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).
Tests conducted to understand and cure steering wobbles caused by front axle tilt and wheel imbalance.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 28\4\ Scan080 | |
| Date | 27th September 1913 guessed | |
| From Exp. Dept. Copies for: H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} Ma. Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} Wor{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager}/Hyl/C27013. Report on Steering Wobbles. X. 457. I have made a test on a car with the front axle tilted 2" in 8" so as to get very extreme effect of the wobble created by axle tilt. The car was quite unusable the wobble being so violent and always appeared at about 10 miles an hour, and continued until the car was brought to a standstill, or until speed was increased to about 20 miles an hour. At this speed the gyroscopic action of the road wheels apparently overcame the tendency to wobble. I also altered the tilt of the axle to an almost upright position, approximately, 1/4" in 8". With this position I could not get this slow speed wobble. With reference to the second wobble which occurs at a much higher speed this is caused by the front wheels being out of balance. This was still in evidence even with the upright axle. With the very much tilted axle and out of balance wheel, it made the wobble very much worse. It seems to me the right thing to do to cure the steering wobbles is, firstly, to make the axle with very little tilt say- one in 64 which is easy to measure being 1/8" in 8". Secondly, to balance the road wheels as this is necessary to cure the periodic wobble, which is in evidence between about 28 to 34 miles per hour. | ||