OVERHAULING THE CAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18352, 24 August 1929, Page 14

OVERHAULING THE CAR

TIME AND TROUBLE. ADVICE TO AMATEURS. An overhaul not only represents the proverbial stitch in time; it may be, and often is, an actual economy in the long run. At the same time an inefficient overhaul, or one in which re-as-sembly is badly carried out, may prove as costly as neglect. When motorists speak of overhauling their cars, or having them overhauled a vast deal of difference is frequently inferred in regard to the details of the work in mind. Some owners look upon an overhaul as nothing beyond somewhat greater care and precision than usual being applied to lubricating the chassis parts, adjusting the brakes, cleaning the carburettor, setting valve clearances, grinding the valves, and a few other processes of a similar character. At the other end of the scale, an overhaul may be held to imply completely dismantling practically every part of the car, adjusting the engine bearings, renewing worn details, and generally putting the car as far as possible in a condition equal to new. An overhaul of a relatively simple kind, such as that outlined in the former case, is quite within the capabilities of four motorists out of five; but skill of no mean order as an amateur mechanic and a knowledge of automobile construction of a highly technical character is essential when a complete and thorough overhaul is to be satisfactorily completed by the motorist himself. Just how far the average motorist is warranted in going when he commences an overhaul with his own hands will obviously depend upon circumstances, particularly upon his ability as a motor mechanic as distinct from a driver; also upon the spare time he has available for devoting to the work. Amateur’s Limit. Even the really keen car owner, with more facilities and tools than those of the usual private garage, should confine himself to the following;—Dismantling the spring shackles, clearing greaseways, re-assembling and lubricating, grinding the valves, decarbonising the cylinders, cleaning the carburettor, repacking the water pump gland (if a pump be fitted), removing the engine sump, and cleaning it, and also the oil filter, adjusting and cleaning the magneto, dismantling steering joints, and ensuring that they are properly lubricated, checking the front wheel alignment, inspecting and giving the necessary attention to the universal joints, inspecting the gear-box interior and priming it with fresh oil, treating the rear axle in the same way, inspecting the brake shoes (though the refittting of new facing may well be work needing professional assistance), adjusting the brakes and steering gear, and removing all tires to inspect the condition of the covers and tubes. The work outlined above need not necessarily be undertaken all at once; it can be completed on successive evenings and week-ends. But in all it will occupy a good many hours, and certain portions will call for not a little patience and, maybe, ingenuity—the dismantling of brake cam-shafts, for instance—in order to clear their greaseways and ensure that they work freely. On the whole, the majority of motorists are well advised to allow professional repairers to undertake mechanical overhauls for them, even though they may be of the relatively simple character specified above.

GOOD SPRINGING RARE. “During the past month I have sampled an unusually large number of modern cars, and though I have noted many contrasts between different makes of different prices, nothing has impressed me more than the scarcity of suspensions which can honestly be termed satisfactory (a) under varying loads, and (b) on all the types of surfaces which compose a typical 50-mile trip over British roads,” says an expert in “The Autocar.” “I noticed, for example, that on recently constructed or resurfaced tarmac, almost every car rides with satisfying smoothness, and that very few cars throw one about violently on the worst roads one is likely to meet. “But the average road is neither very good nor very bad; and it is just here that the average suspension makes one think. In some cases, if the owner adjusts his tyre pressures and shock absorbers very carefully, tolerable comfort is bestowed at a moderate pace, especially if the load is constant—say, five people in a five-seater saloon. “But with one or two occupants, or or on a car which is not given precise adjustments, the rear seats are really quite uncomfortable over average going. By that 1 mean over a road which is condemned by the presence of stone setts or of tramlines to permanent inequalities of a minor order, or over a road which has had three months’ wear since it was last resurfaced.”

MOTOR-CYCLES IN POSTAL WORK In the course of a lecture given recently at the Institute of Transport, in London, considerable information was forthcoming about the history and use of motor-cycles in postal transport work. In 1902 the Post office first showed a direct interest in motor transport, when motor-cycles were hired for experimental purposes. By 1913 these experiments had developed into practical and satisfactory working, and in 1914 the Post Office made their first outright purchase of 20 motor-cycle combinations. The advent of the war, however, interrupted the programme, and it was not till 1919 that attention was again given to this method of postal collection and delivery. Light and heavy motor-cycle combinations were bought in increasing numbers, and in 1924 solo motor-cycles were put into operation for the first time for rural deliveries and collections, and have substantially proved their efficiency. Their use is now being extended to towns. There is every probability of further expansion in the solo motorcycle fleet, which has been found to be a rapid and economical form of transport.

OIL SPLASH DIPPERS. It is very easy to make a mistake in re-assembling connecting rods which have oil dippers on the big-end caps, the error consisting of allowing the dipper to face the wrong way. That may be due to the connecting rod and its cap being reversed, or the cap only being turned round from its original position. Alternatively, the dipper may be screwed in to face backwards, as it were. In the case of solid dippers the reversal may not be of much account, because they will still dip into the oil as before and throw some out of the troughs. Even so, some are shaped so as to “disturb” the required quantity of oil only when moving in one direction, and if they are reversed too much or not enough, oil may be splashed. But when the dipper is a tube that should act as a scoop and cause oil to run up through it to the big-end bearing, as well as to be splashed, it is imperative that the open end of the tube shall face in the direction of the bigend movement.

NOTES. Ground clearances of motor-cycles competing in a recent English reliability trial varied from 31in. to 7in. In the recent 200-mile sidecar races at Brooklands the placed machines, a Velocette and an Excelsior, finished only 14 yards apart. A rough method of telling whether or not the dynamo is charging is to switch on the lamps, noting their brilliancy, and then starting up the engine and “revving” it up, when, if the dynamo is charging, the lights will be found to improve somewhat, this improvement being more noticeable if the battery is in a bad state or run down. Special tyres which have been made for the world’s largest aeroplane are 7ift. in diameter and 16in. in cross section. “How was the scenery on your motor trip?” “Well, the tooth-paste ads. were rather better than the tobacco, but there was more furniture than anything else.” A well-known British electric equipment firm has produced a cigarette lighter to retail in England at 7s 6d. It is fitted on the dashboard, and no switch is necessary, the pressure of the cigarette during the lighting process, causing the contact automatically. Imports of motor spirit into New Zealand during the first five months of 1929 totalled 22,298,810 gallons. The quantity of mineral lubricating oil imported in the same period was 1,316,314 gallons. A useful accessory for giving warning when the tail lamp fails has been produced in England. It is a buzzer device which is wired in series with the tail lamp. The small nickel case can be mounted unobtrusively on the dashboard.. Immediately the lamp fails the buzzer sounds. The device costs about 10s, and consequently shows no economy over a conversion to a dash and tail lamp in series. Many motorists, however, do not like driving with a dash light in operation, and for these the buzzer solves the problem. To help the colour blind the American Engineering Council recommends standard usages for placing light signals throughout the country. It suggests that when the traffic lights are vertically arranged the red light should be placed at the top,, the yellow light between (if used) and the green light at the bottom. If the lights are set up in a row the red should be at the left, the yellow in the middle and the green on the right. The theory is that many traffic mishaps can be thus avoided as those colour blind or unfamiliar with colours can depend on the position of the lights. In a recent compilation by the American Automobile Association it was found that there are now 4.81 motor vehicles is use for every mile of highway throughout the world. The United States has seven motor vehicles for every mile of its improved and unimproved roads. France has 2.5 vehicles per mile, Germany 6.8 and Great Britain 10.4. The general average for all Europe is 20.7 cars per mile of road. However, the high average of cars per mile of road in Europe does not indicate a great ownership of motor vehicles, but a comparative paucity of roads. The total road mileage in the world is 6,582,001, of which the United States possesses nearly half. Of the total of 31,000,000 motor vehicles in service throughout the world, America has more than 23,000,000