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).
Gearbox rattle issues in Bentley V cars and proposed solutions.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 99\4\ scan0243 | |
| Date | 24th November 1940 | |
| Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} c. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} c. Ev{Ivan Evernden - coachwork}/Tln. Gearboxes Bentley V 428 Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}1/ML.24.11.40. BENTLEY V.{VIENNA} GEARBOXES. We have been concerned by rattles in the overdrive on the few Bentley V.{VIENNA} cars which have been turned out on production. It will be remembered that Sleator complained of this fault on his trials cars in France, and changed several gearboxes. The same thing happened on Barnato's car and when we handed this car back to the customer we were not proud of it. Lp{Mr Lappin}'s gearbox after 20,000 miles was not fit to be on a Rolls Royce product. In an endeavour to cure Lp{Mr Lappin}'s car, we fitted anti-rattle scheme No: PD.455, but with no success. We have another anti-rattle Scheme, which was fitted to 11.B.V. and which appeared to be reasonably satisfactory up to the time this car went to America, but it is not a very nice arrangement for production and we have no more bits to confirm that it is a permanent cure. We have been puzzled as to why this epidemic of rattles in gearboxes should occur on production cars whilst it is not in evidence on our Experimental cars, nor was it prominent on 8.B.V., our prototype that ran 50,000 miles. It occurred to us that 8.B.V. and our other Experimental cars had a semi-floating rear axle, whereas, it was decided as a safety measure, to put the first 200 Bentley V.{VIENNA} cars through with fully floating axles. We therefore fitted a semi-floating axle to Lp{Mr Lappin}'s car and found that the gearbox rattle had disappeared. Since there seems to be very little material in the Stores for producing fully floating axles, it may be that we shall be able to change to the semi-floating axle when we start up car production again. Alternatively, we shall be able to go straight to the new type strengthened gearbox design, which eliminates the over-drive, which is the worst offender. - Continued - | ||