FORD VAN• POINTERS.
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By R. T. Nicholson (Author of "The Book of the Ford.")
HAT DO YOU DO when she suddenly 'starts smissing? Different drivers have different
ways of dealing with the trouble. One man will drive back on a " dot-and-carry-one" engine— had for the motor, and bad for the man's comfort; and-the job has 'still-to be done when he gets to the garage. Another man will work scientifically through all the possible causes of trouble till he is sure that he, has 'spotted the right one, by convincing himself that it is not any of the others—really the only sure way, and the only .ight•wary, when you have plenty of time for the investigation ; but it takes a lot of time, and the Police are: not over-friendly 'to the driver of a van who holds her up for an hour or so while he is "bunting for trouble." , The third way' is, in practice, the right way for the: .commercial driver : Carry one or two good clean spare plugs, and a,,snare coil unit that has been tested and, found " O.K." • Now then 5.—The Short Way with Misfiring.
When she starts missing, open the coil box and lift well up each unit in turn, with the engine still running, leaving the other three units in place. Assyou lift each unit, you will cut out the corresponding cylinder, if the plug in that cylinder has been firing all right. If the plug in the corresponding cylinder has not been firing all right, the lifting of that unit Will make no difference, since that cylinder is already cut out--" on. its own," so to speak. Take out the unit that makes no difference, and slip in your tested spare unit. It she now fires in all cylinders, your job is done.
If she still fails to fire, restore; the original unit; stop the engine, and put in a spare clean tested plug in the cylinder that was missing—the one corresponding to the, unit which, when lifted-, made no difference to the miming of the engine. That should make everything right when you start up again. Time occupied—five minutes at the outside. What. this method means is this.. filisfiring.in the Tordengine is. in more than99' cases in NO,' due either to a faulty unit or Coa faulty Plug. Find which particular cylinder is misbehaving (which you do-by lifting the units in turn), and yen know that one,particular unit, or one particular plug, is the sinner. Change, the unit: if that' makes no difference, itis the plug, so
change the plug. •
.True, there • are odd eases where •the trouble lies with neither' plug or unit, but those cases are so rare that-it is hardly worth 'wasting paper and printer's ink
on therd. • •
But 'why. waste money on a spare unit 7—and it costs money. Because yeti ,will, Sooner. or later, have to get a spare unit, so that you may as well-have it first as last. Some time' or other, One Of your units Will undoubtedly fail from, internal trenble, and as it always takes some .days or weeks for the expert. to repair a unit that is suffering from internal complications, you will have to' have a spare unit to keep you on the road. Therefore, get it now, and take it on. your rounds—carefully paCked in a box. Bo sure, before you pack it; that' it functions properly in the coil box, so that it may net let you down when the day of trouble comes and the spate is need.ed • if a unit is at the bottenttef the trouble whettmisshag starts it can, it is true, be put right in -most cases• by turning the adjusting. screw on top; or by cleaning or trimming the points ; but these jobs mean finicking and take tinne-7time that cannot generally be well spared on the road.. If•xou•enjoy this kind of finicking, wait till you get home, and then adjust, clean, and trim' to your heart's content, -though, in most cases, .you'll find it the surest and cheapest way to give the motor mechanic or the electrician a job when a -unit begins to falter. Let him tinker with it, you driving on the spare meantime. Because my experience-is that, once a unit begins to give trouble, it is not worth while troubling • with it—dot 'worth your while, I 'mean. A doubtful unit is like a doubtful tooth—it may not ache ; but then, again, it may, and if it does its is too awful! :Better see the dentist. Anyway, so far as -the .unit is concerned, " have it out" and "stop it" !
Here is another tip. In case of missing, suspect • a plug if the van is new, or in its palmy days, say; under 30,000 miles old. if the van is getting on in life— more than 10;000—suspect the unit. Because my ex • perienee is that thestandard Ford units are, as a general rule, to be relied on up to 10,00() miles. 'I have known indiVid-ual units to rim, without giving troulsle, tor a far greater mileage, but, up to 10,000 I take them for granted—all four ; after that, I don't feel so sure about all four, and onee, of the four is enough to cause trouble.
6.—A Little Drop of Petrol.
How often you need a little drop of petrol on the road, for plug cleaning or what not and how hard it is to get it! I do tot mean how hard it is to buy it, because that is 'a question of your licence ; but liciw hard it.is to get a drain from your tank supply ! You can creep under the van; of course, and turn on the drain cock, and poke a wire "up the -spout," and fiddle abOut with a bottle--which you may or may not get into position to receive the outflow ; or you may flood the carburetter and soak a rag placed underneath, which rag will, come out filthy with oil (which you do not want) as well as charged with petrol (which you do). These methods are unsatisfactory. There is a simple way of getting petrol. Carry a tube (a 12-in, length of, say, 1-in. bore metal pipe will do) filed off level at one end at all events, preferably at both ends. Plunge one end down into the supply in the tank. Close the other end with a forefinger, and, keeping that end closed, lift the pipe from the tank. It will come out charged with petrol up to the point to which the spirit reached when the pipe was in the tank. Lift your forefinger, and the petrol will trickle out on to the plug, or into anything set to receive the outflow.
If the pipe is transparent—glass or celluloid--it makes a good petrol gauge. (Glass is apt to break, but celluloid is hard to get.just now. Glass tubing is cheap enough anyway, and you can stow it somewhere about the van where it is not likely to get broken.) • Let the pipe down vertically into the tank supply; close top end, and lift as before. Every inch of petrol in the pipe represents, roughly, 1.gallon•of petrol in the tank. The bottom inch does not truly represent a gallon—not much more than half a gallon; but; except for that, 1 in. means 1 gallon—a go-ad enough guide for practical purposes. If you like to be precise, file marks on the pipe (Fig. 7) at every gallon point. File the first mark ins, from the bottom ; then file six notches 1. in. apart; then file a final notch 1,4 ins, high, and you have a gauge that is near enough.
7.—A Tip for 1916 Fords.
In dealing with all Fords earlier than 1916, you lubricate the front wheel bearings by taking off the hub caps, two-thirds fill them with grease, and replace, the replacement forcing the grease into the bearings.
With 1916—and. later—Fords, that is not enough. You must take the wheels right off (after jacking up the front of the van) to be sure of getting the grease into the bearings, shoving it in by hand. The front hub caps are not deep enough on 1916 and later Fords to ensure the grease getting "home " by the old method : and those front bearings must have all the grease they need. You know, of course, how to tell a 1916 or later Ford—it has an all-black radiator with a taper bonnet. Earlier Fords had brass radiator furbishings, • which looked .beautiful when well kept, but simply horrible when neglected.
8.—Ii Your Magneto Contact in Coil Box is Faulty.
Sometimes the contact in the coil box that connects up the magneto current with the coil is faulty—generally through breakage. If you connect up your mag new cable with the "battery" binding post (on the opposite side to that which the magneto cable ordinarily occupies), and then drive with the switch in "battery" position--over to the right—the car will run perfectly. Many people think that the " battery" position of the switch lever is only possible whena battery is actually in use on the van: That is not so : there are two alternative paths available for any cnrrent provided—whether from battery or magneto ; and the switch will work in either position, as determined by the binding post attachments. If the battery Connects with the left-hand binding post, the switch Must be set over to the left to run on the battery. If the magneto cable connects with the right-hand binding post, the switch must be set over to the right to run on the magneto. And vice versa.
9.—That Horse!
The horse is, they say, an intelligent-animal; but never trust him not to back just before he Etarts. That's where he shows intelligence, though I do not quite see how.
When held up in traffic behind a horse vehicle and brought to a standstill, keep as much space as possible—up to a few yards—between your radiator and the tail end of that vehicle. Then, if the horse backs before restarting, it has room to mancetivre backwards, and your radiator does not get in the way, which, of course, it has no right to do. Besides, it is bad for the radiator!
I see many Fords running about the AV odd with battered radiators, and, whenever I see one, I say to myself, "Backing horse!" Backing horses ruin many radiators, and ruins many men. Dv not back horses, or trust them not to back into you.
10.—Hill-climbing Tip.
If you are getting short of petrol, but have enough to run on the level, and come to a sharp hill which starves the carburetter, so that you cannot get up, turn round, and get up on the reverse. The petrol then flows, by gravity, from the tank towards the carbtiretter, whereas when you try to mount in the .ordinary way—forwards--the petrol flows away from the earburetter—and there you aren't!
11.--Use of Heavy Fuel.
There are vaporizing attachments which render the use of paraffin possible as fuel on the Ford. Apart from them, however, you will find that she will start, and run, in summer on a mixture of one-third paraffin and two-thirds petrol. To be on the safe side, however, watch your engine oil closelyWhenever paraffin is used for fuel, there is risk that it will trickle down in the cylinder past the piston-rings, and so get into your crankcase supply, and thin it unduly, so that it will become a pretty poor lubricant. Open the lower petcock occasionally, and see if the oil trickles out thin and poor-looking. If so, drain and replace.