Motor

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 247, 23 October 1934, Page 9

Motor

By “ Radiator. 55

ROADSIDE CHIPS. These new streamlined cars make it difficult for a pedestrian to know whether ho has been run over or backed into. Harriers were recently placed round the pavement of one of the busiest squares in Wolverhampton, England, with openings to allow pedestrians to make use of the marked road crossings. A good radiator cap should not leak, even at boiling point. Ono explanation of leaky caps lies in the overflow pipe being blocked. Pass a pieco of strong wire through and clear it out. The other possibility is a fautly cap washer, which, if worn, should be renewed. Tho usual method of testing whether carburettor jets are clear is to blow through them and feel the velocity of tho stream of air that passes through them. A better way, however, is to fill the mouth with tobacco smoko and blow it through. A partially chocked jet will at once be seen, or if one jet in a multiplo jet system is blocked it will be detected immediately. When the engine misses tire, short each plug in succession with tho blade of a -wood-handled screwdriver on to the cylinder head. Tho one that makes no difference to uneven running is at fault. A screwdriver whoso wooden handle protects tho user from shock should bo used, and if the blade runs right through to tho cud, grip it on the wood well away from tho metal. Front-wheel braking systems did not become general practico until about 1927-1928, but they wero actually introduced many years before that time. The first example in regular production for a British car was the Argyll model in 1912, but it is interesting to recall that a well-known Continental car—the Isotta-Fraschini —was thus equiped so long ago as 19ua. Tools should always be kept handy particularly on country trips. A suitable roll, long enough to take jack-lever and pumps, keeps them together, prevents their rattling, and can be kept out of tho way and yet easy to get at under the floor mat, against the front to tho seat. The heel of the driver never reaches this space, which is normally wasted.

WHAT THE NATIONS THINK. A New Zealand motorist visited England and commented on road conditions there as follows: “The absonco of any speed limit on English roads makes motoring there much faster and more dangerous than in New Zealand.’’ In contrast, another visitor from Now Zealand said: “What makes motoring ■comfortable in England is that there is only one restriction, dangerous driving. ■There is such a volume of traffic that if it were made to go slower it would never get through at all.’ 5 This is what an American visiting New Zealand said: “Motor-car drivers in New Zealand aro crazy. Tho way they drive is a scream. In America, on the main roads, minimum speed limits of round about 45 in.p.h. are imposed. Drive slower than that and you get pinched. Here they just barge along. You evidently take the view that to drive slow is safer, but in the States it has been proved that the slower driver gets into all the trouble.’’

REAR-ENGINED CARS An American journal, in discussing points of design for 1935, remarks that the rear-engined car situation is just in process of passing from, a question of whether or not such cars are going to appear to a question of what form they will take. Nobody in touch with those responsible for design and production in the United States, it is said, can help feeling that the answer to the first question is “yes.” Discussion is rapidly shifting to the point whether tho engines aro to bo placed crosswise or lengthwise in the chassis, whether they will be behind or ahead of the roar axle, and how new problems of weight distribution are to bo met. Slow changes in design over a period of years caused many people to believe that radical innovations were

never likely to come quickly, but now independent wheel suspension and streamlining in one year givo the impression that rear-engined cars by important American makers is an idea to be scouted ,and that startling models by even most conservative of manufacturers no longer seem to bo out of the question. . TAN BELTS. If at any timo it is necessary to cut a leather belt, as, for instance, to make a strap serve as a replacement for a fan belt, when one of the right size is not obtainable, tho following method will assist in obtaining a straight edge, which is normally difficult. Get a board about two feet long, and into this drive a row of nails in a straight line, so that about ono inch of each remains projecting. Then mark with a pencil distance required from the nails for width of the belt, and on this lino drive in a pen knife with the blade parallel to the nails. Place tho leather strap against the nails and start the knifo blade into tho leather; when sufficient is projecting beyond _the knife it will bo found that by pulling it the strap can bo cut neatly. WORLD PRODUCTION An interesting indication of tho returning prosperity is shown by the substantial incrcaso in the production of motor vehicles last year compared with tho previous year. The following table shows the annual production of the most important car manufacturing countries: Vehicles Exported

GOOD DRIVER’S CODE There is an intimate connection between road safety and road sense. The following points from the good driver’s code of tho road deal with the proper use of lamps. Tho finest summer night does not excuse a car being left facing the wrong way with its headlights on. It betrays either ignorance or a wanton disregard of others highly inimical to safety. Lamps, liko horns, must be used with thought. Because tho specification of your car includes dipping headlights or other antidazzlo equipment, your responsibility is not thereby ended. Dazzle is most otfen caused by badlyfocused or badJy-aligned lamps.

Even if the maker sends the car out with lamps exactly adjusted (which is not always tho case), quite a slight blow, or the weight of a leaning body, or even an extra heavy load in the car, may upset them. Therefore, check your lamps or have them checked at regular intervals, for dazzle is deadly. This applies particularly to “flat-top beam" lamps. Powerful sidelights, of which chauffeurs are so fond, aro unfair; at least tho glasses should be frosted and the rays properly aligned. Otherwise too much light is better than too little. Never “black out” nor expect others to do so. It you keep your eyes off the oncoming lamps and fixed oil your near side, closing the right eye in bad cases, you will seldom be badly dazzled. If dazzled, you must slow down.

When meeting traffic on a left-hand curve you must dip in plenty of time; on a right-hand curve you need not dip till much iater, and possibly not at all, your rays actually helping the other driver.

SPARE TYRE HINT, When carrying a spare tyro in addition to that normally carried on tho spare wheel, as on a lgng tour, it is a good plan to arrange that this tyre should not bo an absolutely, new one. As anybody who has over had much to do with the fitting of new tyres knows only too well the fitting of a brand new tyre is, as a rule, a far more difficult job than the fitting of one which has run a few hundred miles. The presumption is that the additional spare tyre may have to be fitted under the most difficult conditions probably by the side of the road. It is therefore as w'cll to fit this brand new cover in the comfort of the gajago with all usual facilities, and to carry as an additional spare a cover that, has been in use. The fitting of the latter will be a very much simpler and'quicker business.

Outputs in Units. in United 1932. 1933 1933. States . Great 1,370,678 1,959,945 107,031 Britain . 244,4.3-1 280,520 51,692 France .. 170,955 191,929 25,466 Germany , 50,417 105,832 13,350 Canada . Soviet . 00,816 65,924 20,403 Russia . 26,S49 49,743 — Italy .... 29,100 42,000 7,389