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).
Air lock issue in the reserve fuel tank of the 11-EX car and the correct starting procedure.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 68\2\ scan0064 | |
| Date | 1st August 1926 | |
| To PN.{Mr Northey} from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to CWB. c. to BJ. c. to Bk.{A. Birkett - Commercial Manager} X8510 (handwritten) Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}8/LG25. 8. 26. 11-EX CAR. X8510 X8460(crossed out) X8900 (handwritten) BJ. has sent us a copy of PN{Mr Northey}1/HN{F. C. Honeyman - Retail orders}12. 8.26. We are very interested in your remarks on reserve tank which refused to operate because of an air lock. If 11-EX is still available, we should be very grateful if you could have the test repeated to see whether it occurs again. We have tried some of our own cars and cannot reproduce the trouble. It is very difficult for us to understand why, if it was possible for Boot to suck the air lock out, the suction from the engine did not have the same effect. The suction from the engine is much more powerful than anything Boot could have done. We can understand an air lock occurring between the Autovac tank and the carburetter, but we cannot imagine such a thing occurring between the petrol tank and the autovac. It should be remembered of course that with our scheme of reserve, if the car runs out of petrol, it will not start up by simply turning the tap on to the reserve tank. After the tap has been put on to the reserve, it is necessary to shut the throttle and turn the engine with the starter motor until sufficient petrol has got into the autovac tank before the engine can be expected to start. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||