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).
Experiments to eliminate gear lever rattle on the Bentley.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 85\2\ scan0142 | |
| Date | 29th January 1935 | |
| X212 To Su. from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn.{Mr Robinson} c. to WOP. c. to R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to Dy.{F R Danby} c. to Hiv. c. to Bn.{W.O. Bentley / Mr Barrington} c. to HX. Gear Lever Rattle on the Bentley. We have for some time past been experimenting to get rid of the gear lever rattle on the Bentley. This noise is of course prevalent on the 20/25, but is probably more irritating on the Bentley because the engine is more often run up to high speeds. The lines worked on were to anchor the gear lever on the frame and couple it to the shaft operating the gears by means of a flexible coupling. It was necessary that the coupling should be sufficiently flexible to allow the engine to move freely on the rubber engine mounting. The original experimental scheme built up to demonstrate the possibility of this result being practical was composed of a fabric coupling. This showed that the gears could be operated and at the same time the gear lever completely isolated from the engine vibrations. However, the life of the fabric coupling was very short, and Idy. made a greatly improved scheme, using two metal joints instead of a rubber one. This is entirely successful in eliminating engine vibrations from the gear lever, does not seem to restrict the engine movement, and the wear on it after 5,000 gear changes appears to be negligible. We are pushing half a dozen sets of this through as quickly as possible with a view to fitting to Lp{Mr Lappin}'s, Bn{W.O. Bentley / Mr Barrington}'s and the various cars in the Experimental and following up with a standardisation sheet. We want to get this improvement on production as soon as possible, as gear lever rattles are one of the most irritating complaints on the Bentley and 20/25. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn.{Mr Robinson} | ||