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).
The inconsistent and premature failure of cross steering levers during testing.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 2\12\ B002_X168-page108 | |
| Date | 3rd June 1913 guessed | |
| Wor{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager}/My/7/13613. (contd) 2. of forgings. We will examine for this when the pivot now running is taken off. During the tests of the present type pivot I find that the cross steering levers break more frequently than they have done in the past. They used to last about 10 hours but they have been breaking very erratically lately. We are therefore going into this matter which is rather serious. We are having a piece of steel from a good lever and a piece from a bad one tested to see what the difference is. I give below the time that each of the last seven levers have lasted. Previous to these all the levers have lasted over 10 hours. 3 hrs 45 mins. 3 hrs 45 mins. 8 " 25 " 5 " 30 " 1 " 15 " 3 " 30 " 2 " 10 " It looks as if the material must be wrong as the results are so inconsistent. I think we should rig up a complete front axle with both front wheels and cross steering tube and run this on the reversal test rig by coupling up to the top side steering lever. I am afraid this top steering lever would show up badly in a test of this kind owing to the big crank in it and the section not being good for resisting torsion. | ||