OCR Text |
Show Give Steering Gear and Brakes Right Attention There are two elements of every motor mo-tor car upon the perfect operation of which vitally depends the lives and limbs of the passengers. These are the steering gear and the brakes. The engine may "go dead," the gears strip, or important parts of the mechanism mech-anism may break, with not more serious seri-ous result than delay, inconvenience and a repair bill ; but when the steering steer-ing gear fails, an accident of a more or less serious character usually takes place, explains an expert. It is thus obviously advisable, as a reasonable precaution, frequently to Inspect all parts of the steering gear with the utmost ut-most thoroughness in order to forestall fore-stall derangements. All steering gears are very much alike, and consist of these parts : .The steering column and steering device, usually located at its lower end under the hood, with its crank extending down under the car; the drag-link, which connects the steering crank with the knuckle of one or the other of the front wheels ; the parallel rod, which connects the knuckles of the two front wheels and the pivoted knuckles of the two wheels with their spindles and pins. In a general way the Inspection of a steering gear consists in assuring oneself that the fastening devices connecting con-necting these parts are all perfectly secure and that there is no undue looseness or lost motion in any of the joints, or elsewhere in the system. ' |