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).
Report page discussing the causes of steering wobble and experiments to resolve the issue.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 20\2\ Scan099 | |
| Date | 9th September 1920 | |
| Contd. -2- very good car, one can produce a low speed steering wobble even though it has a plain thrust washer on one pivot to provide friction. If one drives the car in a normal manner the steering is quite good. We mention this because there is a car which we consider is an excellent example, yet, any one who knows the trick of bringing on steering wobbles can show up on that car a very serious fault. The points we have found which tend to bring on steering wobbles are as follows: 1. Excess backward lean on the pivots. 2. Heavy front wheels. 3. Weak springs in side steering rod or slack in steering. 4. Friction in the steering column or gripping the wheel tight 5. Hard tyres, although we have found with only 30 lbs. pressure it is possible to obtain steering wobbles although not so bad. We have a number of times thought we had overcome steering wobbles because on some particular car we have carried out modifications and found that afterwards on other cars we have found that they would not cure that particular car unless other modifications were carried out as well. We have found that it is always possible to cure steering wobbles by making the pivots vertical or leaning forward but in doing that we get into other troubles which are as bad, if not worse than wobbles. We get an unstable steering and a steering which will run away when going round a corner. We have lately carried out some tests on the road with a standard car. We have disconnected the cross steering rod altogether Contd. | ||