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).
Stress test of steering and suspension components, including results of the examination.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 49\4\ Scan005 | |
| Date | 11th March 1913 guessed | |
| -2- torsionally accounts for some of the mysterious cases we have had of the front wheels being out of track after the car has left the works. The pendulum lever on this test has been bent backwards and forwards torsionally for 500 times but there is no sign of it breaking. When we were doing the test I held the steering wheel by hand for several bumps, an " 84" back bump" is as much as one could hold the wheel against. The shock was felt more from an off side bump than a near side. After we had given it 650 alternate bumps and nothing looked like breaking we commenced to pull both logs up together and let them go so as to resemble a car striking a culvert across the road. This made the pivots go much quicker torsionally and nothing like such a shock was felt on the wheel, it was more like a road condition. We abandoned the test when the pivots had bent so much that we could not move the wheels, there was no sign of a fracture starting. Result of an examination of the parts afterwards. Side steering tube had not moved. Cross steering tube had not moved. Steering arm from pivot to side tube had not moved. Front axle (latest type) had twisted .030" on the near side. Steering at the bottom of the off side pivot twisted .060" and bent back .060" | ||