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).
Faults and investigations into a Goshawk-ll model's gearbox, clutch, brakes, silencer, and steering.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 46\2\ Scan118 | |
| Date | 4th April 1922 guessed | |
| contd: -2- slacker in these gears than the others, but it is certainly a fact that with 6-Goshawk-ll the fault is so bad that something will have to be done as it certainly would be unsatisfactory in customers hands. As, however, we can easy reproduce this on our present early Goshawk-ll i.e. 2-Goshawk-ll, we can carry out our investigation work with this car; apart from this, I feel that experimental work in this direction will be very slow as we have considerable difficulty in getting things made up such as - an experimental stronger propeller shaft or a temporary slipper flywheel on the rear end of the gear box. I want to make it clear of course that the above points are only assumptions as we have not yet been able to definitely confirm these but the symptoms on our test experience of these troubles certainly confirms the fact that one can investigate on these lines. Could you try this on 4-Goshawk-ll as in your early reports you certainly found that there was a vibration between 25 and 30 M.P.H. Hy.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} also makes this statement on 6-Goshawk-ll in his last report (No.3.) The gears of this car are very good for quietness. The side shaft having the usual dry noise when running light but does not give one any distinct signs that the gears are more slack than other gear boxes. This point we are also investigating. Having experienced the above, we immediately tried the same test on 2-Goshawk-ll and they were not so pronounced, a similar period of rattles takes place in the gear box under the same condition of running. I submit, that this fault is only in an embryo stage and if in doubt, we shall be able to supply you with more information which may be brought to light by our ordinary routine of experimenting and investigating of the job as it stands. The clutch on this car seems very good but we will fix the 120 lbs. springs as instructed. [Handwritten in left margin: fix new more cross shafts] The brakes on this car were also very good also they still appear on the springy side even although extra deep flange drums were used. On this car as on 6-Goshawk-ll, we were able to seize up the brakes by rather excessive use on the road even although the rivet heads well below the surface of the Ferodo and we feel that this is a feature that will give trouble if the car is used for descending long Alpine hills with the brakes continually in use. [Handwritten in left margin: booming] The silencer on this car was very noisy but on dismantling it was found that the silencer was not made to the latest drawings. There also appears to be an excessive amount of vibration which is initially due to the pulsation of the engine - this vibration also appears to set up a "booming" from the under-shield and although it did not cure the vibration, a certain amount of booming was eliminated by running without the undershield. [Handwritten below previous paragraph: has the same tendency] The steering on this car is also noisy - i.e., joggling and we were hoping to fix on the friction in the steering column as instructed by you but which we are having difficulty in getting contd:- | ||