The Washington times., 1912-09-07
MODERN CAR MUST
HAVE ITS PARTS
EASY OF ACCESS
Many Defects Of Designing
Shown in The Ameri-
can Machines.

Accessibility in a motor car Is some
thing that means much to the owner of
an aItomobile these days" says a pio-
neer motorist of this city. This ques-
tion is" he continued, ARE the manu-
facturers paying as much attention to
the meaning of this word as they
should? Automobiles are constructed
more accessibly each year, the makers
being spurred on by competition and the
complaints registered by the owner
driver.
THE manufacturer Is unable to OBJ
serve the working of his car or the
comparison to other cars as the man
who drives and repairs it. When an
owner makes a suggestion the manu-
facturer should take sufficient interest
to see whether he could better his prod
uct. and not discard the suggestion for
the reason that the owner Is not an en-
gineer. Many business houses have sug-
gestion boxes for their employees from
which they get many excellent ideas.
Is the automobile industry going to be
an exception to this custom? The owner
Is the manufacturer market. and If he
falls in catering to his market II will
soon 60 elsewhere to buy.
The more accessible car narts are,
the easier, quicker, and cheaper all re-
pairs may be made: especially Is this so
II 1t Is necessary to have them done in
garage. Work is charged by the hour
in garage, not by the piece. To IL
lustrate A car in which 1t becomes
necessary to remove the transmission,
one must first remove the body. This
necessitates two or three hours of un-
necessary work which could be avoided
by the transmission being accessible.
MITIGATING Axles.
"A great many cars have the unit
power plant In what one can you re-
move the clutch without first moving
the gearcase and shaft, compelling the
movement OF three units to get one2
We also have the semi floating axle,
which Is greatly inferior to the floating
in accessibility or course. the semi
floating is much the cheaper. Gear
cases often are placed so far under the
front seat that 1t Is almost impossible
to even look into them. Magnetos and
distributors are placed so close to the
dash that it Is impossible to work on
them without first removing them from
the car. Water pumps are old Of
tenders, and I wish to state an expert
ence.
while on a trip my pump filled with
StulIHeHt, tHe safety CdtCn OH
the pump shaft. Upon attempting to
remove the pump, l found the studs too
long to allow it to slip over. but fortu-
nately, l carried a large tool kit and
was able to cut them shorter filing the
threads back on. i presume the manu-
facturer neglected this point, as engines
are assembled outside the frame. Few
drivers carry sufficient tools to com
plete this repair, and many would be
unable to spare the time, even II they
did, to do such work on the road,
which should have been attended to In
the designing or experime ntal rooms.
These are the small things which dis
gust a car owner and are decidedly not
accessibility.
II inquired of several high officials In
a well-known factory the reason for
placing a tire pump on the front OF the
gearbox instead of the rear. l was in
formed that they We're not aware OF
any advantage in the rear position: The
rear would be no less inaccessible for
the pump than the front, and would be
In the way of no other part The same
coupling could be used on the rear OF
the countershaft as the front. Yet'wfth
all this in its favor, the pump was
IN the 'front.'