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).
Letter from a customer reporting an intermittent but loud noise from their car's back axle.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 89\1\ scan0137 | |
| Date | 8th February 1935 | |
| TELEGRAMS: SUMMERS, CHESTER. [Handwritten top right]: x7961a TELEPHONE 200 CONNAH'S QUAY. (10 LINES) [Handwritten top]: HH/Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Excellent work. JOHN SUMMERS & SONS, LIMITED. [Handwritten]: Our HH/35 Hawarden Bridge Steel Works, Shotton, Chester. MANUFACTURERS OF GALVANIZED, CORRUGATED AND PLAIN STEEL SHEETS, &C. LONDON OFFICE: 34 LIME STREET, E.C. GLOBE IRON WORKS, STALYBRIDGE. LIVERPOOL OFFICE: 14 CHAPEL STREET. MANCHESTER OFFICE: 33 BRAZENNOSE STREET. ALL QUOTATIONS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED ARE SUBJECT TO REPLY BY RETURN OF POST. REFERENCE G.S./M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} [Handwritten]: 8th. February, 1935. [Handwritten left]: Mr. Hd.{Mr Hayward/Mr Huddy} Repair [Handwritten right]: Will you ring him up on Monday. Car available any day next week. W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham, Esq., Messrs. Rolls Royce, Limited, Nightingale Road, D E R B Y. Dear Bill, I tried to get you on the telephone to-day to tell you of a rather alarming experience I had yesterday with my car. Coming down to the works in the morning, after I had run about 4 miles with nothing apparently amiss, the back axle suddenly developed a noise just like an old London taxi-cab with straight-bevel gears. It commenced when I was travelling at about 25 miles an hour in the town of Shotton, and persisted for about half a mile. It started when the car was going down hill, and was only noticeable when the engine was driving, the over-run being quite quiet. The noise was very loud, in fact for a few seconds I thought that the back axle was going to collapse in a heap. I went along slowly for about half a mile, and it gradually died away, and by the time I got to the works the axle was quite quiet again. I at once jacked up the back wheels and got underneath to feel if there was any undue play in the propellor shaft; there was not, everything ran quite smoothly, and the differential behaved exactly as differentials should. I then ran the engine, put the car into gear, and ran the road wheels round at all speeds, and accelerated and retarded; there was not a sound to be heard. I then ran the | ||