WEEK-END TRIPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20130, 15 December 1928, Page 12 (Supplement)

WEEK-END TRIPS.

f ROUTES TO ARAPUNI, The hydro-electric work at Arapuni were visited by thousands of . motorists last summer, and the spot will be even more popular this season. The run can be comfortably made in a week-end, and it number of Auckland motorists have actually made the return trip in one day. The main highway is followed through Hamilton and Cambridge, and the A.A.A. signpost at 108 miles from Auckland indicates the turn off to Hora Hora and 'Arapuni. Arapuni may also be approached through Futaruru, tho dam being less than 10 miles from this township. .The road is all metal and cars can be taken within a few minutes' walk of tho dam. A return can be made through Te Awamutu. This town is 23 miles from tho power-houso and there is a short, unmotalled gap of less than two miles from Kihikihi. Auckland motorists, however, prefer returning by the shorter route. • MORE POWERFUL BRAKES. Each year the average speed of traffic increases as does the ayerage speed of tho car, and also the volume of cars on tho congested road. Brakes must improve equally as rapidly as tho speed of the car; more rapidly, in fact, for brakes have been a long way behind speed for years past, and it is only since the relatively recent arrival of four-wheel brakes that general safety has been at all assured. Progress has been made with brake systems and, indeed, is being made quite rapidly by those manufacturers of cars who are keen enough to study tho performance of efficient contemporaries. A year or two ago cars with four-wheel brakes took 90 to 110 ft. to pull up in emergency from 40 m.p.h. To-day the brake system urgently needs attention if the vehicle cannot make an emergency stop . from that speed in 60ft. or 70ft. and stop smootbly at that. Attention to efficiency in the mechanism has obtained these results. Men and women are capable of exerting a certain average pressure with a single foot, and there is a limit of only a few inches of travel over which this pressure can comfortably be maintained. These two factors provide all the leverage for brakfj. application that is available. If tho system of leverages and tie-rods leading to the brake shoes is efficiently designed and made, then this available force is quite sufficient to give adequate control for a cars up to 20 h.p. and capable of 60 m.p.h. Larger cars of greater weight and speed need some form of mechanical assistance, or servo system, in order to relievo the driver of hard work. Servo motor brakes of the vacuum operating type, such as the DewancTro and the' Westinghouse, are ceasing to find place on the small and medium sized car because detail improvement in actuating gear is making them less necessary, and partly because of price, but on larger cars in which expense is more or less a .secondary consideration such systems are falling into "regular use, to say nothing of the mechanical type of servo brake and the hydraulic-ally assisted brake. THE REAR AXLE. . The rear axle assembly is made up of thes (following parts or units: Tho differential, the driving shafts, the housingi the bearings, and we might say the brakes. , • . Thero are a number of different ways in which the above members are coupled together, and these differences in design result in the units performing different services or accomplishing different results. Thus wo have what is termed the fullfloating axle, the semi-floating axle and the live axle The live axle jliffers much from the fullfloating. In it the driving-axle shafts carry the weight of the car and take car« of the side-thrust, tho wheels being directly fastened to tho ends of the shafts. To remove the shafts, the .wheels must be dismounted, the entire assembly must be taken out of the car, the housing then pulled apart, and, finally the differential must also be taken apart. As some of the highest priced cars havri the - live axle, it is a matter of engineering opinion as to which type is the best. The cost of repairs of the full-floating will usually be very much legs. than for the live axle because it is so easy to get at. Here is something worth knowing Should a gear of the differential or transmission break, so that a movement of these parts would result in the ruin of other parts, the car equipped with a full-floating axle can be towed to a garage, by simply pulling out the driving axles. This would, in reality, convert the automobile into a carriage.

It cannot be done where the car has a live axle, it being necessary, in this case, to put a truck under t the wheels. It is important that the oil or grease in the differential be kept at just the right level. If too much is put in it will run . along the shaft and get into t)ie brakes. Most cars have a plug screwed into the housing, about three or four inches from the lowest part, and grease or a heavy oil should be maintained at such a level that it will just flow out of this plug hole. ' If oil or grease gets on to the brakes, fcven though the level is right, then the felt washers will probably be found to be badly worn and will need replacing.