lack of proper care, the makers say, rather than any inferiority in materials, . s l™ these are all• rigidly inspected before they are put into the vehicles.