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Show WOBBLY WHEELS HEED REPAIRING Practical Plan Outlined by Chicago Chica-go Expert on Taking Proper Care of Auto. (By ERWIN GREER. President Greer College of Automotive Engineering. Chicago.) First, see that your wheels are rolling rol-ling true, and keep them so. The tire on a wheel that is Intermittently or continuously con-tinuously trying to run In a different direction from that of the car ls sideslipping side-slipping more or less, thereby causing unnecessary wear. Rear wheels are out of line Intermittently Intermit-tently If they wobble. To test for this, Jack up one separately, carefully blocking block-ing the other three, run engine as slowly as possible with low gear in, and watch the wheel. If It wobbles as a whole (hub Included) the axle is bent and should be taken out and straightened at once; but If hub revolves re-volves evenly and only the rim wobbles, wob-bles, then the wheel Itself Is distorted and must be re-trued. The cost of such re-truelng or new wheel will soon be repaid by the resulting Increased tire and gasoline mileage. Test for Rear Wheels. Rear wheels which do not wobble are seldom out of line with each other, but If the car has been in collision, or traversed extremely rough roads, It would be well to test for this as follows: fol-lows: Take a fairly stiff and straight board long enough to extend from the rear part of rear wheel to beyond the front of car. Hold one edge, at one end, against a rear wheel tire, touching touch-ing both front and rear part of It and as near the center of wheel as possible, the board pointing forward (having, If necessary, been cut away to clear front wheel) and touching the ground at that end. Get a friend to mark the ground where the edge touches It. Do the same at the other side of the car (being careful to use same edge and end of board). Now measure between the marks thus made, and note. Push car back (or forward) one half turn of rear wheels and repeat on each as before (again using the same edge and end) ; compare the two measurements and note the mean they will vary if wheels have even the slightest wobble. Test for Front Wheels. On the majority of cars the front wheels have "undergather." That is, Ihey are closer together where they touch the ground than at their upper edges, and where that Is the case they should also have "foregather" ; that ls, they should be nearer together (about Inch) at their front' than at their rear edges. Just why this Is done Is outside out-side the scope of these notes, but the foregather must be as nearly correct as possible If tire life ls to be considered. consid-ered. Jack up each in turn and spin to test for wobble. With board held at front wheels as given above for the rear ones, and pointing toward the rear, turn steering wheel slightly to right or left until the distance from board to rear wheels is the same on both sides of the car. The wheels are now set true for going straight ahead. Now use board on front wheels exactly as already described for rear ones, marking on the ground and measuring measur-ing at both front and rear of car. If ten feet Is the length of the board from center of wheel to where it touches the ground, about twenty feet will of course separate the front and rear marks, and the distance, in such case, between the rear marks should be about 1 to 2 Inches greater than at the front end. If correct, adjust by lengthening or shortening the tie rod (that rod connecting the swivel arms of the wheels across the car.) |