WAYS AND MEANS.
Page 69
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A Simple Lamp-dipping Device.
TT is a good sign that drivers of i_commercial vehicles should try to help other users of the road, so we are glad to receive the following suggestion from " R.I.P.," of Croydon. Having tried several means for dimming his lights when meeting other vehicles, he at last came to the conclusion that the simplest and best way was to dip. The next thing to decide, with an old wartime lorry, and very little time to spare, was what was the hest way of making a dipping arrangement. Ills lorry being fitted with a collision bar, the idea struck him that this might lorm a base on which to build his device. The bar being of tube he was able to fit a rod right through it, extending about 5 ins. beyond the radiator on each side, and prevented from sliding by two taper pins.
The diameter of the hole through the collision bar being large he was able to use a bar of sufficient diameter to take 4-in. diameter holes to receive the stems of the / brackets on the lamps. He, of course, threaded the ends of the brackets and placed nuts on them. A lever and a link passing through the steel dash completed the job. With this, he tells us, he is able to dip his lamps so as to avoid being troublesome to others, and at the same thine to have sufficient light to prevent running over a suicidal cyclist without a rear reflector, and to prevent getting into the ditch himself.
By cutting a couple of slots in the link so that this drops over the bottom of the slot in the dash a positive lock in the normal or dipping position is obtained.
To Secure Stauffer Lubricators in Their Places.
ATTENTION has been called on
several occasions to the fact that in most lorries one will often find that a proportion of the lubricators is missing, owing to the fact that there is nothing but the tightness of the fit of their screwed part in the hole to retain them and when unscrewing the cap they often unscrew at their junction with the bearing to which they belong. A correspondent, "R.D.S.," a Chatham, sends us a description of a method which he tells us he has found entirely to overcome the difficulty.
He procured a nut tapped to the same thread as the stem of the lubricator, and after having screwed this tightly on the stem he drilled a hole right through, as shown in the sketch, slightly cutting into the bottoms of the IT-thread. He then fitted the lubricator in place, end after screwing it home he drove a small piece of wire down the hole. The wire was of steel and had a flat end, and on its passage down it slightly cut away the points of the threads of the hole, and Practically no power will loosen it.
If the lubricator has to be removed at any time, all that is needed is to punch the piece of wire right through into the bearing piece, when the lubricator can be unscrewed in the usual manner.
" S.H.B.," of Northampton, may interest users of the older type of Tyler J-.B.4 engine.
The back cylinders of these engines have a tendency to crack between the studs which hold the valve-cap bridge, and various cures have been suggested, such as the insertion of a brass stud at '.A (Fig. 1).
The following tip is more for prevention than cure. On examination of the cylinder blocks, it will be seen that the water has a tendency to rise quickly through the front pair, and that the back pair does not receive such a cool stream (Fig. 2). A piece of plate about an inch wide, and suitably drilled—as seen at B (Fig. 1)—should be fitted over the water-outlet studs of the front pair. This slightly impedes the rise of hot water through this block and has the effect of improving the circulation
of the water in the rear block. The method is said to have proved quite satisfactory in service.
Another trouble which is sometimes met with in the old Tylor engine is the tendency for the water-pump gland to unscrew. This usually occurs when the setscrew (A, Fig, 3) becomes loose or stripped, allowing.the locking plate (B) to move out of the -way. This can he overcome very simply.
A slot (0) should be cut in the body of the pump to register with the locking plate when the pump is in position. It will be seen that this plate passes through the slot in the gland nut and is anchored in slot C. It is quite impossible for the gland nut to move, even with the screw quite loose, and the standard locking plates will be found quite long enough to reach across.
A small slot may have to be cut in the holding-dawn strap to enable the locking plate to be removed when adjustment is necessary.
On some engines where the lockingplate setscrew has stripped the thread in the aluminium casing, it is impossible to tap the hole any larger, and the following wrinkle may be useful.
A piece of -'in. plate, shaped as in Fig. 4, can be fitted under the setscrew that positions the cross-shaft bush, and the locking-plate screw can be tapped into this. Improving the Tylor Engine. THE following tips, sent us by