THE MOTORIST

Northern Advocate, 30 April 1932, Page 13

THE MOTORIST

HUGE SAVING IN TIME. 32,532 YEARS IN ONE YEAR. ALL DUE TO THE MOTOR. Further proof that the motor is fast becoming a necessity' to the com inunity is provided by the following: Easing a compilation on the extremely low estimate of every car owner and motor cyclist, saving only threfc hours a week each, and every motor truck owner six hours a week, the fact is revealed that 1,200,000 hours are saved weekly by ear owners in Australia, 225.000 hours by motor cyclists, and 690.000 hours by users of commercial vehicles.

The aggregate weekly saving in Australia, even on such an extremely moderate basis, ariiounts to 88,125 days or 241 years. Extend thq figures for 12 months, and you find that 600,000 Australians save an equivalent of 12,532 years’ time in one year. Surely, say's the “Dunlop Perdriau Bulletin,” any factor that confers so tremendous a benefit is worth fostering and rather than, as is the case at present, having the proverbial brick hurled at it.

COMPRESSION LOSSES. One of the chief causes of poor pulling and defective running in a petrol engine is defective compression in the cylinders. In general, there are four causes of compression loss, namely, through., valves that need regrinding, past -the* pistons in worn cylinders, from faulty fitting spark plugs, or through a defective cylinder head ■gasket. Compression loss past pistons can be detected readily by removing the sump oil filler and listening in the sump while the engine is rotated, A hissing noise from the sump denotes leakage past the pistons. A little oil placed round the base of the plugs will show if gas is escaping there, the formatiori of bubbles as the engine; runs showing leakage,. A leaking gas-j kot can nearly always be found by inspection. Leaking valves are less easy to detect by direct test, but they are the-most common carise of compression loss, and valve faults can generally be inferred by a process of elimination.

CONVEX MIRRORS, New rear-vision mirrors of a greatly improved type are finding wide popularity' among British motorists. These mirrors are of the rimless type, fixed to the top of the windshield in the orthodox manner, but they are about twice the length of an ordinary mirror and they are convex. Their thus covers not only the road immediately behind the car, but also that on the driver’s side as far up as his shoulders. When fitted to a car they enable a driver to command, a view of everything behind and beside him which cannot be seen by turning his I head to the right or left;

STOPPING THIEVES.

USING HORN AS ALARM

An ingenious and inexpensive way of protecting the ear, when parked, against thieves is open to almost any motorist who is mechanical-minded. The idea is to arrange for the. electric horn to be sounded automatically, should the engine be started by any' unauthorised person. An angleiron bracket can be secured to any convenient cylinder-head nut near the fan.. Attach to this bracket a piece of spring slightly curved at its free end. Arrange this spring blade to make contact with the 'head of a bolt screwed .into the rear face of the two one terminal of the horn by a length of flex wire. A second Wire connects the other horn terminal to the battery via a concealed switch. The existing horn wiring is not altered'in any way. It will be clear, that when the switch is closed the horn will sound every time the contact-maker dOmpletfes the circuit. The intermittent hooting attracts attention to the car, and few thieves will wait to investigate how to stop the noise.

ABOUT TRAFFIC SIGNALS

Motorists'in regard to the giving of traffic signals, may be divided into three classes-—those who give clear signals in ample time* those , who make a perfunctory and belated gesture, and the deliberately careless, who refuse to impart any information of their intended movements. The lastnamed class fully deserve any legal penalties which they may incur, because of their consistent disregard of traffic safety, but although the “last-minute” signaller may believe that he is complying with the duty imposed on him, he frequently is so tardy in holding out his hand to indicate his intention, of stopping ' o.r • turning that he becomes quite as dangerous as the driver who refuses to signal at all. If such persons won Id only be considerate enough to recollect that those in reasonable warning of what' the man ahead proposes to do many 1 accidents and “close shaves’’ would be avoided. f LUXURY' VEHICLES. The enforced wave of personal economy which prevails today may be responsible for reduced sales of many commodities, but it has riot affected those of certain classes of car. Probably the most popular type today is the small luxury car, one in which an effort has been made to combine comfort and good appearance with low running costs. The reason is not difficult to find, for many motorists, faced with payment of income tax, are finding it .necessary to . turn to smaller cars. Having once owned £4oo—£soo vehicles, they are loth to drive in the cheapest ear that money can buy; they are choosing instead, the distinctive small ear at a reasonably low initial cost and with very low running expenses.

ABOUT BACKFIRING.

Alarm is sometimes experienced by those who are driving their first car, to find that when talcing their foot off the aeeelerotor pedal, while driving along a level road, and especially down-hill, to hear a series of loud explosions occur in the muffler, known as backfiring; and there are probably very few ear owners who really know the cause, and may imagine that their engine is badly out of tune. Backfiring in the muffler is likely to occur on any car when the foot is suddenly

removed from the aeeelerotor pedal or when coasting, so that the car is “pushing” the engine. Theoretically, what happens is this: The sudden closing of the throttle results in a very high vacuum in the intake manifold. This excess vacuum interferes with the incoming charge, producing an over-rich mixture which is not completely burned, and is consequently pumped into the exhaust manifold and muffler along with the exhaust gases. The heat in the muffler then vaporises this over-rich accumulation and when it reaches the proper state, it is exploded by other charges from the exhaust manifold. This produces the backfiring noises in the muffler. If these explosions occur too frequently, it might be well, of course, to have the carburettor inspected, as cases

have been known where the needle valve is worn and an over-rich mixture

has resulted, leading- to imperfect carburation.

THE COOLING SYSTEM. The cooling system has tivcly easy time during the winter months, at least as far as the cooling part of the business is concerned, but unless due precautions are taken, should a sharp frost occur, the water in the system will freeze and give rise to a cracked ,monobloc and/or radiator. There are several means of eliminating this trouble, one of the simplest being to fit a rhdiator muff to retain a portion of the heat generated during the day, and to drain all the water out of the cooling'system before putting the car away at night. This is done by opening the .tap at the bottom of the radiator. When refilling the engine in the morningj however, do not use hot water to warm .the engine, or there will once more be the possibility of a cracked water jacket. Marked contrast in temperature must at all costs be avoided, so if yon desire to “nn-gum’’ the engine, commence filling with tepid water and gradually raise the temperature that way.

“MAGIC” GATES.

CONTROLLED BY WIRELESS.

A pair of massive ornamental iron gates, weighing half a ton each, motor operated and controlled by wireless, were recently installed at the entrance to the palatial country estate of Emil Emerich, in California. The motor and wireless mechanism by which these huge gates are operated and" controlled is housed within the stone gate posts. Opening and closing, locking and unlocking are control-

led entirely by wireless. The several motor-ears owned and operated by members of the household have been equipped with wireless signalling devices that are in tune with the wire-less-controlled mechanism of the gates, which are thus opened by touching a button on the instrument panel. After passing through the gates another touch of the' button in the car closes the gates and locks them against all intruders. Visitors are provided with telephone in a box in'one of the gate posts for communication with tho household. A touch on a button in the house swings the gates open.

RADIATIONS, In an English County Court recently Jdie Judge said: “There may be pedestrians ■who are an annoyance to motorists .just as there are motorists who are an annoyance to pedestrians, but the humble foot passenger still has some right to the King’s Highway,

Delivering tens of thousands of sparks per minnte, varying with ear and engine speed, the distributor is about the highest speed feature of the car. If it is sluggish, so is everything else about the engine. One way to keep it performing up to par is to see that the grease cup, which lubricates many distributors, always is kept full of fresh lubricant.

A flight of wild pigeons ditched a ear and caused the driver to be seriously injured in a road accident near Ljubljana, Slovenia. The pigeons rose suddenly in a cloud in front of the ear and beat against the windscreen. The driver, unable to see through the cloud, drove into the ditch, and Avas severely injured by flying splinters of glass from the broken windscreen.

It is injurious to the transmission to engage the brakes in a rapid or violent manner, and it increases wear on the tyros. Oh wet or greasy roads sudden application of the brakes may cause a mishap through skidding, and the ear can very easily get out of control. Pressure should be gradually applied so as to bring the car to a gentle stop or reduce the speed without a jerk.