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).
Testing and troubleshooting of 'booms and vibrations' on Phantom II cars, including modifications to engine mountings.
| Identifier | Morton\M19\ img119 | |
| Date | 23th February 1931 | |
| ORIGINAL 586X 34EX J5TEX To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wo. c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to Ey. PN.{Mr Northey} c. to EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} Mx.{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}2/MJ.23.2.31. y634. x2924. PHANTOM II BOOMS & VIBRATIONS. EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} Mx.{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} Rn.{Mr Robinson} and Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} met Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} PN.{Mr Northey} and E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} at St.{Capt. P. R. Strong} Albans on Friday the 20th.inst., for the purpose of trying several cars and to discuss deliveries of left-hand cars to U.S.A., also the method of dealing with customers' complaints of booms on Phantom II. When we last met at St.{Capt. P. R. Strong} Albans we tried the car which Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} is using - 38-GN - and it was agreed that this car was a typical bad example for vibrations and booms on Phantom II. This car was sent to Derby immediately with the object of carrying out tests to overcome this trouble. We had intended to fit the Diamond engine mounting to this car, but before doing this we used the car to carry out one or two schemes suggested by R.{Sir Henry Royce} On this particular car we made a wonderful improvement by taking out the rear engine feet, this meant that the engine was supported by two sandwich feet at the front and the usual trunnion at the back of the gearbox. We made several tests with the rear engine feet on and off which confirmed the remarkable improvement we got with front feet only. The result with the front engine feet only was that although the booms had not entirely disappeared as we obtained with the Diamond mounting on 24-EX, they were reduced to such an extent that we should anticipate very few complaints. We have tried this same scheme in an attempt to cure two other cars which suffered from bad booms and the result was on those two cars removing the rear engine feet made no difference. One of the cars mentioned above belonged to a Mr. Davies who returned his car to us with complaints of booms and vibrations. We carried out one test by selecting the best new chassis we could find and mounted the body off Mr. Davies's car on to this chassis. The results was that with the chassis and Mr. Davies's body the booms were just as bad. The original Davies chassis with one of our test covered bodies was quite good. The type of body fitted to Mr. Davies's car is one which we should normally condemn that is, it has an all-metal roof, but Thrupp and Maberley say that they have fitted some special arrangement to damp out any vibrations. PN.{Mr Northey} reported trying another Phantom II chassis with an identical body which was a very good example of a | ||