QUESTION OF LUBRICATION.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 92, 9 July 1927, Page 23

QUESTION OF LUBRICATION.

REMEMBER THE GREASE GUN. So reliable is the modern car that its owner and driver is likely to neglect it. If under-lubrication of any chassis details were immediately made evident by loud and prolonged squeaking from the parts affected, they would be lubricated more often. As it is, many minor but nevertheless important parts only get their rations of grease or oil at rare intervals, when the motorist, having half an hour to spare, bethinks him of his grease gun or oil can. Shackle bolts, rear-axle bearings, steering gear and fan bearings are the most frequent sufferers, but those which are really starved of lubricant are those, ofttimes hidden below the floorboards, on the brake cross-shafts or at the forward end of the torque tube. Usually the proud possessor of a new car will diligently go the rounds, grease gun in hand, at least as often as instructed to in the handbook found in the tool kit. But as the freshness wears off, and the mud and dust of travel accumulate in those un-get-at-able places beneath the chassis and behind the w r heels, so will the owner’s enthusiasm wane, and at length the work will be performed at irregular intervals, often several hundreds of miles apart. Now all this is not as it should be. A serious effort should be made to keep the times of greasing regular and frequent. A good plan is to do the work in sections. For instance, one time the front spring shackle bolts and the steering connections should be dealt with. On the next occasion the rear shackles and axle bearings should be greased. Yet again, it is the turn of the universal joints and brake-oper-ting mechanism. Thus subdivided, five or 10 minutes once a week (except, of course, when on tour) will be spent on greasing and oiling.