Evening star., 1926-01-10
No. 132-Redesisning the Car.

Like any other progressive motoriSt
Smith was always on the lookout fol
ways and means Of improving his car
He was satisfied that ii does not pay
10 be entirely satisfied with the way
| Il car runs OF the way one has to
| take care of il.
He wanted To learn more about
! making alterations, He had an idea
he could simpn1S- the process of drain.
ing the cooling system. On Smith 5
car there is a drain cock directly under
the water pump bHt SO located that
one has to he a contortfoniSt in order
to reach il. Smith thought IL would
he good iGe2 70 run Il pipe from
! this point to somewhere around the
front axle so that he could drain off
the water with comparative ease. He
was informed, however. that this
! would be dangerous practice. One
good hump would cause the front axle
To crack off the pipe. -. ----------.. =
Smith began to understand why
cars do not have AS many improve
ments as they might have. In its
original position. the drain cock was
free to move in accordance with the
movement of the engine and was pro
tected from any gyrat1ons of the
front wheels or the car in general.
Smith ended by extending the drain
road. In this position il was more
readily reached. He was careful.
however not To extend it 80 far as to
r0urt the chance Of having it snapped
off by Il stray obstacle on the road.
:. Second Thought Best.
Tired Of the ime-honored custom of
crawling under car III order to
drain off the erankcase. Smith next
decided IN nf
ing the job in Il gentlemanly way. The
first thing that suggested itself to
him was a valve to take the place of
the drain plug. This he would oper-
ate with & knob on the dash very
much as the carburetor choke is
operated
This was Il splendid idea. but he had
not taken into consideration the pos
Sibility Of a garage attendant. un-
familiar with the car. dumping the oil
while trying to choke the carburetor.
Then, too, it was not beyond the
realm of the probable that Smith him
self would do this little trick some day
when a trifle ratified in traffic.
The upshot Of il was he installed
device that opens the CrankCaSe drain
with Il special key. This obviated all
possibility of accidental draining.
In trying to make some changes in
lifeS, Snllh tound that ne was inter
fering with the ratio between the
engine speed and car speed. All
other things being equal, he found
that Il smaller tire diameter meant
that his engine would he running Il
little faster in proportion to the cars
speed and that, while this cut down
the maximum speed OF the car. il in
creased its effective power in hill
climbing. Being entirely satisfied
with the cars hill-climbing ability and
not wishing to change the ratios in
this way. he decided 10 keep 10 the
original tire and wheel sizes.
Trunk Rightly Placed
If Smith had not used a little fore
sight in altering his car he would
have spoiled its lines by adding a
trunk carrier in the rear. He found
that the proper place for Il special
trunk on his particular car was on
the extreme forward end Of the left
running board, the trunk covering a
portion Of the tenders.
Many cars are improved by trans
ferring the spare tires from the rear
tc the running boards just in back of