From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Redesign of the steering system to cure 'steering joggles' on the 20 HP model.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 5\3\ 03-page240 | |
| Date | 1st December 1926 | |
| To DA{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}, from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} FRICTION IN THE STEERING OF 20 HP. We are hoping to cure a large number of complaints of steering joggles on the 20 HP. by friction in the steering. Until recently, we considered that we should be forced to do this by putting friction in the pivots. There is no doubt that friction in the pivots is very unsatisfactory because it makes the steering heavier at low speeds and does not really cure joggles at high speeds. However, recently R.{Sir Henry Royce} has agreed to friction in the cross steering tube. We believe by this means complaints can be cured retrospectively very cheaply. The only scheme we have to work on is N.sch.2201. When this design was brought out there was no thought of providing appreciable friction in the cross steering tube. We find that with the 250 lbs. ball load specified on the scheme we only get 8 ozs. friction load at the periphery of the steering wheel. We estimate that the most satisfactory load would be 2 or 3 lbs. Under the circumstances we wonder whether you could re-design this item, giving us larger balls and stronger springs. We should also like to point out that on the Phantom we are at present only able to obtain some 40% of the friction we require on the cross steering tube without over-loading the balls. We wonder whether, now that R.{Sir Henry Royce} has agreed that we may load up the cross steering tube, you could modify the design and make it more suitable for our requirements. Handwritten notes: X5225 X5425 X3425 15430 | ||