EMERGENCY REPAIRS.
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How Some of Our Driver and Mechanic Readers Solved Difficult Problems.
T0-BE DISCOVERED far from home, with a broken-backed lorry, and a load on that lorry which as urgently required, can hardly be described as an enviable position. 'Yet such fell to the lot of a driver reader of these pages -who, writing from Southend-on-Sea, chooses to call himself " Adanae."
The vehicle, a four-tonner, was carrying its rated load when the accident happened. It was being manceavred into a yard which had a soft road surface when a small crack in the frame, hitherto thought .th be of negligible im-' portance, suddenly went across the whole depth of the frame, so that. the chassis sagged badly, throwing the engine, clutch, and gearbox quite out of alignment. The localityin which the lorry was working at the time happened to be sparsely populated, and the possibility of obtaining suitable metal plates with which to effect a more or less Orthodox repair was absolutely nil. It did occur to this reader, however, that heavy vehicle frames were occasionally made of wood, reinforced with metal, and he thought that, for the time being, it might be possible to mend the broken frame by making use of this principle. The essential thing was to find sometimber which would be suitable for the purpose. This was discovered, of all places, on the premises of the local undertaker. The proprietor was possessed of some seasoned-oak coffin boards. about 8 ft. long, 2i ins. thick, and 12 ins. wide. As the requirement for the repair was a plank 7 ft. by 21 ins. by 71 ins., the procedure was obvious, and no time was lost in ripping up one of the undertaker's planks.
This plank was lima shaped, wliere necessary, to miss rivet and bOlt beads, as well as the ends of the gearbox bearer arms. It was made a dead-tight fit in the inside of the frame member. While the beam was being prepared, the frame had been carefully lacked up until it was perfectly straight. Packing had
been plated under the gearbox, to relieve the frame of its weight for the time being, and everything got ready for the reception of the beam, which was subsequently rammed home by means of another baulk of 'timber. The existing bolt holes in the frame were then usea as guides for a drill• with which to perforate the beam, which vs then fastened in place with the same bolts as had been used for keeping the crossmembers of the frame in place.
It Is now some weeks since-the repair was effected, and the chassis has stood up extremely well to its normal work. R.T.," of Colne, was driving a lorry down a hill when the wheel came right off, dragging its driving shalt with it, and letting the chassis right down on the ground, on the end of he axle case, which it irretrievably damaged.
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On examination he found that the reason for the lapse on the part of the wheel was that the thread in the nut which was supposed to hold it in place had stripped. There was, of course, in a case like this, no hope of effecting even a temporary repair, but what had to he done was to devise some means of holding the wheel in place while the vehicle was towed home.
" R.T." commenced operations by removing the other driving shaft, after having, of course, jacked up the chassis on the side from which the wheel had gone. A piece of rope seemed to be the most likely agent for retaining the loose wheel in place, but the problem was haw to apply it. Be put a thick tommy bar across the driving dogs of the wheel, as shown in the sketch, and looped the rope round that. With the aid of a curtain pole he pushed a piece of string right through the interior of the axle, from the side which had lost the wheel to the other, and, by means of the string, afterwards pulled the loose ends of the looped rope. The ends of the rope were thenDlooped. and knotted tightly round a tommy bar on the other wheel, and the whole arrangement tightened up by giving one wheel a twist.
An emergency hint of general utility comes Irons " G.M.," of Pontyclum " Few drivers," he says, " escape being stuck in soft ground at some time in their careers. Sometimes, a simple pull of just a pound ' from some other vehicle will provide all that it, is required to extricate the bogged lorry. Sometimes, On the other hand, the combined power of two engines proves insufficient. In the latter circumstances the expedient of attaching the tow rope to a spoke of one of the wheels of the ditched lorry, and taking it over the top of that wheel, and to the rear of the towing machine, is a good One."
A slight variation of an old tip is given in a letter from " A.W., of --Barnsley.. One of his exhaust valves gave out. As is now usual, the inlet and exhaust valves are interchangeable, so that one of the inlet valves could be substituted for the broken exhaust. The valve had broken through the cotter hole, so that...whilst it was possible to use this exhaust valve as an automatic inlet valve something had to be devised to limit its movement. This 'driver simply wrapped the stem of the valve with copper wire and insulating tape until only sufficient lift was possible before the upper edge of the: wrappings came into contact with the underside of the valve guide. After a while he thought of adding a nut from one of the body bolts to the stem, securing itby copper wire. Its weight acted to , some extent
as a light spring. .
An emergency of another order is the cause of " W.H.," of Leeds, exerting his intelligence. He had been overhauling a Ford, and had arrived at the re-assemblV stage. The engine was back again in tho frame, and the cylinders were bolted down on to the lower .half of the case. He then tied the transmission bands together, and was ready for replacing the cover for the gears. Whilst so doing, the nut and washer of the low gear dropped down into the bottom of the sump. Being pushed for time and having, as he says, the charge hand standing over him (hence the • emergency), he did not know, for the moment, what to do. All sorts of dodges for getting the nut and washer out were tried without success. Eventually, be procured a piece of linen waste, which he made into a ball, which was then pressed tightly between the flywheel and -the inside of the crankcase. A labourer then cranked the engine round, when the flywheel brought round the ball of waste, which swept forward the lost parts into the hands of the contributor of this hint.