Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Ten Shillings Weekly for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for anything else published.
Drivers of commercial motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Long and if cc essfu runs ; services with no "lost journeys"; workshop tips and smart repairs : all are suitable subjects. Send'a post-card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no matter how short, or how written, or how worded, We will "knock it into shape" before publication. When writing you must mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides (not for publication), and you should state whether you wish your own name, or initials only, to be published. Payment will be made immediately after publication. Ada Tress your letters to 1/se Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR," 7 15, Rose')erv Avenue, London, E.C.
To Avoid Kinks in Small Tubes:
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the Ws. prize this week.
{WI] A simple fitting which facilitates the bending of small tubes in a shop vice is described for us by " (Gateshead).--" It is surprising how often the simple job of bending small tubes causes a lot of trouble and bother to many men in the shops. Frequently the bend is only effected after a number of kinks have been made in the pipe during the operation. Very often, too, the workman
makes do ' with a radius that is only somewhere near ' what he actually wants, 'because he has no method at hand by which he can bend the pipe to the exact radius required.
" A short while back I had a lot of small bends to make in some steel tube, and these all bad to be exactly to the same radius. I, therefore, set to work and made a simple fernier from a piece of 1 in. by in. mild steel. The outer edge of this strip was bent. to the curve which I wished to get on the inner radius of the tubes, which were of t in. diameter. To bend the tubes, of course, it was only necessary to nip their ends and that of the jig together between the jaws of a vice and to pull the tube steadily up to the jig. In order not to have the bother of continually placing the former-strip in position in the rice, I fixed it up on a spring arrangement as shown in my sketch; when each tube was removed the jig stayed in position in the vice."
Getting a Petrol Bus Home Under Difficulties. [56-51 " W.A.W." (Hammersmith) writes as follows:— " I was once out road testing, under full-load conditions,
an entirely-new type of petrol motor omnibus. The machine had a rough lorry platform and carried a load of some four tons—part of a very large, old-fashioned milling machine, as a matter of fact. When we were about 27 miles from home, a nasty noise under the bonnet and the sudden stoppage of the motor indicated that we
were in serious trouble. The removal of the under part of the crankcase disclosed No. 2 connecting rod badly bent, and the subsequent removal of this particular cylinder showed that the trouble was caused by a fired-up gudgeon pin.
" It was very necessary that the machine should be home and in good demonstration trim for the next day, and, as it was to have a bus body fixed in the meantime, I was bound to be back at the factory at the earliest possible moment. I took out the damaged connecting rod and piston, and the setscrew and locknuts from the valve lifters, and then replaced the cylinder and the necessary, pipe work, together with the bottom half of the crankcase. To avoid trouble from a possible explosion in the crankcase I fixed the valves down to their seats by clamping a large nut between each of the two valve covers and the valves under them. We ran home satisfactorily like this."
A Halfpenny Repair to a Motorbus.
I566] We have received the following communication from " IL.R." (Aldershot):—" Having read very many useful hints in THE COMMERC/AL MOTOR, I think, perhaps, the account of an experience I had may be of interest to my fellow-readers. I was rung up on the telephone one day recently and warned that a motorbus had broken down about three miles from the garage; a gear ring had broken. When I got out there, I, first of all, knocked away all the broken part of the ring, and then I fastened the brake on the pinion drum firmly. The vehicle, it must be understood, was a gear-driven machine of a well-known make. I started away with the drive going through to the one road wheel only. All went well for about a mile when, suddenly. I found that the engine had started to race ; the car pulled up, and I found that the brake had given way on the shaft which I had locked. I was about to start off for another bus to tow this one home, when I thought of a scheme which seemed as if it would save the situation. I intended, at first, to fix a steel bolt into that side of the differential gear on which was the disabled shaft, but it occurred to me that if this bolt broke it might wreck the whole of the differential gear. I eventually got a halfpenny and fixed it between the teeth of the big side bevel and the stap pinions. I started the engine up and drove home without much trouble, although I had to drive very carefully, to avoid having to change speed, as a sudden jerk would have ' chewed up ' the halfpenny of course. If any of your readers use this method I would advise them to 6 employ a halfpenny as a stop, as it is about the right size, and, being of copper, is soft and would do little damage if it came adrift."
fOur correspondent, with leek, managed very well, but he would undoubtedly have done Letter tf, have towed the machine home. The expedient of running, for any length of time, with the whole of the drive puseing through the diffnrential gear to one road wheel only, is not one of which we approve.—End