CYCLING AND MOTORING.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1916, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTORING.

NEWS AND SOTES. One of the leading English' motor sparking plug manufacturers lias just erected a plant that will be able to put out 10,000,000 plugs annually. This is only one concern and conveys an idea, of the tremendous growth of the motor industry during the last decade. It is reported that a well-known Tasmanian motorist intends to make an early attempt to establish new figures for a motor-car run between Ho-bart and Launceston. A 40-h.p. car will probably be used in the attempt. The mo-tor-cycle record for this journey is 2hrs. 3(jy 2 min., which is hardly likely to 'be beaten by a carist. " • • •

The difficulties in the way of transport of goods from America seem to be greater than ever, and the prices charged are enormous. According to the English Motor News, it is reported that a sailing vessel has been engaged by a United States firm of motor-car manufacturers to carry ' 2000 cars from New York to Sydney. A four-masted sailing ship was secured for this purpose. A year ago ifrvwas towed into an American port as a wreck and sold for £OOOO. X'hey are paying the owners of this ship over £BOOO for the trip. * » ■ •

The English war authorities recently permitted representatives of the leading motor-cycle concerns to visit the front in France with a view to observing the conditions under which their machines are used, and of consulting the riders as to how the machines are standing the wear and tear of the work of the war. The experience gained from these visits should prove invaluable to the manufacturers, for which the British-made motor-cycles are doing wonderful workin the fighting zone, and it is only to be expected that the severe war service will bring to light weaknesses and little details that need attention. Later on motor-cyclists will derive the benefits of the strenuous trial English machines are now undergoing in France. * # #

•Although acetylene welding doe s not appear a complicated operation, it is, nevertheless, one requiring great experience, and highly-skilled welders are not numerous. It is necessary for the welder to grasp all the peculiarities of the repair in hand and to adapt his skill thereto. Every repair is in some respect different from another, and many repairs require considerable thinkingout before the work can be attempted. Breakages are very often in inaccessible places, and it is necessary to out away a part to reach the breakage with the welding flame. The part out away then has to be replaced and welded up. This ia very often the casn with engine cylinders. The nature of the metal has to be considered carefully. There are, of course, many varieties of steel, and the welder has to know the correct metal to use in dealing with, for example, the case of a liroken gear wheel, otherwise the weld would not be homogeneous, and would soon giv e way. The effect of the heat on the part has to be considered most carefully, because of the distortion and stresses set up in the metal. Thus it is that large pieces such as engine cylinders have to be heated in a muffle furnace before the flame can be applied. The idea, of course, is to get the cylinder uniformly heated throughout and prevent distortion or fracture by intense local heating. Gradual cooling down is also necessary after the weld is made. * # #

Apart from an inclination to become noisy, the chief defect of a usod car, say one that ha 9 been in use for a season or two, is loss of power. This defect, if carefully traced, can be easily remedied without expert assistance. The cause must be traced and the repair carried out with care to be permanently effective. .Loss of compression is one of the chief causes, and can easily be traced. Pull the starting handle up, and if there is no leakage a decided effort should be required to turn the engine over. If any of the cylinders has little or no compression, the cranking will need no effort. Loss of compression can be caused by several defects, the chief or" which is leakage past the valves. This can be remedied by carefully grinding them in until a good and even surface is obtained on both the valve seating and the valve face. Another form of leakage of compression occurs between the piston and the cylinder wall. This may be traced to badly-fitted or worn piston rings. A properly-fitted ring should fit its groove exactly, with no slackness whatever, but must be just free to move; it should touch the cylinder walls also evenly all round. To get the latter condition fulfilled successfully new piston rings should be grpund into the cylinder. When removing the cylinders for cleaning the heads free from carbon, never neglect to remove the piston rings and clean their grooves thoroughly. If this precaution is neglected, the carbon formed behind the rings will prevent their free action; they will consequently fail to make proper contact with the cylinder wall. With older engines, the cylinders may be found to have worn oval, and the pistons also. The only remedy for this defect is to have the cylinder ground true and new pistons fitted. * * •

The development of the art of repairing motor-car parts is based 0:1 the highly interesting chemical fact that acetylene gas, -when burnt in a stream of oxygen, produces beat of an intensity so 'high (about CSOOleg. l'ahr.) and sn concentrated, that metals such as steel and cast-iron melt like wax when subjected to it. There are other ways of producing an intense local heat, such us the electric arc and the thermite process, but for ease of application nothing equals the oxy-acetylene flame. The art of welding is now practised on an important scale, and applied to many industries, but its application to motorcar repair work is probably the most interesting, owing to the great diversity of work involved. It is proving a great boon to the private cat owner and effecting a great saving of time and expense in getting repair and replacement work done. It is no exaggeration to say that quite 90 per cent, of broken or worn parts can be repaired and made equal to new for all practical purposes, and it is at most a matter of a few days' delay as compared with the weeks often necessary in these difficult times to get new parts, particularly in the case of foreign cars. Some renewal parts, in fact, cannot be obtained from any source whatever. Any car owner, therefore, who 'ha s a broken or worn part requiring replacing should at oncp submit it to a well-established welding concern. In practically every case it can be restored in a short time and at a fraction of\ the cost of a new part. Broken or cracked cylinders, for example, can be made sound at about the fifth part of a complete cylinder blec-k. lAt ""» t: —,it was thought impossible , n, repair a broken crankshaft by weldijn». so that it .would-.'tand the 'driving

strain, but there are several concerns who do excellent repairs ef badly-broken crankshafts. An interesting application of the process is that of "kuilding up" worn surfaces by welding new metal 011. Tims a practically worn-out gear-box can be taken in hand anil restored, all the chipped or burred teeth can be made whole, antl t;he shafts can be thickened up and machined anew. Aluminium crank-cases and gear-boxes provide many repairs; in fact, these are often broken into fragments, and apparently beyond repair, but to any experienced welding concern which takes in all sorts of repairs as a matter of cour.se, it presents no difficulty. A "Teat deal of minor work is done; new valve seatings can hi; put in, cracked pistons sealed np, broken pistons fitted with a new section —in fact, the list »f such repairs would be longer than space permits giving