Evening star., 1936-11-15
MOTOR|ST SHOULD
PREPARE FOR TRIP
Preventive Service Is Best
Remedy for Possible
Trouble on Road.

Being 10 miles from the nearest
garage-that likely possibility when
things 60 wrong with the car on a
tour-need not be Waterloo for the
motorist If he carries along with him
O kitful of ideas. While many years
of experience have taught the provi-
dent motorist that the best remedy for
possible trouble is preventive service,
purchased before starting, the fact
remains that occasionally the only
tow line is the tourists own knowledge
Of what to do in an emergency.
How should driver proceed when
the clutch starts to slip, for instance?
Suppose the engine develops violent
case of overheating? What if the
timing chain slips, causing ignition
to 60 late. These are but few of
the things that can go wrong. Any
one of them is sufficient to tie up
the car on the road, and they cannot
always be forecast Especially diff
cult is the ability to predict what is
going to befall the car if the service
man does not have any idea as to
how the car will be used when taken
on the trip.
Test Not Sufficient.
One service man put the clutch of
q customers car through a special
test to determine if there was any
suggestion of slippage. He set the
engine running at a moderate speed,
drew up the hand brake enough to
lock the wheels. put the gears in low
and slowly engaged the clutch. At
the normal point on the upward
travel of the clutch pedal the engine
promptly stalled. Yet when the car
was 500 miles away from home the
clutch slipped so badly that the owner
could not proceed.
Overheating of the engine, COM
bined with long periods of driving in
second gear, had started the clutch
slipping. AS soon as the owner no
ticed this he made matters worse
by slipping into low gear and trying
to force the clutch to hold. He also
held his foot on the clutch pedal
through his anxiety to get action
from the clutch. This made matters
worse. Finally, the clutch slipped
so badly that the car would not go
at all. Ten miles from the nearest
garage!
He should have backed down the
hill and allowed things to cool off.
Then he should have started back
to the nearest town, using the lower
gears only for starting. Also, he
should have frightened the fan belt,
driven with the hood side up and
checked the ignition timing to make
sure that it was fully advanced. A
clutch will slip less when the engine
keeping in high gear as much as pos
sible, for low and second gears give
greatly increased torque at low speeds
Take Up Toe Board.
Having engaged the clutch, the
driver should be careful not to slip
it through nervous tension of his
foot on the pedal Sometimes the
clutch pedal is prevented from COM
ing all the way back, thus only
partially engaging the clutch plates.
This is likely to be the case if the
clutch pedal shank strikes the under
side of the toe board. The pedals
position can, of course, be adjusted.
But on the road it would be simpler
to unscrew the toe board and allow
the pedal freer movement.
The next step would be to limp to
where water could be added to the
radiator and fresh oil to the crank
case. Clutch plates cannot be picked
up at any garage or service station,
and for that reason the motorist who
experiences such trouble on the road
should do everything to favor the
car until he reaches some shop where
new parts can be obtained. An adjust
ment of the clutch may be possible.
He can at least moderate the en-
gine's overheating.
Overheating usually is due to water
not passing down through the radiator
core fast enough. In other words,
overheating is nine-tenths clogging
of the core with rust and sediment.
Thus II the tourist will travel slower
he often can avoid breakdown. If
the timing chain has slipped he will
know it by the fact that the car has
no speed, especially noticeable In Sec
ond. There is nothing to do but limp
along.
Spare spark plugs should always be
carried, but If no such precaution
has been taken and the engine mis-
fires badly because of a dead plug
it IS a good plan to try putting the
bad plug in another cylinder. Some
cylinders are more troublesome than
others when cut out. Timing is easily
checked by removing the plug for
the cylinder next the radiator and
cranking until the piston of this
cylinder is all the way up, with both
valves closed. Trace back the spark
plug wire to the distributor. The
tip of the rotor should be directly
under the contact button for the
No. wire If timing is normal.
It's an old one, but many mo-
torists have forgotten that having q
little tinfon can be handy for taking
the place of blown-out fuse. New
or old, the ideas carried along are
as important as the preventive service
purchased at the start. Anything
goes in service when anything hap
Y1ans