Evening star., 1936-10-25
|YOU AND YOUR CAR
AIDED BY RUSSELL
0versteering Dangerous
After Tire Has Blown
Out on Highway.

After Tire Has Blown
Out on Highway.
BY FREDERICK C. RUSSELL.
A scientist says that red makes
why so many drivers 60 by the trafilc
light when it's set against them.
Danger in Oversteering.
Very few drivers know it, but one
reason why cars so often come to grief
after a tire blowout is because too
much Is done in an effort to steer
safely. The danger often is. not the
blowout itself, but oversteering. In
many cases 1t is not necessary to do
more than take firm grip on the
steering wheel. But because he has
been told that blowout upsets steer
ing the average driver is made to be-
lieve that he should pull hard on the
wheel in the direction opposite to
that in which the front wheels are
swinging. He does not usually have
any idea what to do when a rear tire
blows, and ends by doing too much.
Each Does Its Sharle.
This business of caring for our cars
is getting to be a serious one and not
a little complicated. Take, for in
stance, the excessive wear of tires due
to one of many causes known to serv-
Ice men as wheel disturbance" We
find, upon breaking down this dis
turbance into its component causes,
that 1t can be due to loose bearings,
wheel spokes, kingpins, bushings and
tie rod ends or to a bent spindle,
twisted wheel, rough bearings, un-
even caster, uneven Gambler, too
flexible springs, shock absorbers not
operating and non-parallel spring sad
dies. Quite an array. And If there
Is excessive toe-in or toe-out, any OF
these causes is made a still greater
contributor to the nuisance Of wheel
disturbance"
News Of the New.
Appearing on the new cars are such
features as oil filtration so efficient
that changes of the crankcase contents
| need not be made more often than
twice year. built-in defrosting equip
ment for the windshield, greatly i'm
proved generator charging control.
steering that is easier in parking but
less sensitive on the straightaway and
carburetors that remain unperturbed
by sudden braking or acceleration.
Engineers are found still toying with
the idea of transmissions which au-
tomatically coast when momentum
reaches a speed where the car can be
kept running fast with a minimum
Of engine activity. Some very in
genious gearings are coming into the
picture. Study them for convincing
proof that the human mind is doing
100 miles per hour with ease.
Mechanic Joe Speaking:
IT take the mike in hand to speak
Of the bad habit many motorists have
of assuming that because they have
purchased car with a mechanical
feature believed to be superior to that
Of another car they do not have to
favor it with as much attention. This
was well demonstrated in the case of
hydraulic brakes where there have
been instances Of owners postponing
refining until the brake drums were
actually scraping against the bare
shoes. Many owners are spelling the
better values OF their newer engines
by going too far before having a valve
conditioning job. The superiority Of
any part or feature of design should
be no excuse for letting down on
service"
Signaling Not Fright"
Next to the nuisance who doesn't
signal at all Is the driver who over
does it. There Is such q thing as
keeping your signaling from being too
obvious. People who stick out their
arms in such manner that you can
not possible mistake seeing them are
really commanding others to slow
down. There is no law which gives
any driver this right. Signaling should
be for courtesy and safety only.
Make Signals More Natural.
1t is sheer delight to travel behind
driver whose signaling is so natural
that you are not even aware that he
is helping you. Contrast this ideal
with the man who whizzed past me
the other day, only to come to an
abrupt stop at an intersection. True
enough, he stuck out his hand and
arm. I couldn't possibly fail to see
them. But this act made me jump
on the brake pedal and strain my car
IN a way that was not at all neces-
sary. I found that there was no traffic
within sight on the intersecting road
and no stop sign to make a halt neces-
sary. A quarter mile beyond, this
same driver was doing 40 miles per
hour over a bridge which carried
plainly marked go miles an hour
speed limit" One Of those people.
Foot Brake Quite Enough.
Note in my remarks above that when
had to make a quick stop did not
reach for the hand brake. If it ever
was helpful to call the hand brake into
action those days are over. On many
cars the hand lever is merely another
way Of activating the service brakes
and the foot method is entirely ade-
quate. You can get better strangle
hold on the brakes by also using the
hand lever. but Immediately you trans
fer braking from the Innings to the
tire treads. Rubber makes poor brak-
Ing material. On some of the cars
the hand brake operates on the pro-
peller shaft just behind the transmits
sion. Sudden application of this
brake Is not good idea. It strains
the driving mechanism and puts too
much braking force on the rear wheels,
Trying to Settle It.
Another reader has propounded the
question as to which comes first in