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).
Engine design questions and the discovery of the cause of knocks in shock absorbers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 11\3\ 03-page290 | |
| Date | 14th November 1930 guessed | |
| -4- (2) Do they consider that the monoblock cylinder and top half crankcase casting does give them additional smoothness?. (3) Do they make special efforts to stiffen the rear face of their crankcase with the axle?. (4) Do they make special efforts to overcome overhang on the flywheel?. We are of course testing the balance crankshafts once again to see if they move any of our standard periods. SHOCK ABSORBERS. We have discovered the cause of one of our elusive shock absorber knocks i.e. the knocks which can only be heard in certain cars under certain conditions and it is present when there are no signs of wear. We find it is the little ball over the air vent, and if we reduce the travel of this ball to .004 the knock disappears and the shock absorbers still function satisfactorily. This, we think, is very astonishing but nevertheless a fact. The other feature is that now that we get a specification of each shock absorber which has given trouble we find that there are very many more choked air vents than we have previously imagined. We are fitting filters over these air vents on the next 10,000 miles test and recommend that they so the same in America. Cy. wrote me a note more or less saying that R.R. shock absorbers were hopeless, but a general analysis of trouble show that they are wearing very well indeed, taking into consideration that the quantity which went out initially before we knew what troubles were likely to occur in | ||