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).
Analysis of starting motor arrangements, comparing a direct Bendix drive to the existing gearbox-driven system.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 50\2\ Scan101 | |
| Date | 1st February 1922 guessed | |
| contd:- -2- thick oil but it will be remembered that this trouble has been overcome by slight alterations to the clutch parts, which as originally arranged, caused great fluid resistance to the movement of the clutch. Assuming therefore that this is not the fault, one would proceed to investigate the trouble by examining the voltage of the battery. (8) A Bendix pinion is only suitable for a single reduction drive which would not be suitable for so large an engine as ours because we should require a very large and heavy battery to turn our engine with a direct drive which would only have about 10 to 1 speed reduction, so that if we could gear direct to the flywheel we should want a double reduction, and some other scheme of sliding pinion. (9) I am certain that a direct Bendix drive with an engine in the same condition as regards temperature and lubrication etc. will be found to require more current from the battery than the arrangement you have at present of driving the engine at a much slower speed through the gearbox. (10) When we designed our present arrangement about 9 years ago we could not find a suitable location for the motor, and a scheme of gear suitable for flywheel drive; also we had the impression that these schemes were very noisy hence the creation of our present arrangement. (11) From experiments made at Derby it is found that if the engine is left out in the cold and refilled with cold water it is almost impossible (with a battery of the size we fit) to turn the engine at anything but a slow speed and naturally to get efficiency out of the motor it would require the large ratio of gear that we contd. | ||