Motor Notes

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19449, 7 November 1925, Page 3 (Supplement)

Motor Notes

GET READY FOR SUMMER OVERHAUL THE CAE. POINTS THAT MUST BE REMEMBERED. While the motor car is no longer a seasonal thmg, to be laid up in the autumn and recommissioned in the spring, it is still the part of wisdom to perform reconditioning in the first warm month of the year. There are two reasons for this, one psychological and one mechanical. On the psychological score we have the first surging of. enthusiasm that the car owner feels, as cold, wet, and in some districts frosty weather gives place to glorious, sunny, spring days. He finds himself thinking of his car not as a cold, inert mass of metal, but as a warm, throbbing thing of life. He recalls the lubrication and other matters that he has been neglecting for months, and becomes anxious to start the warm weather with a clean slate and a clear conscience. The wise owner will act while his laudable ambition is still in the bud. If it is allowed to come to flower it will soon wither and go to seed. In other wards, general repair or maintenance work that is not performed in the spring will never be performed. Summer follows in short order, and nobody cares to put the car out of commission for even a day during its season of greatest use. On the mechanical score the good' and sufficient reason for overhauling in the spring is that the car generally needs it. If it has been driven throughout the winter it has been driven in and out of ruts, and through splashing pools of water. The wheel bearings have been racked and worn, the steering connections have been ditto, and the body fastenings have let go slightly. Water, flying up from th< wheels and down from the clouds, has rinsed the lubricant out of the friction surfaces, and has rusted exposed metal. Where it could not be rinsed out, the grease in spring shackles and wheel hubs has become hardened and ineffective and, contrariwise, the oil in the crankcase has been excessively diluted by the admission of cold, raw petrol. These are but; a few of the contributory factors calling for an overhaul or partial overhaul. But if, as sometimes happens, the car has been laid up in storage during the winter months, or taken out only at infrequent intervals, it still needs attention. Under such circumstances rust has got in its pernicious work. The storage battery may have spent itself. Its terminals may have corroded. and perhaps the box has warped, requiring re-sealing. The grease has had the chance to set and

harden, and has availed itself of the opportunity. Hickel parts may have become dimmed. In general, the need for tuning up a disused car may be fully as great as that for overhauling a machine that has been in constant service.

This premise having been established in no uncertain terms the question is what to do. and how to do it. The man vvao is merely the owner and not the friend of the car, will trundle it to a garage and initiate proceedings for a general overh ul. By this unintelligent action he may let himself in for work that need not be done and new parts that are not required, and a large bill that needs must be paid. This austere, unfriendly, owner, -who docs not know the difference between a cotter pin and a hammer, and puts the answers to the conundrum distinctly up to the repair man, is his own worst enemy. Even though his fingers do not itch <o bury themselves in oil or curl around the handle of a wrench, he should do himself the justice of trying his car on the road, and then of particularing to some extent on what work he wants done. Here are some of the things that it may, or will, need, depending on its age, use, and previous condition of servitude. Cooling And Fuel Systems. First, the entire cooling system should be well flushed out with soda and water. There will be sediment and scale in the water jacket that should be softened and drained out.

Another requisite job is the cleansing of the fuel feed system. The line connections at tank, vacuum, tank, and carburettor should be disconnected and all strainers and sediment cups flushed with clean petrol. If there is scale in the main tank the contents of the tank should be agitated and permitted to drain into a receptacle. After the scale has settled, this fuel may be poured back into the tank. Perhaps the fuel line will need an application of compressed air, supplied cither from a storage tank or from the tyre pump. The carburettor should be dismembered and cleaned.

The vacuum tank will be the better for a thorough cleaning inside. Still on the subject of cleaning and flushing, the engine requires painstaking attention. Its oil is thin and carbonised, 'while sediment has settled in the sump and lodged against the pump strainer. Perhaps lint has clogged a duct of a pressure system. In most cases the interior of the engine can be cleansed by draining the oil. cleaning the pump and strainer. A proper job can be done only if the oil pan is removed.

Often it will happen after a season or a year of use that the main and connecting rod bearings require taking up. This is a job that a decreasing number of owners care to do for themselves, because professional skill and special tools will do it better. While it is being done, or whether or not it is done, the valves will probably require grinding. Often the intake valves will get by with a mere inspection, but after a year of lr ,r h heat; and rushing gases, the exhaust valves are almost certain to be pitted. Valve-grinding naturally suggests carbon removal, and in these days of detachable-head motors, this is a job that the owner can readily do himself.

There is but one thing io be remembered in connection with this duty

—and that is, that it is poor economy to attempt to get by with an old gasket. A new one. carefully annointed with grease or sket cement, should

always be used make a tight fit between the cylimh r block and the head. At a minimum, the front wheels require annual inspection and re-greas-ing. The wheels should be. taken otf, the bearings removed and washed in kerosene, packed with clean, new grease, and the wheels re-assembled. In resetting the adjustment of the wheels it is better to err a little on the side of looseness than the other way. That is, if, at a certain degree of tightness the wheel will not spin

freely, it is better to slack oft* one notch of the castellated holding nut and accept a little end play. If to< tight, the bearing will wear rapidly and the end play will be there any way —with the bearing that muci farther down the hill to replacemen:. If of the wooden type, wheels may re quire a little tightening of the hub bolts.

In going over the steering system it. is wise to start with the wheels to see that, they track true. A bent front axle will cause excessive tyre wear and make steering difficult, but unless the wheels are accurately aligned, it may not always be hit upon as the cause of the thoublc. 3'llo tie rod should be adjusted if the wheels are not parallel, and the drag link ball sockets tightened and packed with fresh grease.

The springs come in for the next attention. Probably the clips will be the better for a little tightening, while the shackle bolts are pretty sure to require some. In tightening the shackpls—which, by the way. are responsible for a usually unimagined amount of clatter, squeak, and side play—it is well to bear in mind wh ' has just been said about, tightening frontwheel bearings. If the shackle bolts are too tight—just a shade too tight — they virtually cease to function halves of the spring, and every major and many minor jars are transmitted from the road to the passengers. So it is a good policy not to begrudge the shackle bolts the last millimeter of looseness that lies between an easy placing of the cotter pin and a difficult placing. Next on the programme comes the attention to the clutch. It should be cleaned and adjusted. There are still

in service many examples of the cone | clutch, which at least once a year re- ; quires an application of neatsfood oil ' to keep it from drying out and becum- i ’ng “fierce.’’ End play, provocative] if heavy rattles, will develop in al- I most any clutch yoke, ami should be I compensated for as provided in the de- i sign of the member. The dutch brake 1 may require a little adjustment, while ' it is possible that the pedal itself will | be the better for a turn or two of the | connecting clevis to take out play ami ; make it more responsive to foot pres- | sure. In the spring of the year the brakes ’ should be given, not the usual “lick I and a promise,” but thorough attention, re* lining where necessary. Where | there is still life and wear left in the linings, it is good accident insurance to let out previous adjustments that have been made at the brake bands and do the tightening job properly at the rods or cables. Thereafter, supplementary adjustments may be made at the

drums, but there is such a thing as tightening so much locally that only half the band will come into play when the brakes are applied—and half remains in partial engagement all iho time.