Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 17
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Tea Shillings Weekly for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for anything else published.
Drivers of commercial motors, and mechanics and foremen of garazes or shops, who are engazed in any branch of the industry, are envihd to contribute short, personal experiences. opini•ms or SU:Tallinn, on subjects wh.ch are likely to prove of interest to Our readers. We shall be glad to hear of ani thing interesting Hilt has come under any driver's or mechanic's notice, either in the shops or on the road. Long and successfut runs ; services with 112 "lost journeys" ; workshop tips and smart repairs ; all are suitable subjeits. Send a po,t.card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no matter how short, or how written, or how worded. We will "knock it into s?!ap," before Publication. When wr,ting it is as well to mention your employer's 'Lime as a guarantee of bona fides (not /or publ7rati-n). and to state whether you wish your czim name, or initiats only, to be published. Payment will be mode intmediatety after paid:ration. Address your letters to 7-he Editor. Tim COMMERCIAL Nloroa," 745, Roce'wry Avenue, London, E.G.
Postal Communications.
We have to acknowledge receipt of communications, intended for the Drivers' and Mechanics' columns of this journal, from the following correspondents :—" (Eastbourne), " L.C." (Whitworth, near Rochdale), (Slough), " E.G." (Hammersmith), " S.I." (Forest Hill), " M.D.W." (I.eicester), " D. MacIT." (York), " E.N1." (Leeds) and " D.W.P." (Manchester).
We require the full postal address of the correspondent, who signs himself " Moto," before we can consider his comm u nication, which is evidently intended for this page.
A Broken Cam Case.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the ws. prize this week.
14511 The description of a repair to a broken cam case, which we insert below, has been forwarded to us by " fl.W.F." (Bournemouth) :--" I enclose a rough sketch Of a quit* repair, which T recently effected to the ram case of
motorlms engine. As the breakage was of a rather unusual nature, I trust a description of the makeshift, to which I had to resort, may prove of sufficient interest to warrant its mblication in the Drivers' and Mechanics' columns of an manly number of 'MR COMMERCIAL MOTOR.'
" It was on a recent public holiday that I was driving fly motorbus, when one of the valve tappets on the engine woke in half. This breakage, of course, allowed the lower iart of the stem, which carried the roller, to drop out of the cuide. and so to foul the camshaft. As there was not .ufficient room for the cam to clear the displaced plunger .rith its roller, when the camshaft came round it forced the ;uide outwards and broke it. The studs which held the ;uide were also broken and a considerable piece of the am case itself was fractured.
" Jr will be admitted, by those, who are familiar xvith the onstruction of the ordinary type of petrol engine, that this iishap was a serious one, and of such a nature that it mild not easily be remedied. Nevertheless, something had
he done, and that at once, as we only had two machines lith which to maintain 'sir service, and the other one was already undergoing extensive repairs. The second machine, moreover, was of a different make to the one of which I was in charge, and this circumstance precluded all possibility of ' changing parts.' As, therefore, an entire suspension of the service would have had to take place, if my machine were not soon patched in some way or another, we decided to try to effect a repair which, if it were not exactly a workmanlike-looking job, would serve as a temporary expedient until a more favourable opportunity should occur, when the job could be done properly. A new valve tappet and guide were lirst procured, and these were fated into the broken piece of the casing. A piece of i-inch by 1-inch iron was next bent in such a way that its ends would go over two of the cylinder bolts, while the centre of the bar would rest on the Lop of the new tappet guide. I then used a number of NvIshers to pack up this new clamp to a convenient height, and, when the nuts on the cylinder bolts were screwed down tight, sufficient pressure was in this way put upon the tappet guide and upon the broken piece of the case, to retain the whole arrangement firmly in position.
" The repair was so effectual that we were enabled to keep that particular machine on service another fortnight before we undertook the repair in a proper manner."
Shock Absorbers Ter a Steam Wagon.
14521 " J.A." (Conston, Manchester) sends to us a description of the means he adopted to prevent the breakage of the spring hangers on a steam wagon which he is driving :—" A short account of a small improvement which we made on our steam wagon may be of interest to you. in the course of my journeys, I have to traverse a piece of road with an exceedingly rough surface. This circumstame, combined with the fact that the loads, which we have to carry, frequently necessitate an unequal distribution of the weight on the platform of the wagon, has caused us to experience considerable trouble from the repeated breakage of hind spring hangers. A mishap of this kind was serious enough in our case, but with some other types of wagons it would have been a matter of more moment, because the body might have been let down on to the wheels. In any case, I was not anxious to run the machine with an ineffective spring over rough setts such as we have in this district.
" Constant replacement of these broken hangers became wearisome; we tried to improve matters by an increase in the diameter of the hangers, but this was unsuccessful. We eventually decided to try to absorb the worst of the road shocks before they got to the hangers. Some good strong leather washers were procured, and these, placed between two ordinary iron washers, were fitted on top of the caps, which rested on the ends of the springs. The original suspension of the wagon was secured by the slotting of the ends of the top leaves of the springs, and, through these slots, the vertical hangers passed; the weight of the wagon was taken by caps on the spring ends, and the nuts on the ends of the hangers were adjusted down on to these caps. When we had inserted the small leather washers, they acted admirably; they seemed just to take the harshness off the road shocks. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and not in the chewing of the string—we have not had it broken spring hanger since we fitted the washers.
"I have now completed 22,000 miles on this machine, and I have carried and hauled on the trailer 14,000 tons during the past three years. Last November, we went in for repairs for a few days, and since that time we have only missed two working days."