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).
Common vehicle failures and recommended preparations for long-distance driving or racing.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90a\4\ Scan043 | |
| Date | 16th March 1936 | |
| Sr3/ET.16.3.36 - 3 - excepting the heavy lifting jack has to be carried on board, and that most cars start off complete with all sorts of spares, petrol pumps, complete Delco heads, etc.. Few of them remember to carry spare floats and several competitors have been known to fall out owing to a punctured float, not having any spares on board. Platinum points often give trouble after about 14 to 15 hours running. Dynamos give trouble during the night time and invariably the fellows on board have insufficient means of lighting up their job so as to get down and carry out a repair on the track. You will probably remember how we illicitly assisted Sommer with our head lights. Headlamps fail for various reasons. When this is due to a bulb, the remedy is easy, providing one has spares, but when a short circuit has taken place due, 9 times out of 10, to complications in wiring, fellows have to give in, it being impossible for them to solve the short circuit riddle. Let your headlamps and taillamps be wired as directly as possible from the battery, and in such a manner as a fellow who has been driving for 8 hours can, if he has got to, get down to it on the track and follow as near as possible the wires with his fingers and not get to a junction where he no longer is able to follow the possible cause of short circuit. The drivers should start right now by training themselves to know every nut and bolt in the chassis, and also, of course, get into their heads the lay-out of the electrical installation. Petrol tanks often give trouble, mainly because sharp flints get wedged in between the chassis cross-member and the petrol tank, and gradually puncture the latter. A coco-fiber mat with wooden laths to hold it on, as one used to see on Delaunay-Belleville cars in 1910, is the best form of protection, but watch the points where sharp flints can get in and wedge themselves between chassis and tank. Water leaks from radiators also give trouble, due to all sorts of reasons, and some patent ingredient to stop leaks is worth carrying. You should also make sure of carrying some special wax to stop up petrol leaks. I will find you the name. Do not forget that you can, if necessary, empty the oil out of your sump if you have a rapid means of doing so. Therefore a complete change of oil is possible. Battery boxes have been known to work themselves loose and even come adrift. I have not a lot of faith in our method of fixing the battery into its crate, as the two bolts underneath have often been known to come adrift even on our standard cars. | ||