The Washington times., 1928-12-19

To reduce these minor ills to g
minimum, it. behooves the car owner
to keep his eyes open. to learn
carefully his lessons of car up
keep, and to apply inteLgently the
information at hand.
While the car OF today will seldom
develop a real breakdown, the
notorist must bear in nnnd that II
il just this stamina Of the car
which induces him to take advan:
tage OF it. Because it does not beak
down for want of greasing at the
proper time. he seems to feel that
it will Withstand any punishment.
But it won't.
Forget in Emergency
TO imagine that no matter where
the motorist goes emergency road
service will be available is like be-
lieving, that there is no limit to
the abuse one can give a car. The
ground the average car covers in
its ordinary service is within reach
OF emergency service as a rule, but
because the car will deliver so much
more transportation value 1t is be
ing used for more extensive travel-
ing. This means that the nOtorist
often finds himself somewhat be-
yond the line of convenient service.
1t is then that his knowledge of
what to do is essential.
A singular feature of tronble
shooting il the fact that unfami-
liarity breeds ignorance. Many driY-
ers learn how to do. things about
the car. but having no occasion to
do them regularly soon get out of
practice. When the big moment
comes 1t is as IL they have never
known.
One car owner. for Aintance. states
that when he went to change a
tire recently he found It presented
quite problem TO him. He re-
nlembered that it was necessary to
place the jack in particular posi-.
tion under the rear axle in order
to get best results when raising
the car, but he just couldn't re-
member how he used to do it. Even
the various steps in removing the
rim lugs and lifting off the tire
presented difficulty 1t more than
doubled the time he had figured
the job would require.
Too Little Practice
A remark he made was signi-
ficant 81 don't get enough practice
at this sort of thing" he said.
That's the trouble
In other words he suspected that
there might be some trouble in not
having enough trouble.
A car owner who had occasion
to install a new fan belt reached
somewhat the same conclusion. He
became so puzzled. over the job
that he decided he, would have TO
remove the fan. He had labored
with the adjustment and. in short,
had done about everything that
wasn't necessary. Then he called
a mechanic and watched to see how
it was done.
The mechanic simply slipped the
belt over the blades of the fan. one
at time. and then, when the belt
was on the pulley side of the fan
started looping the lower end
around the lower pulley. When he
came to slip the upper end over
the upper pulley, of course. he
found that the belt would have
fitted perfectly had the owner not
changed the position of the fan.
It was very simple process
indeed As he stood there watch
ing, the owner made firm resolu-
tiop that nothing could drive the
details out OF his mind. The next
time thing of that sort happened
he was going to know exactly how
10 do it. 1t wouldn't even be neces.
sary for him TO bother stepping
over to the telephone. The job
would be done In a twinkling.
But he wasn't counting on the
fact that II might be another year
or more before he would have occa.
sion to give the belt another
thought. In that time the details
"f attaching belt would silly
naSs intn that mental region from