Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-05-19

unCll eLne car Illuot US SNSSAA'AS hauled to put it on the road again. The car owner will readily under stand that when the vehicle first comes from its maker all the various parts are properly aligned, and so run perfectly. When the car is careless ly handled this perfect alignment and balance is quickly lost and trouble be- gins.
 If the car owner vii devote the same attention to maintaining correct alignment that he is advised to be- stow on fabrication, his familiar trou- bles wil never even begin. Consequent ly he should take this warning to heart.
 FRONT WHEELS
 One of the commonest cases of nais- alignment is that of the front wheels, which is immediately made evident in an excessive tire wear, which may re- suit in the destruction of the castings in few miles of running. The align ment of the front wheels is deter7nin- ed by the condition of the steering ! system, the front axle, the bearings and various minor parts. It is quite l possible to throw the front wheels out | of line in a hard bump against the | curb. The car owner ought to check up-or if he cannot do it himself, have the service station do 1.-the 1 alignment of the wheels at least twice a year. If the wheels have been sub jected to any severe bump, which might throw the wheels out of line, the checking up should be carried out re- gardless of any set time for the oper- ation.
 It is possible also for the rear wheels to get out of line, depending on the condition of the inns, the bear ings, the axle, etc. Trouble develop ing in the rear axle is likely to throw the wheels out of line. For instance, if the rear axle is not properly lu- bricated, mechanical Arrangements are inevitable and these tend to throw the wheels out of line. It is quite possible for careless driving to throw the rear axle out of line. For instance if the car is started with the hand brake set, the differential ring gear or an axle shaft may very likely be broken. The strain has simply been too much for the parts and the weak est of them has snapped. If the brake is applied while the wheels are in the air, as they are likely to be much of the time when the car is going over rough road surface, the wheels will be locked when they strike the ground and the result will very likely be 8 snapped driving pinion. These are simply instances of careless or ac- tually bad driving, which are very likely to throw the various parts of the car out of alignment, and make satisfactory operation impossible, and be it noted they are simply a couple of instances from many similar trou- bles that may occur.
 THE ENGINE
 Let us examine, briefly some of the more important locations where mis- alignment of the parts may be expect ed. First, there Is the engine, and in this unit it is quite possible to throw the connecting rod out of the perpen- dicular line as regards the crankshaft. when this occurs, the crankshaft in- stead of moving straight up and down in the cylinder, rubs against the side wall, wearing the cylinder in an oval form, so that it must be rebored to restore its usefulness. Again the crankshaft itself, may be thrown out of proper alignment, generally because of the wear in the bearings. When this happens, the connecting rods will be thrown out of due line, with re- suits as noted above and further ex- cessive wear in the bearing will occur.
 In addition to the crankshaft there are a number of minor shafts in the mechanism which are likely to get out of alignment. For instance, if your car is fitted with magneto and you don't oil the shaft on which the arma- ture runs, rapid wear will result and the shaft will drop out of line. If you forget to oil the bearings of the gen. orator armature the same thing will happen.
 The clutch is another unit where misaGgnment is likely to occur. If the clutch gets out of line with the flywheel it is obvious that there will be trouble. If the rear crankshaft bearing is worn or the shaft for any reason does not fit accurately the clutch is thrown cut of line with the inevitable results.
 THE TRANSMISSION
 Getting back to the transmission the same general principle holds true. This unit embodies various sets of gears set on shafts designed to be ab-