Evening star., 1925-12-13
TINKERTNC
MULTIPLIES TROURTES
Motorist Who Starts Fooling With Car
Without Understanding 1t Fully
Finds Process Costly.

That every part of a motor car has
a story all its own is, as most motor
lists have discovered, an old tale in It.
self. What they are just coming TO
learn, however. is that knowing only
half the story is usually a dangerous
and costly process.
A srnattering of the story Of any
unit of the modern automobile be-
comes direct cause Of dissatisfaction
in car ownership and explains better
than anything else why persons spend
week ends sitting idly at home instead
OF in their cars.
The man who is not interested in
the various stories Of the chassis has.
tens to his favorite repair man every
time he thinks something has gone
wrong. The trouble receives proper
attention, and the story does not have
to take on an unhappy ending. unless
ne is careless in the selection Of a re
pairman. But the man who 'tinkers'
with his car is quite likely to fail sim.
ply because he has SKINNED over the
details and missed the significant
points.
Little knowledge Costly.
Motorists who have tried to tighten
their fan belts without knowing tha,
the pulleys must be kept in align
ment are ready to believe that the
man who said "a little knowledge IS q
dangerous thing" must have been the
first car owner. In fact, any one who
has ever worked on a carburetor viii
admit that the maxim rings true
Even the man who is we'll Informed
frequently forgets that no two cars
are alike, and that even last years in
struction book bears rereading.
There is the case of the distributor
In some OF these Instruments, the
rotor is made TO touch the ignition
wire terminal points. In others {
fractional clearance is allowed. the
spark being made to jump a gap al
these points. II the owner of the lat
ter type Of distributor examines The
instrument. he may notice that the
rotor does not actually touch the con
tact points. and then bend the points
or tamper with the rotor until there Is
actual contact. Since this particular
type Of ignition is not designed tC
make contact at these points. the re
suit is certain TO be unsatisfactory.
Here is another instance of miscal
culation. A car owner finds that he
has a knock in the engine. His garage
man mentions an astonishingly large
figure to indicate the approximate
cost Of getting rid OF the annoyance
whereupon the motorist decides to tr,
the Job himself.
Dangerous Tinkering.
Removing the bolts. he drops the
crankcase. For the life of him he can
not find any loose bearing. Graspins
one of the connecting rods, he finds
that its upper end moves fraction OF
an inch one way or the other. Instead
of trying all the rods TO ascertain
whether the looseness is the rule or
the exception. he jumps at the con
clusion that the knock originates d,
the top Of a particular rod. He sets
10 work at once removing the bolts
that hold the cap of the connecting
rod bearing in place. SO that the roo
and piston can be pulled down anc
examined.
To make matters worse. the car own
er discovers, when he has struggled
to pull out the rod and piston. tha
there Is no provision made for tight
ening the upper end Of the rod. HI
wonders IL 1t is supposed to move bach
and forth, or II this free movement o
the upper end is SO designed as tc
offset automatically any misalignmen'
Of the rod, thereby preventing pistor
slapping.
1t then occurs to him to feel the Other
rods to see If they also are loose al
the top. 1t is then that he realizes
that skipping" hasn't paid. But he I;
not to see this fact until he has made
the error of replacing one of the bear