Be Your Own Auto Repair Technician

175 Pages·2007·1.01 MB·English

by  Joseph Miller

First Edition, 2007

ISBN 978 81 904575 1 4

© All rights reserved.

Published by:

Global Media
1819, Bhagirath Palace,
Chandni Chowk, Delhi-110 006
Email: [email protected]
Table of Contents

1. Auto Mechanic
2. Automobile
3. Art Car
4. Art Bike
5. Car Modding
6. Cut Down
7. Engine Tuning
8. Transmission
9. Suspension of a Vehicle
10. Different Types of Suspension
11. Dashpot
12. RLC Circuit
13. Shock Absorber
14. Multi-Link Suspension
15. Car Handling
16. Steering
17. Mechanical Engineering
18. Vehicle Dynamics
19. Some Important Guidelines for your Vehicle
Auto mechanic

A mechanic working on the rear end of a car.
An auto mechanic is a mechanic who specializes in automobile maintenance, repair, and
sometimes modification and design. Education is usually post-secondary or secondary
vocational education, although apprenticeship under a master mechanic is also an
accepted method of learning the trade. A good mechanic must be proficient in
mathematics, physics, electronics and computer science as well as logical processes used
for diagnosing problems. Most reputable mechanics are ASE certified, which is a
standardized method of testing skill level. The technology used in automobiles changes
very rapidly and the mechanic must be prepared to learn these new technologies and
systems. The auto mechanic has a physically demanding job, often exposed to
temperature extremes and well as lifting heavy objects and staying in uncomfortable
positions for extended periods as well as exposure to gasoline, solvents and other toxic
chemicals. Related jobs include motorcycle repair and small engine repair.
Auto 'mechanics' are today professionally referred to as 'technicians', due to the level of
technological competency now required to diagnose and perform needed repairs. Fading
quickly is the day of the 'shadetree mechanic', who needed little knowledge of today's
computerized systems. Today's technician must have knowledge of these systems, as well
as more basic mechanical principles.
Due to the increasingly labyrinthine nature of the technology that is now incorporated
into automobiles, most automobile dealerships now provide sophisticated diagnostic
computers to each technician, without which they would be unable to diagnose or repair a
multitude of common failures.
Mechanic

Mechanic at steam pump in electric power house
A mechanic is a person who uses tools to repair things (generally machinery) or works to
keep things operating properly.
Many mechanics are specialised in a particular field such as auto mechanics, boiler
mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics (millwrights), air conditioning and
refrigeration mechanics and aircraft mechanics.
Mechanics possess many skills in technical, electrical/electronic and other vocational
areas. Being a good repair technician is more than just "fixing things". A good sound
repair requires troubleshooting skills which at times requires the tech to teach themselves
how a particuar system operates; often in a timely manner.
Automobile

Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) - entered into the first automobile race
An automobile is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. Most
definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to
have seating for one to six people, typically have four wheels and be constructed
principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term is far from
precise.
As of 2002 there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car for every
eleven people), of which 140 million in the U.S. (roughly one car for every two people). .
History
An automobile powered by the Otto gasoline engine was invented in Germany by Karl
Benz in 1885. Benz was granted a patent dated 29 January 1886 in Mannheim for that
automobile. Even though Benz is credited with the invention of the modern automobile,
several other German engineers worked on building automobiles at the same time. In
1886, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart patented the first motor bike,
built and tested in 1885, and in 1886 they built a converted horse-drawn stagecoach. In
1870, German-Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus assembled a motorized handcart,
though Marcus' vehicle did not go beyond the experimental stage.

Automobile history eras
1960s1970s
1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1980s
1990s
2000s
Brass or
Veteran Vintage Pre-War
Edwardian Post-War
Modern
Antique
Classic
Internal combustion engine powered vehicles

Animation of a 4-stroke overhead-cam internal combustion engine
In 1806 François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss, designed the first internal combustion engine
(sometimes abbreviated "ICE" today). He subsequently used it to develop the world's first
vehicle to run on such an engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate
energy. The design was not very successful, as was the case with the British inventor,
Samuel Brown, and the American inventor, Samuel Morey, who produced vehicles
powered by clumsy internal combustion engines about 1826.
Etienne Lenoir produced the first successful stationary internal combustion engine in
1860, and within a few years, about four hundred were in operation in Paris. About 1863,
Lenoir installed his engine in a vehicle. It seems to have been powered by city lighting-
gas in bottles, and was said by Lenoir to have "travelled more slowly than a man could
walk, with breakdowns being frequent." Lenoir, in his patent of 1860, included the
provision of a carburettor, so liquid fuel could be substituted for gas, particularly for
mobile purposes in vehicles. Lenoir is said to have tested liquid fuel, such as alcohol, in
his stationary engines; but it does not appear that he used them in his own vehicle. If he
did, he most certainly did not use gasoline, as this was not well-known and was
considered a waste product.
The next innovation occurred in the late 1860s, with Siegfried Marcus, a German
working in Vienna, Austria. He developed the idea of using gasoline as a fuel in a two-
stroke internal combustion engine. In 1870, using a simple handcart, he built a crude
vehicle with no seats, steering, or brakes, but it was remarkable for one reason: it was the
world's first vehicle using an internal combustion engine fueled by gasoline. It was tested
in Vienna in September of 1870 and put aside. In 1888 or 1889, he built a second
automobile, this one with seats, brakes, and steering, and included a four-stroke engine of
his own design. That design may have been tested in 1890. Although he held patents for
many inventions, he never applied for patents for either design in this category.
The four-stroke engine already had been documented and a patent was applied for in
1862 by the Frenchman Beau de Rochas in a long-winded and rambling pamphlet. He
printed about three hundred copies of his pamphlet and they were distributed in Paris, but
nothing came of this, with the patent application expiring soon afterward and the
pamphlet disappearing into obscurity.
Most historians agree that Nikolaus Otto of Germany built the world's first four-stroke
engine although his patent was voided. He knew nothing of Beau de Rochas's patent or
idea, and invented the concept independently. In fact, he began thinking about the
concept in 1861, but abandoned it until the mid-1870s.
In 1883, Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville and Leon Malandin of France installed an
internal combustion engine powered by a tank of city gas on a tricycle. As they tested the
vehicle, the tank hose came loose, resulting in an explosion. In 1884, Delamare-
Deboutteville and Malandin built and patented a second vehicle. This one consisted of
two four-stroke, liquid-fueled engines mounted on an old four-wheeled horse cart. The
patent, and presumably the vehicle, contained many innovations, some of which would
not be used for decades. However, during the vehicle's first test, the frame broke apart,
the vehicle literally "shaking itself to pieces," in Malandin's own words. No more
vehicles were built by the two men. Their venture went completely unnoticed and their
patent unexploited. Knowledge of the vehicles and their experiments was obscured until
years later.
Production of automobiles begins

Karl Benz

Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1886
Internal combustion engine automobiles were first produced in Germany by Karl Benz in
1885-1886, and Gottlieb Daimler between 1886-1889.
Karl Benz began to work on new engine patents in 1878. At first he concentrated on
creating a reliable two-stroke gas engine, based on Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-
stroke engine. A patent on the design by Otto had been declared void. Benz finished his
engine on New Year's Eve and was granted a patent for it in 1879. Benz built his first
three-wheeled automobile in 1885 and it was granted a patent in Mannheim, dated
January of 1886. This was the first automobile designed and built as such, rather than a
converted carriage, boat, or cart. Among other items Benz invented are the speed
regulation system known also as an accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the
spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator. He built improved versions
in 1886 and 1887 and went into production in 1888: the world's first automobile
production. His wife, Bertha, made significant suggestions for innovation that he
included in that model. Approximately twenty-five were built before 1893, when his first
four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own
design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now
added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the
early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in
Germany.
In 1886 Gottlieb Daimler fitted a horse carriage with his four-stroke engine. In 1889, he
built two vehicles from scratch as automobiles, with several innovations. From 1890 to
1895 about thirty vehicles were built by Daimler and his assistant, Wilhelm Maybach,
either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling
out with their backers. Benz and Daimler, seem to have been unaware of each other's
early work and worked independently. Daimler died in 1900. During the First World
War, Benz suggested a co-operative effort between the two companies, but it was not
until 1926 that the they united under the name of Daimler-Benz with a commitment to
remain together under that name until the year 2000.
In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with
Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. They were
inspired by Daimler's Stahlradwagen of 1889, which was exhibited in Paris in 1889.
The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was
designed in 1877 by George Baldwin Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a
patent on an automobile in 1879. Selden did not build an automobile until 1905, when he
was forced to do so, due to a lawsuit threatening the legality of his patent because the
subject had never been built. After building the 1877 design in 1905, Selden received his
patent and later sued the Ford Motor Company for infringing upon his patent. Henry Ford
was notorious for opposing the American patent system and Selden's case against Ford
went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Ford, and anyone else, was free
to build automobiles without paying royalties to Selden, since automobile technology had
improved so significantly since the design of Selden's patent, that no one was building
according to his early designs.