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).
Letter from a customer detailing clutch slipping issues and the experiments conducted to resolve them, along with a note on axle noise.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 82\2\ scan0114 | |
| Date | 26th July 1934 guessed | |
| COPY Mileage 6290. GGA-62. 42, Fairfax Place, N.W.6. Dear Sirs, Some time ago I complained to HB.{C. E. Harcombe} about the clutch of the above car slipping badly, and he gave the advice to race the engine and start off in top gear. This stopped the slipping for anything up to 60 miles but cause the clutch to jagger which made it difficult for me to cover up and keep from Mr. Goldberg; I knowledge as he is super-critical. But I succeeded, and started experimenting to find and cure the trouble. I first suspected excessive lubrication and disconnected the centralised lubrication from the clutch withdrawal mechanism. This had no effect at all so I refitted it. Then I noticed that the flywheel was always covered with moisture, so I concluded there was a lack of ventilation and I left the cover plate off the clutch pit. I then went on tour and covered one thousand and twenty miles in five days at an average speed of 42 m.p.h. without any signs of trouble going through Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Wolverhampton and Birmingham, so there was plenty of clutch work. Incidentally I saw FBS.{F. Bell-Scott} in Birmingham and told him of the success of the experiment. On my return to London I refitted the cover, but with washers 3/32" thick under the plate. This apparently did not give sufficient ventilation as the clutch started to slip again in less than one hundred miles, so I have fitted a fine mesh gauze cover to keep out the dirt and have since covered 900 miles without any further trouble. The axle noise is no better so according to present arrangements I will be taking the car to W. to have this rectified and the engine decarbonised on Aug. 31st. Is it necessary for me to inform W. of this arrangement ? Yours faithfully, S.R. Stanbridge. | ||