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).
Wheel bearing, shaft, and wheel design options for various car models.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 111\4\ scan0005 | |
| Date | 25th October 1937 | |
| -2- have occurred on various cars and the adoption of an upset end to overcome them. There is no doubt that the upset end is a safer policy, and we recommend it for Bentley 50. As regards size of shaft 1.625 under the bearing would seem adequate. Sometime ago R.{Sir Henry Royce} and M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} ran a test for us on an L.D.J.f. 45 double row bearing under journal load only at 1750 lbs for 60 million revolutions (100,000 miles) at 600 r.p.m. (60 m.p.h.). The bearing was in perfect condition at the end of the test. It can be seen in Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}'s Office. Either a light type double row, or medium single row should be trouble free. There remains a decision as to how to locate the bearing on the inside. Oldsmobile use a hydraulically pressed on sleeve, Rover's a thread half way along the shaft, and a long distance piece. As we do not expect ever to change a wheel bearing we favour the Oldsmobile arrangement as being cheaper and better. On the outer side of the bearing we recommend the Rover arrangement of distance piece so that the radius between the shaft and flange is as large as possible. The attached blueprint shows what we think is the minimum overhang with a wire wheel of the Jaguar type, and also marks the centre line of the tyre if the Vauxhall wheel were fitted to the samehub. An even more dished wheel could obviously be used. We are investigating with Dunlops whether we can use a centre locked pressed wheel. The only one now in existence on the Salmson is not entirely satisfactory. It is questionable whether a centre lock is necessary but we think the public might notice the change from wire wheels less if we did not immediately go to a bolt-on- arrangement. We will report on this further at a later date. Attached is also a chart of the significant dimensions we have been able to collect for various semi-floating axles. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls} | ||