FORD - VAN POINTERS.
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By R. T. Nicholson (Author of "The Book of the Ford ").
As I HINTED. in my prefacing remarks to Pointers 258 to 266 inclusive, there is much to bo said on that simple subject—sparking plugs for Ford engines, and in the notes immediately following. I give further hints, for which 1 had insufficient space when plugs were last in thy mind.
288.--A Silly Thing to Do. -•
I have seen this silly thing done many and many a time. The driver wants ,to get a plug out, He screws off the brass nut that attached the hightepsion cable to the plug, letting that nut fall into the little well in which the plug lies. Then he takes the plug out, and the nut promptly falls
through the hole into the engine. There is excellent fishing in that district after that—free'fishing. The language is also free, because the driver feels bound to get that nut out, and he generally uses a bit of hooked wire forthe purpose, and it is not easy to land a catch with, that kind of tackle. I have known a driver reduced to taking his cylinderhead off to recover a sparking-plug nut. If you do drop a sparking-plug nut into your engine, do thus: Let the engine cool down. By turning the starting handle, bring to its highest point the piston of the cylinder in which the nut lies. You can then generally hook the nut forward towards the plug hole by exploring with a bit of wire. Having got it as near to you as possible, you can lift it out with a hit of wax on a stick; but, Of course, your engine must be cool enough not to melt the wax. Sealing wax does very well if the engine is still a bit warm, because the sealing wax gets soft enough in such circumstances to grip the nut.
As a matter of fact, the nut (being brass, and soft) would not do any particular harm if left in the .engine ; but it might easily lodge under one of the valves, and then, of course, the niis-fir'ag would be horrible, so it is best to get it out:
289.—Order of Removal of Plugs.
If you are.going to take all your plugs out, you will find it best—working from the carburetter side of the engine as everybody does—to take out first the plug to -the extreme right, then its next-door neighbour, and so on, working backwards to the extreme left-hand plug. You will then find that you have greater freedom for spanner work: If you
begin on any plug that has another plug to its right, you may get into trouble, for, if yourlspanner slips, the chances are that it will give a nasty smack to the plug on the right and crack its porcelain (if any). Apart from that, however, you will find that it is easier to work on a plug when there is not another on its right; there is then nothing to get in your way as the spanner goes round.
290.—Plugs -Must Fit Spanner.
There is a tool in the standard kit which is intended for use on your plugs. It fits the Champion X plugs with which a new Ford is reg-ularly equipped. It will not necessarily fit "any old plugs " —or, rather, any new plugs you may buy at odd times. Make sure that it does fit by buying plugs that fit it. That may seem, to be the wrong way round—one's natural idea being to accommodate tools to parts rather than parts to tools. But, in the ease of the plugs, it is a mistake to try to accommodate tools to fit them. To shift a plug you must have a good hefty spanner, and it must not be of the accommodating kind; that is to say, it must not be an adjustable spanner. You ask : Why? Because plugs (particillarly American-patterà plugs with a taper thread,'?such as must be used on the Ford) have a way of binding in their sockets; they jam, and nothing on earth will shift them except a, fixed spanner. If you use an adjustable spanner, you do so at your own risk, and also at the risk of spoiling the hexagon of the plug by rounding off the edges, so that no spanner on earth—adjustable or faxed—will do any good on it from that time fctrward. You use an adjustable spanner at your own risk, because it has a way of flying off suddenly—in which ease,your hand can get a nasty jag on the sharp metal edges that live -in the neighbourhood of the cylinder-head.
So, buy plugs that fit your kit spanner.
291.—Taking Plugs to Pieces.
Except for replacement of broken porcelains, do not take plugs to pieces. Most porcelain.plugs are so ;made that you can take them to pieces if you want to ; the trouble does not lie in taking them apart, but in putting them together again. The difficulty is to get them gas-tight. In most plugs there are odd bits ofipacking to ensure their being gas-tight; and when you take a plug to pieces these bits of packing get out of place or altogether spoilt, so that there as no getting things right again. Then, too, there is nearly always trouble in getting the big pack nut properly screwed down. Oh! you can screw it down tightly enough, but the chances are that when you have got it sufficiently hard down to get the phig gas-tight, you break the porcelain with your pressure ; or, if you don't break the porcelain, it breaks "on its own" directly the engine gets hot enough to expand it, and so increases the pressure of the pack-nut on it.
Generally, you cannot take a mica plug to pieces ; it is not built for it. If you try, the mica insulatorbreaks up into a lot of very thin rings, and it's a Chinese puzzle to get them back' into place. So do not take plugs to pieces ; be -content with cleaning them " solid" in the way I have recommended in Pointer 262.
292.—Cork Insert Band Linings.
I do hate chattering brake and transmission bands. recently had a trial run on a Ford fitted with special cork insert linings. II was greatly pleased (and surprised) by the smoothness and certainty of their grip. I might even describe it as a "velvet grip,.." if that term had not already been used for sock suspenders. At all events, I never knew " sweeter " action than those cork insert linings gave.
Q brand cork insert -linings are to be had from J. W. Pickavant and Co., Chemico Works, Bradford Street, Birmingham.
23.—Unnecessary Running of the Engine.
Much loss of economy arises from this. Do not let the engine idle unnecessarily. When yon do not want the engine to pull the, van, shut it off. When you are standing, switch -off. Of course, that means your starting up again when you next *ant to get a move on ; but it is no particular trouble to start a warm engine. No, I do not mean that you should " powar-start " it every time. That is, the lazy man's way. Repeated. "power-starting" at short intervals will soon run your battery down. Get out and pull on the handle: that will keep you from getting fat. And when you are running down .hill, close your -throttle and stop the engine. That will save a good deal of spirit in a day's run. But you cannot properly run down hill with the engine not firing and not sucking in "gas,' Unless you have "extra air.", You simply-switch off and close your throttle (so as to save gas") you will get a vacuum set up in your combastion chamber, and that vacuum. will suck up oil from the crankcase, and so foul the "innards" with -carbon, which will begin to form out of the excess oil directly the engine begins to, fire again.
For such running you must have "extra air" fitted. You then have a stream of cool non-explosive air pouring into your combustion chamber, and no oil sucked up past the piston rings by. a vacuum. You do ' not use up a drop of petrol while you are so running ; and, as there is considerable -downhill running on most roads, .a good" deal of petrol can be saved in this simple way.
But the beauty of "extra air" does not stop there. An "extra air "fitment means burning air instead of petrol, and air costs nothing. The fact is that, almost without .exception, carburetters give too rich a mixture at good engine, speeds ; and too rich a mixture means too little power for petrol burnt: it also means fouled cylinders, but we need not talk of that here and now.
Do not let there be any mistake about this mattef: Extra air means, as a general rule, a saving of from 15 to 25 per cent, on the amount of petrol used. This is not imagination : it is sheer proved fact. In practice, control. of the extra air fitment means • a. little more attention from 'you 'when the engine is e:32 running. You' will have to set the control lever from time to time, so that you get the best possible results for the conditions of the moment. This control means that you keep the mixture just right-'-neither too rich nor. too poor. I am not out to " boost" any particular form of extra air attachment. All Fig. 181.—The cork insert band lining such fitments are sweetens the brake action. good, if properly • made and attached. But you must.see that the one you choose is a. real fitment—that is, really well fitted. A badly fitted extra air attachment is more nuisance than it is worth', for it leaks air all the time--when you dn not want it, as well as when you do, and so makes for hard starting on the one hand and prevents slow running on the other.
294. Calculating Miles per Gallon..
do not believe that you will -ever be able to get an exact idea as to how many. miles you run per gallon.. Such mileage cannot be calculated unless one gees very carefully to work, measuring the petrol (or benzoic) before the start, running the engine to a standstill, and watching the speedometer. Even then the speedometer is never altogether accurate, so that estimates of "miles per. gallon" are likely to be wide of-the truth. But you may take it from me that, whatever your mileage per gallon, attention to the points I have named from time to timewill considerably increase it. . , • . , •
295.—On Being Run In
But do not be disappointed with a low -mileage . when your engine is a new one. Until the parts are well run in by, say, 1,000 miles' going, you will not get good mileage per gallon, with all your care. Once the engine has been well run in, you ,ought certainly to exceed 20 miles per gallon.
296.—An Old Dodge.
There are some drivers who, in cold weather, always start the engine with one back wheel jacked up off the ground, and the hand brake in neutral position. The idea. is that if the wheel is jacked up it will be easier to pun-the engine over smartly. So it is, but it is quite a business to jack up the back wheel, and this ought not to be necessary.
If you do this thing, be very careful to put a reliable scotch under each front wheel ; 'because if, when the -charge fires, the van jumps' the jack—as it may quite well do—and the scotches are not there, the van will run forward, and make for anybody who happens to be in the way at the time. Further, having gotthe engine firing in -this way, set the back brakes hard on before you let down the 'jack. Once the brakes are hard on there is no danger 'of the van running forward, simply because the back a heels cannot turn.
But you must have the hand brake lever in neutral until the engine starts. As soon as it is firing regin larly get the back brakes on, and then let down Alta jack.