LOOK AFTER YOUR TUBES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19049, 28 June 1924, Page 9

LOOK AFTER YOUR TUBES

HOW TO PREVENT PERISHING. In these days of high tyre mileages, the need lor care is not so pronounced as it used to be, but there is no reason why economy should not still be studied. With the tube and the spare tubes, it is generally a case of “out of sight out of mind,’’ and it is more or less obvious that such treatment —or lack of treatment —is not the way to obtain the best service or the longest life. Most small car drivers nowadays are -content with one spare tyre and tube complete, and on big cars this measure of tyre insurance is generally doubled. But there are still many who carry a separate spare tube —its a wonderful protection from punctures. HOW TO FOLD A TUBE. Very frequently that spare tube is folded up “any old way,” tied with a piece of string, and left to blush unseen in the deep recesses of an only tool box. with spanners to the right of it, spare parts to the left of it. and jacks and kindred impedimenta volley and thundering. Leave your spare tube like that, and it will leak as pronouncedly as an income tax assailed bank balance. The spare tube should be carefully folded, and kept in a rubber-proofed bag, well supplied with French chalk. How many of you can fold a tyre tube up properly? As I’m sure a good many cannot—here’s how. First get your tube. Remove the valve, fold the tube in half, with the valve stem on the outside at one end; roll up from the opposite end, so as to expel the air. and while rolled up reassemble the v?Jve and screw it up tight—so that air does not got in again. Now unroll, and lay the flattened tube out with the valve, still outside, in the centre. Fold the ends inwards to the valve; fold again, and slip a tape or stout rubber band over to keen the folds in position. It’s easy—till you try. ad then it’s sometimes found difficult. IN CASE OF PUNCTURES. In storing the tube, sec that it is so placed that it is not subjected to chafing action. If you want to be thoroughly economical, take it out once in three months for an airing—inside and out. Unfold it, inflate it till it gets "nice and fat”—about as fat as its normal shape when in use—and replace it as before detailed. This I reduces the tendency of the rubber to perish at t»e folds. Who said punctures? Of course, such things do happen even in these days. Point one: When you have a puncture remember that the “darn thing” which made a hole in the tube has also made a hole in the cover- —and that it may still be reposing in the cover: it. often is, so get it out before it “repeats the dose.”

VALUE OF VULCANISATION. In these days of automobile enlightenment. be sure that you have all your tyre and tube repairs properly vulcanised. The large majority of the better-class garages —and to their credit, many small ones—have apparatus which does such work properly,, so that you can genuinely forget you ever had the trouble. You can even buy small appartus for doing' minor vulcanising yourself, and many of. these sets are quite satisfactory. Once in six months it is worth while having all the tyres off, having the rims cleaned of rust and reenamelled, all cuts filled, and the tubes replaced in covers, the insides of which have been thoroughly dressed with French chalk. For a given set of tyres to give the longest service, change over front and back after, say. 5000 miles. By studying the wear of the front tyres, you can see whether the steering has got out of alignment. A VALANCE KICKER Every owner of a newly painted motor car laments the unsightly scratching of the paint, on the bodywork of his car just in front of the doors, caused by the boot toes when entering and often by the heels when getting out of the car. Re painting or touching up is no remedy, for the mischief immediately begins again. This annoyance may be got over by fastening a piece of leather or suede leather a„bout 12in. square under the footboard at the bottom, and the other end just out of sight under the frame above. Leather can he obtained in any colour exactly to match the painting of the car, and when fixed is scarcely noticeable. This method of preventing scratched paintwork has the advantage of being quite inexpensive and rapidly carried out.

LOOSE SPARK PLUG ELECTRODES The cause of a plug misfiring may prove to be a loose electrode if this is of the type consisting of a small bent piece of nickel wire fitted tightly into a hole drilled in the sheil of the plug. If this wire should become loose the width of the spark gap will vary and sometimes the spark will fail to jump. To remedy this defect the plug should bo gipped upside down in a vice, and the metal round the electrode and as close to it as possible, should be given a sharp tap or two with a fine-pointed centrepunch. so as to compress the metal and thereby secure the electrode firmly.

SARCASTIC—VERY Tea was laid on a number of small tables in a popular motoring resort not a hundred miles from London. Two motorists sat down at one of -the tables, and while one was pouring out the tea tney were joined by a third, a stranger, all the other tables now being full up. Not seeing the sugar tongs, which were on the table behind the sugar basin, fingers were used to place the sugar in the cups an incident which the stranger obviously resented, for, when his tea arrived, he very obstentatiously picked up the sugar tongs, held up a lump of sugar, and said: “That is the way a gentleman takes sugar.” Said one of the other two, without a pause: “Really,, and how did you find out?’’ And there was a burble of laughter from the surrounding tables.