HOW MAINTENANCE IS BEING CHEAPENED.
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Modern Ideas in Repair Work and in the Provision of Effective Garage Equipment for Simplifying and Speeding up the Renewal of Parts.
WE are'glad. to see that the matter of the equipment and the methods employed in the repair and maintenance of motor vehicles is now being regarded more seriously than used to be the case. In The Commeroial Motor We have on many occasions impressed Upon those who have the maintenance if fleets entrusted to them the importance of even better mechanical equipment than one usually finds in the garages of firms owning large fleets of
commercial vehicles. The matter is equally important to the owner of fleets, used either for goods or passengers, as to the garage proprietor who caters for the maintenance or repairs of commercial motors.
' In the case of the former, every hour that a vehicle is off the road means loss of service and, in many instances, the sire of a vehicle to do its work, whilst to the garage proprietor nothing brings him trade so much as the prompt execution of work, and nothing is more likely to cause the loss of a customer than delay in carrying out repair work.
In the case of the fleet owner, one does not always recognize what the loss of service of a vehicle means until the bill comes In for the hire of a vehicle to take its place.
Improved Garage Equipment Cheapens Maintenance.
There is nothing of which we know that can have such a marked effett in reducing the cost and time of repair work than an improved equipment. Intense supervision and the accurate checking of maintenance costs both have an effect in reducing the cost of repairs and maintenance, but, without the right tools, no man eau do his best and only the most expensive men can Work at all. For a manufacturer who employs motors for the delivery of his products it is just as important that be should employ the prOper equipment in the maintenance of his vehicles as for the production of his goods.
When we say proper equipment we do not necessarily mean one that is costly. Many firms have wasted large sums of money on costly machinery, such as lathes, milling. machines and even the ;very expensive machinery used for grinding, and have found that after all
It has saved them very little. The Service now given by most firms of reute has vastly improved, the pro-duc'on of oversized parts, such as pistons, gudgeon-pins, etc., has been taken up more seriously, and all spare parts are now often procurable locally or by return of post, so there is not much need to be equipped for the production of s--fich parts, which have in the past so often been found to be defective when carried out on such a plant as could reasonably be expected to be found in a garage. What is required to-day is the means of quickly and easily handling such operations as come within the. category of running repairs.
A garage should be equipped with proper_ means of handling such parts as wheels, engines, etc., with the minimum of labour ; it should have an efficient press, powerful enough to deal with any operation that may be necessary in the class of vehicles that are to be dealt with. Suitable apparatus should he installed for the truing of valVes and their seatings, and where the size of the fleet or the volume of work expected warrants it an equipment for correcting the bores of cylinders should be available.
The paper recently read before the Institution of Automobile Engineers by Mr. W. Gordon Ruggin, who is the sales manager to Harvey Frost, Ltd., gave some information that should prove of value to those interested in keeping down mantenanee costs and to those who undertake repairs.
Although his remarks mainly refer to the maintenance and repair of private cars, they are even more interesting when considered from the point of view of the commercial motor, where all parts are heavier and less easy to handle, and where the work taken each year from an engine and the general wear and tear are so much greater.
We notice that Mr. Ruggin calls attention to the time that is wasted in repair work by the lack of forethought on the part of the manufacturer in not designing the wearing parts so that they shall be easily accessible. He gives some instances of such designing, which might with advantage be taken to heart by some of our manufacturers.
lie also advocates the issue, by the makers of vehicles, of blue prints and full instructiens showing how various parts could be removed and replaced in the shortest possible time. The only work on this subject has bees the long series of article,s in The Commercial Motor a few years ago dealing with each of the prominent chassis.
Mr. R,uggin also advocates the supplying of special tools by the makers of the vehicles for getting at certain parts for which ordinary tools cannot well be used. Here we beg to differ from the otherwise excellent advice given by Mr. Ruggin, for, in our opinion, it is up to the designer to see that every nut and bolt and every part of the chaseis can be removed and replaced by means of the tools found in a driver's kit or by those found in any ordinary garage.
Mr. Rug.gin gives some interesting facts relating to the use of electrically driven portable tools for a great variety of purposes, such as drilling, honing cylinder bores, decarbonizing, etc.
Compressed Air Useful in the Garage.
The growing use of compressed air in garage work is another point • on which he gives some interesting information, especially with regard to its use to accelerate, by its pressure, the water used for cleaning purposes. .
Perhaps .one of the most interesting items in his paper is that dealing with the honing of scored and worn cylinders. His remarks on this subject were the cause of some scepticism in celled& quarters. Fortunately for Mr. Ruggin he had an early opportunity of dispelling these doubts. A challenge was issued to Mr. Ruggin to prove that the limits of accuracy he claimed for . the honing apparatus could actually be obtained. Mr. Ruggin took up the challenge and promised that those who were interested should see a practical demonstration of the tools and have evidence that they could do all that he claimed for them.
• The test took place a week or so ago at the service depot of the Bristol Tramways and 'Carriage Co. at Bristol, Some 50 members of the Institution were present, including Professor Morgan, of the Faculty of Engimeering of Bristol University, and many others'whose experience of mechanical matters is beyond question. The demonstration lasted for over two hours and a half, and in the course of it the most sceptical were convinced.
A Ford Meek of cylinders was operated upon, which had a score of .017 in. deep on each side. The score was eliminated in the course of 17 minutes by means of a portable grinder, and a bore and stroke, true to S.1005 in., was obtained.
Professor Morgan and other experts are reported to have admitted that this is a degree of accuracy which one could hardly expect from the heavy and costly cylinder grinders costing from £00 to 11,400. When it is considered that this operation can be carried out with an
apparatus costing only and without removing the block from its engine (no time being spent in the very accurate setting of the block, as with an ordinary cylinder-grinding machine), the advantage of the tool can be readily realized.