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).
The condition of an S.S. car, detailing faults with the shock-damper, brakes, engine valve, and starter motor.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 11\2\ 02-page043 | |
| Date | 31th December 1928 | |
| [Handwritten top right: UU] To: Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} Derby Hôtel de France, Châteauroux, Indre. December 31st. 1928 We have received the front springs and shock-dampers for the S.S. car, and to-day we received your telegram: "DESPATCHED TO PARIS DEPOT CASE 159 CONTAINING TWO COVERS TUBES ONE SPARE WHEEL 31 x 6 INSTRUCTED DUNLOPS SEND 8 TYRES PARIS DEPOT HIVES" We are sorry that these have been despatched to Paris, as we wanted them direct here. There may be delay owing to the Paris Depot removing to their new quarters, but we hope to receive them before they finally leave the old place. Re the S.S. car, the near side front shock-damper broke during yesterday morning's run, and during the afternoon we ran the car without any dampers. It was almost impossible to hold it on the road, there was vile shocks from the steering wheel, burst into wobbles, and the steering was anything but selective. As a matter of fact, it was unsafe to drive the car above 70 M.P.H. [Handwritten left margin: noted by/ss{S. Smith}] We have not had good braking on the car since dismantling the gear box unit to attend to the clutch. It would seem that the efficiency of the Servo has been decreased for some apparent reason. During our examination it is evident that the rear brakes are doing very little work, due to the ineffectiveness of the brakes. The brake drum shields are allowing water to enter the drums, and when these were examined, the shoes were saturated with water and sludge, consequently a loss of braking power is taking place. We found, when the front brakes were dismantled, that these showed, from the evidence of the black dust and general condition that the front brakes are doing most of the work. We think that it will be very important to get the shields for the rear brakes made more effective. The engine is still giving good power. We are having no trouble with tappets, these should be set at .006" for inlet and exhaust. We have had valve No 12 giving us the period noise, this we believe is due to the valve spring being weak, but we have had no time to check it. [Handwritten left margin: EFC.] The starting motor brought out by allen failed altogether during yesterday's run, due to the contact points which bring in the main circuit fitted inside the motor fusing together. The result of this was that the starter motor would not engage, but reved up at a high speed with the teeth of the pinion rubbing against the teeth of the flywheel. This has caused damage to the teeth on the flywheel, and last night we had to file all the burred edges off the teeth, the contact | ||