Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02
MILADY'S MOTORING
BY FREDERICK C. RUSSELL.

The woman driver soon finds that
many a modern car still carries a
crank.
There is a natural tendency for a
woman who is proud of her car to let
it stand in front of the house unused
after it has been creased and serviced,
but that may be the worst thing for 1t.
A few hundred miles of hard use are
needed to make the service take"
Oil that is poured over the springs
cannot work in between the leaves I'M
less there is ample spring action.
Grease does not get into the shackles
so as to protect all wearing surfaces
unless the car is used. Even a battery
suffers after addition of distilled water
unless the car is run so as to generate
current.
Automobile men say many drivers
have a sort Of dread of cranking the
engine and that women are especially
fear born of inexperience and made
quate understanding of the job of
handling the controls Is demonstrated
by the fact that in cases of complaint
statesmen usually are able to go out to
the customers garage and start the
engine on the first attempt.
In their fear Of the cranking process
drivers invariably forget certain special
rules for the starting of the particu-
lar car they operate. In one case 1t
was found that milady cranked too long
with the choke out before turning on
the ignition switch. This flooded the
cylinders with gas and made the rest
Of the effort useless.
One way to overcome the fear Is to
take the work calmly and deliberately.
Sitting back and resting a few min
utes, after the failure Of the first at
tempt, often permits the overlooked
engine to clear its cylinders.
Even though it is small the feminine
foot is apt to get into the biggest kind
of motoring trouble. A case in point
concerns woman who was waiting at
street intersection while pedestrians
filed by. She had the car In low gear,
the brake off and the clutch pedal held
to the floor. To make matters worse
she was impatiently accelerating the
engine. Suddenly her foot slipped of
the clutch and the car jumped ahead.
A dainty foot can kick up a lot Of
grief.
Following valve grinding Job the
manager of the service station usually
will ask milady to come back in a few
days to have the tappetS gone over for
final adjustment. Unfortunately he
does not always explain that he means
a few days of normal driving and the
result is many a woman customer
comes back without having driven far
enough to make the valves seat prop
erly.
Anywhere from one to two hundred
miles Is about right for the interim be-
tween the actual service and the final
adjustment. A "few days" for some
owners may, therefore, be q week or
more Of driving.
If the rear brakes lock and slide the
wheels and there seems to be no other
way to keep the car from skidding into
collision try the plan Of pressing the
brakes a little more vigorously. The
system on your car may be such that
the front brakes do not come into max
imum action until the pedal is well
down. A four-wheel slide is apt to be
short enough to spare collision.
After a woman has been driving
car long enough to have trouble with 1t
she begins to wonder about some of the
unseen parts to which the service men
refer. One of these is the clutch
brake"
The clutch may be considered as COM
posed OF two partS-the driving and the
driven plates. The first is connected to
the. engine, while the latter joins the
main driving gear of the transmission.
In the engaged position the two plates
press together and revolve as one.
To disengage them the driver presses
down on the clutch pedal. The action
Is such that the driven plate moves
backward away from the other. If the
gears are in neutral, however, it is free
to spirff around and unless this speed is
| checked or at least controlled, and the