New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Tracing Down the Trouble

The next step would be to test where
the wire leaves the switch to 60 to the
device to be operated. II the current
gets 10 the switch and does not get
out<of il II is apparent that the trouble
is at the switch, or IL it gets to the
switch but not through the fuse the
fuse is at fault.
II the current leaves the fuse and
does not get to the lamp which the
switch controls, then we know that the
trouble is in that wire somewhere. ~
II gets to the lamp, but the lamp Will
NOT light. we know il is IN the lamp
II we can trace it through the lamp.
but IL does not reach the battery, we
know that it is the wire leading pacK
TO the battery which is at fault.
II the current is carried back through
the frame of the car, as is very otten
the case, the ground connections are
moor. or there is q break IN the ground
Thus. we might attach ground WIRE 10
a niece of iron on the dash, and II this
is of wood that piece OF iron might oe
insulated from the remainder OIL the
metal work of the car and the GROUND
would not be complete.
This summer | came across some
electrical troubles which were rather
mysterious 10 the owners of the cars,
but proved to be simple under syste-
matte search. One man worked all OF
one Sunday morning, with the help Oh
several sympathetic owner friends, try
ing to find out where an extra wire
on his switch should be connected. he
could not get the engine started, the
horn would not blow, the headlights
would not light, the starting mote,
would not turn over, but the dash ane
tail lights, which were in SERIES o'u
light. .L,I .h.
fact that when the st.arting pedal was
depressed the dash. light grew very dim.
This. of course, indicated that it was
not possible ITO draw very large
amount of current from the battery, or
that the battery was either in dis
charged cohdition, or that the connec-
tons leading from it were poor. l
found that when the wire connected to
the b,attery terminal was moved the
Erl y would brighten up. / therefore
this wire and cleaned 1t
carefully to make sure that the con-
tact was good.
when it was assembled again no i'm
provement was shown, SO | took II
a
showed that one end of the taper on
the inside of the terminal had slight
shoulder, which prevented the taper
end of the wire from being drawn INTO
place snugly. Therefore very light
contact was made and sufficient current
could not pass to operate the starting
motor. This shoulder was removed
with a penknife and the engine started
without difficulty.
Several hours time would have been
saved If the owner had started to look
for the trouble at the source OF the
current, instead of puzzling over the
end of wire that was not intended TO
be connected to anything and had moth
inc to do with the trouble.
A week later this same man was IN
able to start his engine and again
worked over it several hours before
calling for help. This time the lights
were all right, but the engine would
not start. To determine the condition
Of the battery turned on light and
depressed the starter pedal as before,
to see if the light would dim very
much under the heavy load; as it did
not | decided that the battery was all
hight this time.
Otoitiuk ViOtOt StuStN chPo
The hood was open and I observed
that when the starter pedal was de-
pressed the fan did not revolve and
knew that the engine was not being
turned over, though could hear the
starting motor buzzing very plainly.
This showed that the overrunning
clutch Of the starting motor was slip
ping. AS correcting this trouble was
q shop job, we cranked the engine over
by hand, but still it did not start.
To make sure that a spark was be-
ing delivered, | disconnected the wire
leading from the ignition coil to the
high tension distributor and made
about 1-16-inch gap. As soon as this
was done it was plain TO see that a
spark was being delivered and the en-
CINE started Immediately also. Making
slight gap in the secondary circuit
increases the intensity OF the spark at
the plug and often aids in starting q
balky. motor. This was an occasion
when an outside spark gap was Of
value. After the engine was warmed
up it was started several times without
difficulty.
Another fellow who appealed to me
had "sick" horn. II sounded like @
man who has a cold clogging his vocar
organs-that Is, it gave cracking or
rafting sound instead Of a musical
note, il the sound Of a horn can be
called musical. This type Of horn has
notched wheel which revolves and
strikes against an iron pin riveted into
disk. The disk in this way is made
to vibrate. giving the desired sound.
An examination showed that the pin
had become loose and ratified. | ex-
planned to the owner what the trouble
was and told him that the pin was of
hardened steel, and as it was difficult
to riyet 1t 1t might loosen up again.
He replied that he would not worry