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MAKING BEST USE OF THE FORD.

15th January 1924
Page 19
Page 19, 15th January 1924 — MAKING BEST USE OF THE FORD.
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Valuable Advice on Every Phase of Food Transport, which will Appeal to the Owner, Driver, and Repairer.

IN THIS series of hints concerning the Ford light chassis and ton truck wherever they are employed for commercial purposes, we endeavour to deal with the subject from every view-point, so that the advice given will appeal to the owner, driver, maintenance engineer, or mechanic. Valuable sources of information are being tapped for this purpose, and it should be nuderstoord that the advice given will be derived from those with an intimate knowledge of the subject.

We shall welcome for inclusion among the hints those which have proved of value to individual users, and will make suitable remuneration for any published. What we desire are the results of practice.

157.—A Heat-resisting H.T. Terminal.

Sparking plugs on the Ford engine often become excessively hot, and the ordinary form of terminal used on the high-tension cable permits the heat to be conducted and causes rapid perishing of the rubber insulation.

In cases where this occurs, it is advisable to fit some form of terminal which, whilst permitting the current to flow through the centre wire, can, by the use of heat-resisting material, be prevented, from transmitling more than a very slight amount of heat to the insulation. Such a terminal is illustrated.

It can be made from a piece of brass tubing, le ins, long by 5-16 in. diameter, flattened in the vice at one end and drilled to fit over the centre-pin of the plug.

Into the end which is not• flattened should be poured a small quantity of solder ; above this should be fitted a piece of fibre with a shank reduced to fit the tube.

This fibre should be drilled through with a Email hole of just sufficient size to admit the high-tension wire only. The fibre must be countersunk, with a hole drilled to a short depth to admit the insulation.

To make the terminals a fixture on the wire, the end must be heated until the solder runs, and the bared wire then thrust into it.

158.—Renewing the Insulation of a Magneto.

In a recent instance a Ford engine could not be started by hand cranking. After trying all other possible methods and endeavouring to trace the source of the trouble, attention was directed to the Ford magneto, which was tested first of all by endeavouring to start the engine, using a six-volt Hellesen dry battery connected up in place to the magneto, and with this the engine started immediately, proving that the magneto was the culprit. This meant that the engine had to be dismantled, the crankshaft taken out and the magneto detached 'therefrom. Upon inspecting the insulation around the coils of copper strip which form the bobbins, the insulation was found to be torn off in several places, which, no doubt, allowed a short to occur through small particles of carbon, etc.' in in the oil.

To effect a repair, the solder joining the ends of the coils to each other was melted off by the aid of a mouth blow-pipe and the flame of a large tallow candle. The coils were then prised off the cores by means of two wood chisels. The old insulation was stripped away and each coil well washed in petrol, given a coat of shellac and rewound with ordinary

half-inch tape, allowing an overlap of about in.

The ends were sewn to the windings underneath same, and the whole dipped in shellac and pressed on to the core while wet. When it had been replaced, the ends of the copper strips were resoldered to each other and the whole unit given two or three coats of shellac.

The coils were then ready for assembling, and the usual care was taken in replacing the parts exactly as they were before dismantling. On testing the magneto it was found that the sparks obtained at the plugs were hotter than they had been since the car was new, and the engine ran perfectly. The shellac used was made up of 5 oz. of orange shellac dissolved in half a pint of methylated spirit. Solution is accelerated by sleeping the container in hot water. Neither gum nor resin should be added.

159.—Making the Speedometer-driving Mechanism More Secure.

Some Ford vans fitted with speedometers have given trouble through the insecure fixing of the driving mechanism at the axle end of the cable. In the cases referred to the gears were supported at this point by slotted plates, each fitted with a U-bolt, which persisted in working loose. A simple method which can be adopted to cure the trouble is to remove the nut which holds the steering arm in the stub-axle body and utilize a hexagon sleeve in its place. The drive gear far the cable is bolted to a suitable hole drilled in this sleeve, and the arrangement makes a firm job which is very unlikely to shake loose.

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