Evening star., 1927-10-30
ANTICIPATION OF AUTO TROUBLES
TEACHES OWNER EASIEST REMEDY
Motorist Does Not Have to Wait for
Breakdown to Get Valuable
Experience in Repairs.

There Is an excellent lesson for the
motorlst in the bankers admonition to
save now for a rainy day." accord
ing to the newer thought on car main
tenance, which urges the automobile
owner to know beforehand the RENE
dies for troubles which are likely to
overtake a machine during the course
of it's active life.
1t is not unheard of for a progress
sive car owner to purposely get into
trouble just for the sake OF discover
ing the way out, so that when he 1s
taken by surprise some day ne VIII
not be panic stricken. One motorist
Of this type went so far as to discon-
meet the choker control just to see
how he would start the engine so
handicapped. He braced a stick be-
tween the instrument board and the
starter button. thus enabling him to
operate the choke valve at the car
buretor while the starter motor
cranked the engine. He tied a piece
of cord to the stick so that the mo-
ment the engine started he could re-
lease the starter and prevent damage
10 its gears.
Can Save Trouble.
The car owner who utilizes an
hours time some Saturday afternoon
| to experiment with various ways and
means Of jacking up the wheels Is
! likely to find the way out with much
less delay should he find himself fac
| ing the job of changing tire in an
unfavirable place. Unlike the person
who always follows through the Gus
tomary channel, he will find the best
| remedy.
q
sible to become familiar with the most
efficient remedy without going to the
| Inconvenience of starting trouble, for
| 1t does not always pay to use the car
| for a laboratory. An owner might be
able to jam the starter gears il he
cranked the car so times in success
| son but that would be wasted effort
| He would run down the battery, waste
a lot of gasoline and possibly injure
| the starter in event of an unwelcome
| backfire. All he has to do is to take
other motorists word for it that
starter gears sometimes stick. The
way out Is simple.
| Let the owner imagine that he has
stepped on the starter button only to
| find there is no response. Not feeble
attempt of a rundown battery to
power the starter-motor, but simply
the sensation of jammed gears
Where the owner is obliged to press a
starter pedal, he will find that the
pedal does not go all the way down
in the customary manner. All this Is
simple enough to imagine, particu
lariy IL 1t has happened in the past
and is among the motor memories that
are not easily forgotten.
| Now for the remedy. Placing the
car in high gear, with the ignition
switch 'off," he steps out and pro
ceeds to rock the car backward and
forward. This jars the starter gear
loose again. When he steps back into
the car he finds it ready to start in
the usual way. He has found the
proper solution.
Horn Will Start.
Many automobile horns these days
are refusing to blow. yet the remedy
merely Is a matter of giving the car
of the centralized control on the
steering wheel a quarter turn to the
right. In busting the wheel, for in
stance, the driver may unscrew the
cap just enough to throw the horr
button off contact.
Most squeaks in springs are right
at the ends between the master Leaf
and the one next to it. Too often car
owners will go to the trouble of hav
| ing the springs taken apart or the
spring covers removed just to get al
a trouble that could be reached with
far less effort.