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).
Multiple vehicle failures including two telegrams sent and further explanations on the exhaust, valves, and starter motor issues.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 11\3\ 03-page162 | |
| Date | 4th July 1930 | |
| To: Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} From G.W.H. Copy E+By x77)3. Hôtel de France, Châteauroux, Indre. 4/7/30. We have sent you the following telegrams to-day:- (1) IN TROUBLE WITH EXHAUST VALVES STRETCHING ASCERTAIN WHETHER RIGHT MATERIAL HAS BEEN USED STOP FRONT EXHAUST BOX FAILED WRITING. (2) FLANGE OF FRONT EXHAUST BOX E 30920 FAILED STUDS DRAWN OUT FLANGE CRACKED CAR HELD UP SEND NEW PART IMMEDIATELY. The car is held up owing to the failure of the front expansion box flange where attached to the intermediate exhaust pipe. We herewith send you a sketch showing the failure of this flange. The joint between the two pipes had opened out to approx. 1/16", making the exhaust very noisy. Upon dismantling this this morning, we found that two studs had entirely stripped the threads in the aluminium, and almost fell out. The flange has cracked right through, and is opening out outwards. In a very short time the piece would have broken entirely away. The casting must be on the weak side, as we did not have this fault on our previous car. The flange also where the downtake pipe is attached has started to crack through the bolt holes. We are endeavouring to patch the job up temporarily whilst we receive another from Derby. We should recommend that the flanges be made stiffer, and not cored away on the inside, leaving a good thickness of metal. The shuds should be bolts pulling on to a definite flange on the inside. Re exhaust valves. We have, for some reason not as yet discovered, lost all the clearance in No. 3 exhaust valve, and practically all the clearance in No. 4 exhaust valve. We have not had this experience before during a day's run with the S/SLV. valves. We have reset these to see whether the clearance again is taken up. Starter motor. The starter motor has become so bad that it refuses to operate when the engine becomes hot. It would appear that the centres of the starter motor and flywheel ring is too close, as when the engine is cold the starter motor functions quite O.K., but immediately the engine becomes hot it jams. We are easing the starter motor pinion in the bottom of the teeth to try to overcome this fault, as the pinion shows hard marks at the bottom of the teeth. Re cross steering tube We find that on the c/s the clearance for setting the load on the ball end to be minimum .040". This definitely proves that the spring is too high rated at this side, and should not have been fitted at Derby. The poundage could never have been checked, as we got a total load of 24 lbs. with the | ||