Arizona republican., 1920-07-25
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Misfirino at Low Speed

Misfiring at Low Speed
 Poor engine operation at low speed@ is common complaint, with the usual cause in the earburetion system. Often an air leak throws out the carburetor adjustment so that an insufficient amount of fuel is fed. Wide spark plug gaps with magneto having weak magnets is a combination which may induce this same trouble. With bat tery system in use the ignition may be neglected until the carburetion system has been attended to. and if this fails to locate the trouble the ignition should then be overhauled.
 Gasket Material
 Different locations demand different types of gasket material, depending on whether they are to be subject to the action of water. oil or gas. Baskets in the water line should generally be Of sraphited asbestos. cut from q sheet and then spread with shellae. Care must be taken not to get too much shellac, because where there is an ex- cess some of the shellac may be squeezed into the water jacket and make trouble. For oil joints use paper and for gas joints copper covered as- bestos.
 Spring FIattenns
 It has often been remarked facet- ously that q certain car has an alter able wheelbase As matter of fact this is literally true of almost every car, especially of those which have Hotchkiss drive. When the springs flatten and remain so. even to a slight extent. the axIes are further separated and the wheeibase is changed. perhaps an inch or two. Measuring the dis lance from wheel center is a good check on spring condition.
 Oil for Old Motors
 After motor has seen reasonably long service so that the pistons do not fit as closely in the cylinders as they did at first fl is advisable to use a heavier grade of oil in order to take up a little of the clearance In racing motors where the piston to cylinder clearance is often more than twice that used in ordinary practice, the drivers use heavy oil. High viscosity Iut<s- cants such as castor oil or mixtures of racing cars.
 Magneto Failure
 common cause of poor magneto action is dirt on the interrupter points. When the points are suspected of be- ing dirty few drops of kerosene will remedy the trouble and restore the parts to good working order.
 Old Platinum Contacts
 Tn old days platinum was not quite so expensive as < is now. and in the crews of old magnetos and contact coils there was often inserted a good ish sized piece Of platinum. By using file carefully it is possible to remove the brass and reclaim the platinum, when it can be soldered upon the end of new screw.
 Emergency Carbon Brushes
 The small cardon rods which are part of the ordinary pocket lamp bat tery can be filed and trimmed down to make a very acceptable temporary replacement for worn out carbon brushes in the magneto-
 Strengthening Wire
 Stray pieces of copper wire have many uses, but it is often necessary to straighten out wire that has already been used before it can be employed again. See that there are no sharp bends or kinks in the wire and straighten out by hand any of these which are found. Fasten an end of the wire to some firm anchorage. grip it in the wise if necessary. Loop the other end of the wire around a hammer handle or similar instrument and then pull out the length of wire. Repeat this operation as often as necessary. If