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).
Phantom II starter motor failure caused by oily sand, exacerbated by an incorrect repair attempt by a French mechanic.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 168a\2\ img025 | |
| Date | 25th February 1931 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/G.H. c. to Mor. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} c. to Hy.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} RFC. X6080 Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/GWH.{George W. Hancock - Head Chateauroux}4/KT.25.2.31. Y6079 X6080 RE. PHANTOM II STARTER MOTOR. The complication of the Starter Motor system has been recently demonstrated by the results after a French mechanic had endeavoured to cure a failure of a starter motor on chassis 70-XJ. belonging to Mr. Bainbridge. The results were, the teeth torn off the flywheel ring, main switch dismantled and erected wrongly, leaving the Customer with this state of affairs on his return from Monte Carlo. The actual cause of the failure was oily sand between the contacts of the trigger switch in the motor. There was also a quantity of sand found inside the cover. There are instructions in the Instruction Book, but invariably the Instruction Book is never carried with the car. We would propose that a diagram of the starter circuit be fixed on the cover of the main switch. This would give information to anyone irrespective of languages and would probably get a customer out of trouble until he could obtain the aid of R.R. We attach a copy of the report of this starter motor. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/G.W.Hancock. | ||