Two Months' Experience of a Second-hand Motor. wagon. By Its Unfortunate Driver.
Page 22
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
(Continued from page 531.) [4.95] The manager of the garage turned up eventually, and we then proceeded to back into a side street. We had been standing with the foot brake hard on, and with a wood beam scotching the rear wheels. We then jacked up the rear end of the wagon, and packed it up with boxes and wooden beams that we had borrowed. When we got the back axle out and took it to pieces, we found that it was perfectly sound. We therefore concluded the trouble was in the gearcase, and we took off the bottom of this and found two gears stripped. The garage manager took these away with him, and managed to get a new set from the makers, without much trouble, by the next morning. Soon after the accident happened, we had taken the load off the wagon and put it on a horsedrawn van, leaving it in a field at the top of the hill. When we get our repair fixed up again, we went and picked the load up and finished at 9 o'clock that night. As evidence of the amount of overhauling this van had received, I may say that, when we took the gearbox to bits, the man from the garage was entirely in ignorance of what was inside the box.
Everything went smoothly for another week, and then one day I had to go to a city in miles away for 12 hogsheads of grounds from a brewery. I was supposed to fetch a load of 3 tons and no more, but I found that, as usual, I had to overload—in this instance with 12 hogsheads, which each weighed ecwt. The hills on the route were terrible, and one gradient was five miles long, with stretches of i in 8 and i in to here and there. On several of the worst of these we had to adopt what I was led to call the brick method." This, of course, consisted of scotching up the hack wheels, releasing the brakes, and starting away on first speed. At last we reached a stage when the engine raced and the wagon would not move at all. Getting down from my seat, I found that the cardan shaft was running, and I thought therefore that the bevel gear was either broken or loose. We were one and a half miles from anywhere, and five miles from home : it was a dark, foggy night and already seven o'clock. While my mate had gone to find the nearest telephone, I disconnected the cardan shaft and found that it had broken off short in the bearing of the differential case. We got the load taken by two wagons, and we left it at an inn on the roadside. Horses Were then yoked to the motor by chains, and I was towed home to the garage. We arrived there at 3 agre next morning.
In order to try and improve matters as much as possible, I set to work in the garage, overhauling the wagon on my own account for nearly three weeks, and I will endeavour to give you a short list of th(repairs I actually found to be necessary on this machine, which, it must be remembered, had been " carefully selected " and " thoroughly overhauled." The radiator was leaking badly, and I found that there were no less than 18 tubes loose. These I expanded in position and I then fixed them with solder. I had to take out nearly 200 screws to get the radiator to bits. I bored out the fan-driving pulley, and I fitted a new bush. The governor balls were loose, but these I tightened up and readjusted. I ground in all the valves and adjusted them for lift. I next discovered that the cams on the secondary shaft on the exhaust side had worked loose. As these were originally pinned with 3-16-inch taper pins, I drilled out the holes to a inch, and fitted new pins. I took the carburetter to pieces and thoroughly cleaned it, at the same time grinding in the needle valve. I had had considerable trouble with the petrol-feed pipe from the tank : it used to break off close to the carburetter. T annealed this, and similarly treated all the copper lubrication pipes. I then turned my attention to the gearcase, and I found that the top half was cracked, and one of the supports was broken. In addition to this, the secondary shaft was broken dose to the rear hearing, and the low gear was badly worn. The whole gearbox was in such a bad state that, upon consultation with the manager of the garage, it was decided that we should ascertain if the various parts for replacement could be obtained secondhand in London. ithe bottom half of the gearcase was also cracked right along the bottom, but I patched this up with a mild steel plate riveted on to the casting. The reverse motion was badly strained, but I straightened the stud upon which it was mounted, and rebusheu the gears. The clutch, which bad hitherto had red-fibre facing, I recovered with leather, which was half-an-inch wider than the original lining. When the second-hand gearcase that had been purchased in London arrived, I examined it and was surprised to find that it was cracked in exactly the same place as the old one, only there was this consolation that all the supports were whole. In order to avoid further delay, I put a patch over this crack, and reassembled the box with the new gears and the old parts which were in good enough condition. I next rebushed one of the rear wheels, and turned up the axle, which had worn fiat on the bottom side. 1 relined the brakes, took up all the slack in the steering levers, and I then considered that I had gone over every detail, with the exception of the wiring. I did not like the type of contact maker which was fitted, but my request for a new one of an approved type was refused by my employer, who was not inclined to go to the expense of a new one. I scarcely blamed him!
Soon after the completion of this overhaul, I was informed that I was required to go 210 miles in two days with a van load of furniture. My destination was a certain colliery town situated is notes north-west of Durham. The first mile past Darlington-88 miles on the way—was an eye-opener so far as hills were concerned; the second mile made us gasp, and the third mile made the motor gasp. Parts of the road were greasy and covered with leaves, and on other stretches the surface was actually coated with ice. It was only by frequently " using the brick" that we were able to get over the road at all. We eventually arrived at Durham, however, and, with only is miles to go, we felt fairly happy, but from Durham onwards we actually had more hills than ever to encounter. We got half-way up one of the worst of these when the engine stopped, and, try as we would, the clutch would not take hold of the load, so I got a few handfuls of dry gravel, and worked it into the clutch, and with that, and by frequent use of the well-tried and proved brick method, we got within 2oo yards of the top, and this landed us four miles from our destination. This last zoo yards consisted of loose stone, and was the worse part of the gradient. If we could have got over this, it was all down hill for the rest of the journey, but, short as it was, it was not to be, for the wagon would not budge another inch. We backed down the road for a mile, where I was able to turn the machine, but by this time it was dark, and, lighting our lamps, we turned our backs on our Waterloo, and set out for fresh roads and undoubtedly new difficulties. We then struck a very bed piece of read, and at the end of it T saw a farmhouse, and, right opposite the house the motor stopped again, and I there and then decided that this should be the last stop that night. We were absolutely fagged out, having had nothing to eat since breakfast that morning.
We were offered hospitality at the farmhouse and we started off early next morning, and travelled quite well for nearly half-a-mile, but shortly after this another tooth broke in the crown wheel of the differential gearing. I walked to the top of the hill to see if there was any more trouble ahead, and on reaching the summit found there was a succession of very severe gradients vet to be surmounted. There was nothing for it but to try and keep going, which I managed to do by releasing the clutch each time the broken tooth came round to the pinion, thus letting the momentum of the wagon carry the gearing over the broken place. F.ventually we got round to the turn at the foot of the hill, and here a few more teeth ripped out, and the engine ran free. We had done our best, and here we were, broken down in a farming country five miles from our destination or anywhere else. It came to this, that we must now have horses at any cost and wagons too for that matter, so I sent
my companion off to walk to our destination with instructions to send a telegram home saying what had happened. He also arranged that horses and carts should come and unload the furniture from our van with as hide delay as possible.
Late that night a man turned up from the garage at home, bringing another crown wheel and pinion, and we started to work straight away and took out the back axle, using the road wheel and fencing from the hedges as packing to hold up the wagon. We re-assembled it with the new parts, and put it back into position, and remade the road. We then turned the wagon round for home, which we reached unloaded, with a number of roadside troubles to keep us going on the way. We did not average, for many miles, more than 41 miles per hour with the empty van. Eventually I arrived home, but as soon as the van body had been taken off the wagon, my employer told me to back the machine into the yard of the garage and to leave it there for good, as he had no more use for it at all.
The wagon has not done a stroke of work since, and all these breakages happened in the space of two months. The best I ever did with it was 35 miles in -four hours, and I could never get more than three miles to the gallon of petrol out of it. I have purposely omitted all mention
of the name of the wagon, but am sending it to you under separate cover for your guidance.
I think the object of this account will be well served if those who are contemplating the purchase of motor wagons will only learn one or two lessons from the story I have been able to relate. It is nothing less than rank foolishness for a man who knows little or nothing about motor vehicles to order a machine of whose capabilities, construction and material he has not the ghost of an idea. He should see to it that the overhauling and inspection, preliminary to completion of purchase, is put into the hands of a man who thoroughly understands the job, and who is not necessarily a motor engineer because he carries on business with a board inscribed to that effect in his front garden. More harm is done to the industry and to the movement for the employment of commercial motor vehicles generally by a few cases such as that in which I was the unfortunate participator than can be readily imagined. The machine was a bad one through and through, and would never have been passed by a competent inspector. The overhauling that had been done to it was of an entirely superficial nature. Expert advice in such a case is not only advisable, but is absolutely vital to the success of any such enterprise as that in which my employer was engaged.