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).
Misfiring issue caused by oxidized distributor plug points, comparing the standard part with a Delco distributor.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 97\5\ scan0118 | |
| Date | 14th March 1939 | |
| Hoo6. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/IMW.{Ivan M. Waller - Head of Chateauroux} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}4/R.14.3.39. We should like you to give us any information you can on the Rolls-Royce distributor. We have discovered in Derby that a condition arises where the plug points are oxidized the Rolls-Royce misses firing badly on the 'pick-up', whereas with the Delco distributor, this does not occur. When we were going out to Val D'Isere we experienced mis-firing on the pick-up, and you will recollect when the plug points were examined, the gaps were not excessively wide. It, therefore, seems to me that this was actually the trouble which has since been discovered in England. The trouble is so critical that when it occurs, even if a feeler is passed between the plug points it will help matters considerably. If you have experienced the trouble, are you in a position to change back and prove that the Delco distributor cures it, or are you short of the necessary parts? In the meantime, we should like a report on the mis-firing which has been experienced, and modifications which were made to rectify this. Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||