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).
Test report detailing failures of a modified 20 HP steering support, stays, and aluminium steering boxes.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\J\December1922\ Scan76 | |
| Date | 12th December 1922 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to CJ. c. to K.{Mr Kilner} c. to Ds. c. to BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} ORIGINAL Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}7/LGS.12.22. 20 HP. STEERING SUPPORT. X4264 Tests on the bumping rig have proved that the modified steering support for the 20 HP. is much more likely to fail than the present one we are using. We have had three of the stays break after - 11 1/4 hrs., 8 3/4 hrs., and 5 3/4 hrs., which connect the support to the frame. They have all broken similarly to the sample sent to WJW. After we had had three fail, we fitted another stay which was a similar design except that it was free to rotate at each end. There was no biting-in bolt. This stay has stood up for 43 hours without failure and is still satisfactory. It appears wrong to us to try and fix this stay on the two ends. If it is decided the stay should be run so that the joints at each end are free to move, the design needs modifying. We have had one of the steering support tubes off the crankcase fail. We were using a bronze casting. The casting failed where it was brazed in the tube. We believe the failure was due to faulty brazing. The second one we have fitted has run 47 hours and is still satisfactory. We have had three of the aluminium steering boxes fail on production cars. They have cracked in exactly the same way as the one on S-Goshawk-II on the 10,000 miles test. These were new production cars and had only been run for the ordinary routine tests. contd:- | ||