Chapter 15
Hints for Car Owners, etc.
Some of the statements of the agents or importers cannot always be substantiated. The actual power of the engine may be exaggerated, or the incline the car has ascended under favourable circumstances of road and weather is given as showing its hill-climbing powers, but it by no means follows that in bad weather such an incline can he ascended at anything approaching the same speed or with a full load of passengers. These exaggerations do harm to the cause. A man living in a hilly district might buy a car which in dry summer weather would take the hills very well, but in winter the car might fail to climb the hills. The power required to drive a car through muddy soft roads is sometimes two or three times what is required on dry smooth roads. Most cyclists are well aware of this.
The writer thinks that the purchaser of a foreign car should have some definite assurance from the agent that he stocks spare parts. He has known more than once a French car being laid by for a fortnight until spare parts were obtained from Paris. Before buying his car he should ascertain that the agent will send spare parts at once on receipt of letter or telegram. Some agents at one time, and possibly there are some still, who will not send a spare part costing only a few shillings until they receive the cash. Such agents should be avoided. With the French voiturettes the difficulty of repairs on the road must be faced sooner or later. As these cars get older the chances are that breakdowns will sometimes take place, especially as some of the cars are often driven as fast as they will go.
The car owner should consider what he should do in case of certain breakdowns, and how temporary repairs can be effected on the road. He should always carry some spare parts, although he may grudge the extra weight and space required, but when a breakdown does happen he will have the satisfaction of not being stranded on the road. A clip or pair of clips to fish a broken spring should always find a place in the toolbox.
The writer thinks that the accessibility of the Benz engine and the absence of spur gear are great advantages. A chain or a belt can easily be replaced, but a couple of teeth stripped from a spur wheel is a serious matter, and cannot be very well mended on the road.
The car owner, if living in the country far from an engineer’s or cycle repairing shop, should have some tools, and learn how to use them. A strong vice, files, and chisels for metal work, drills, a set of Whitworth screwing taps for 1/4in., 5/16in., 3/8in., and 1/2in., and possibly some small gas thread stocks and dies, will often render him independent of the repairer; a small portable forge and a light lathe with back gear and slide rest may be added. It is very vexing to have to confess to a friend who calls and would like a car ride that the car cannot be taken out, as a stud or bolt has broken - a small repair that might be effected in an hour if the proper tools are at hand to do it. To a car owner living in a town close to a repairing shop the home workshop is not so absolutely necessary, but as those people who do, and will, derive most benefit from cars are those living in the country, perhaps four or five miles from a town or railway, it is important that repairs should be quickly effected; besides it sometimes happens that the repairer may be working, or all his men may be working, on a breakdown job, and the unfortunate car owner has to wait.
In the Benz car the cylinder cover or cylinder head, as it is sometimes called, not only closes the cylinder, but the water jacket around the cylinder. This is a bad arrangement; the water after a time soaks through the asbestos card with which the joint is made, and finds its way into the cylinder, and stops the car. To obviate this, a very thin sheet of copper cut to the size of the asbestos ring is placed between the cylinder and the asbestos. This prevents the water from saturating the latter.
The writer has used stout tinfoil successfully as a substitute for the copper, but it is, of course, more easily damaged, and may contain extremely fine holes which would not be noticed. Leadfoil, which forms the lining of tea boxes, has been used.
One or two spare asbestos rings for the cylinder cover should always be carried, and the same may be said of the gland shaped packing for the igniter. These asbestos rings should be carried in a portfolio of stout millboard. If they are simply placed loose in the toolbox they will be bent and broken, and when required will be found not fit to use.
A spare igniter, or perhaps two, should be carried. It does not take long to unscrew the two nuts which hold the igniter in its place on the cylinder and replace with a spare one, but to repack a porcelain tube when on a journey would be very tedious work.
The ignition points on the sparking plug should be about 1/16in. apart; not more.
If the car has not been used for a month or more it is best to get it ready for work some time before it is actually wanted. Many small things may have occurred to prevent it working properly.
Accumulators may have run down; coil may require readjustment; the air gas inlet valve may have stuck, or move sluggishly; the float and valve which admits petrol to carburetter may not act properly.
It is extremely annoying, especially if a friend be coming to see the car, to find it obstinately refuse to work. This need never be if care and forethought be used in looking after it.