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).
Potential causes of steering lever failures and enclosing relevant drawings.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 153\4\ scan0151 | |
| Date | 27th May 1943 | |
| Chassis To By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/FJH.{Fred J. Hardy - Chief Dev. Engineer} c. to Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 1300 Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork}8/JH.27.5.43. re Steering Lever Failures. As requested I am enclosing herewith the best drawings I can lay my hands on at the moment of the B.III and B.50 Steering layouts. They are :- PD.200. FCD.594. FCD.910. FCD.845. As mentioned to you on the telephone, I do not wish to officially enter into the discussion at this stage, but I respectfully offer for your consideration the following comments :- (1) There are springs in the side steering tube indicated on FCD.594. These springs are not set up but impinge on the steering lever ball. In either direction the spring that follows up still impinges on the ball when the other one is choc-o-bloc. When shunting the loads are sufficient for the spring to become choc-o-bloc. (2) For a heavy load in the side steering tube great enough to cause side steering tube springs to become choc-o-bloc, the combined stress in the pendulum lever is almost exactly twice that in the centre steering lever on the front pan. The latter has given no trouble, and had a clean bill of health when all the cars were examined. On the early Wraith, the pendulum lever was much stouter during the experimental stages and was thinned down for a reason which at the moment we cannot state with absolute certainty. We believe it was thinned in order to create the required degree of flexibility when cornering and the side steering tube spring had become choc-o-bloc. We seem to recollect that the rate of the side steering tube springs to avoid joggles on all normal straight ahead steering had to be so low that on severe cornering the choc-o-bloc condition is reached and the required elasticity to prevent joggles on cornering was given by the pendulum lever elasticity. Cont'd.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} | ||