Evening star., 1936-04-12

A good working rule to remember
is 10 do unto other drivers as though
you were the others.
Yes, 1t Is important to keep the
oil level exactly on the full" mark.
If the level Is too low the pump will
draw air into the lines, and If the
level is too high with the modern
type of force-feed fabrication system
there will be tendency for the con-
Meeting rods to dip into the oil, max
ing it foamy. Oil with too much
air in 1t will make for noisy valve
action where the tappets are fed oil
from the crankcase.
When a mechanic friend OF mine Is
finished working on a car he likes to
sit down and read a trade paper
about other kinds of car trouble. He
says this prevents him from having
one-trsck mind. He finds that II
he works on a certain kind Of trouble
he is apt to try to diagnose the next
two CT three Jobs as being in the
same category. This always throws
him of his course.
I mention it because owners often
have the same habit. II they have
been listening to a friends tale OF
woe they go home and figure their
car has the same ailment. That
usually leads to trying to fit the
wrong remedy to the trouble.
Only l per cent of all the cars in
volved in accidents In the United
States last year showed fatal injuries
as a result Of bl0WOutS or sudden
punctures. This is considerably be-
low what the average driver would
guess as the percentage for a type of
hazard that has been very much pub
licized. However minor this danger
may seem, the truth is that without
a relentless effort to consider tire
safety there would be q marked up
swing in fatalities and accidents from
tire failure.
It Is for this reason that many
safety advocates are stressing the i'm
portance of better tire repairs. For
some years the trend was toward the
popularizing Of simpler methods for
patching up punctured tubes. This
brought the cold patch into the pic
ture IL large way, leading to many
slirshod jobs which resulted in ur-
necessary punctures and blowouts.
The hot patch, which is virtually vul-
canizinf. seems to be the only answer
to safeguarding the punctured tube
and the motorist.
Add to your list of unusual troubles
the one that has suddenly become
quite common. refer to broken
cylinder head gssket which permits
compressed gas vapor from the CYL
inders to get into the cooling system.
This forces the water to the radiator
and, In some cases, Is sufficient to
squirt 1t into the air If the radiator
cap Is removed. Constant loss of
water cut of the overflow pipe results
in overheating. Such cylinder gasket
damage this year has been traced to
inferior anti-freeze solutions.
Strange as it seems, the engines of
women's cars collect carbon at
faster rate than do those operated by
men. Yet the reason is simplicity it
self. Women usually use their cars
for shorter runs, with more stopping
and starting and plenty Of parking
sandwiched in between.
It used to be the rule to attribute
this to the fact that women were
less familiar with the handling of
the choke, but the situation Is just
the same with modern engines equip
ped with automatic choking systems.
Milady simply does not take long
enough runs to burn up the carbon
that collects on the valves, plug points
and piston tops. Much Of this car
bon Is loose enough so that it would
blow out of the exhaust system if the
car were given 15-minute run at q