Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 39
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TEN SHILLINGS WEEKLY for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for any thing else published.
Drivers of commercial-motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short contribution on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Workshop tips and smart repairs; long and successful runs ; interesting photographs : all are suitable subjects. Send a post-card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—nu matter how short, or how written, or how worded. We will "knock it into shaPe" and prepare sketches, where necessary, before publication. The absence of a sketch does not disqualify for a prize. When writing use one side of the paper only atm' mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides. Neither your own no, your employer's name will be disclosed. Payment will be made intme. diately after publication. Address your letters to The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, 7-15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.
Repairs to an Eisemann Magneto.
,625] "(LW." (Manchester) has something to say about repairs to Eisemann magnetos.—" I have a good tip with reference to Eisemann magnetos, and as, no doubt, a few of your readers will have experienced the same trouble, i.e., the breaking of base-plates at the corners, an account of it may be useful. After the machine has been in use some time the pawls become worn to a tapered sharp edge, and, the first backfire you have, the result is a broken baseplate, fractured across one of the corners, through one of the pawls digging into the distributor disc. After thinking the matter over I decided upon the following way out of the difficulty. I got some 7-16 in. round steel and sawed four pieces off, in. thick, and filed a dovetailed recess along them. I then took the pawls and dovetailed the ends to fit into the round steel, and brazed it all together. After filing and cleaning them up I got some potash in a ladle and, melting it down, put the four pawls on some iron wire and dipped them till they were hot enough, without disturbing the brazing, and cooled them off in warm water. The only alteration I had to do was to advance the distributer disc one tooth, owing to the pawls' being slightly longer."
Removal of Packing from Glands.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the 10s. prize this week.
[626] " H.N." (Gateshead) writes to us as follows :—" I send particulars of a tool I have made for removing the old packing from the piston-rod glands of steam engine,. This tool is very handy to those people who use super badly that no packing will subsequently stop in. If the packing be not burnt, the point of the tool will uncoil it, and for this purpose there is a right and a left-hand cutter, which should respectively be used, according to the direction in which the packing has been wound. In case the packing has been burnt the points are hardened so that they may cut it out."
How to Straighten Firebars.
[627] " (Dolgelly) straightens his firebars and writes to tell us about it.—" I am sending you the following, thinking it may prove interesting for your 'D. and M.' columns. I am a tractor driver, and, on one occasion, I had the misfortune to drop my firebox plug. Owing to the firebars' being badly warped. I could not get them back into their places after I had put in the new plug, although I had marked them carefully aa I took them out. After several fruitless attempts, I took them to a blacksmith's shop close by, and there had them heated up slowly. Then, by placing them on a flat sheet of iron and putting a 56 lb. weight on them. I got them comparatively straight."
Holding a Crack in a Casting Together.
[628] "J .M' (Barrow) describes an unusual form of temporary repair which he carried out on the engine of a municipal wagon which he is driving.—" One of the cylinders on the engine of the 24 h.p. wagon which I am driving, some while ago, developed a crack nearly halfway round the cylinder casting itself. The fracture first became evident from various unusual things that happened on the wagon. For instance, the radiator cap blew off, on one occasion, probably owing to pressure from the cylinder getting into the water-circulating system; the water blew out at least a foot high. I had also noticed a considerable amount of water leaking into the crank chamber, although it was difficult, as was afterwards proved, to find out exactly where this was coming from. The water, as a matter of fact, must have been leaking into the cylinder, down past the piston rings, and into the crank chamber that way. "We were very busy when we discovered this fault, and, therefore, sonic means had to be found to keep running, at any rate, for the time being. What I eventually did was, I think, rather unusual, but, as it hap pened, quite satisfactory. I drilled and tapped three # in. holes through the top of the water-jacket, directly over that part of the top radius of the cylinder casting which was above the crack. I then screwed three setscrews down hard on to the top of the cylinder, and this had the effect of closing the crack in the side sufficiently to stop leakage. When the engine ran, it got tighter still, although, of course, there was a risk of bursting the top of the water-jacket. At any rate, the job was quite a success, and I have actually had the wagon running in this condition for the last month, with no trouble.