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).
From Levallois discussing faults with shock absorbers, a Bentley dynamo, and petrol pumps.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 130\2\ scan0035 | |
| Date | 9th July 1936 | |
| Copies sent to By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Wst. & all testers. To Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} XIII3 Levallois - July 9th, 1936. I have received your memo. of 6.7.36. I will arrange for some of the men to return to Derby. With regard to Professor Dodds' car, I will follow that up when I return to London: I don't understand the plugs packing up, there must be hundreds of owners uwing Ethyl. Shock Absorbers. I have had 22-G-V brought up to Paris to investigate the dampers for knocks. The cause is due to worn bearings of the lever shaft. In my memo. re the stoning of pads at Cricklewood, I've seen some here past stoning or anything else. They must have slipped up in the hardening of these. I am sending them along to By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} The pads in our own dampers are in a poor state. The surface has cracked up and worn. We have had three of them changed. Another serious feature which may be the cause of so many dampers knocking in service is the dia. of the small end of the lever shaft. We have found with our own damper shafts that one shaft was .004" undersize at the small or inner end. If Works are sending out dampers with this discrepancy, no wonder we are getting serious complaints of knocks and bushes being changed. This end should be one inch dia. At check up on production would prove the case. Bentley Dynamo - ventilated type. A failure has occurred here on a dynamo which means the rewinding of the armature. The cause is the ventilated end bearing plate, the inner face having been left as cast. There has not been sufficient clearance for the end windings of the armature, consequently fouling has taken place, wires bared and shorted. This is my opinion of a poorly finished job and should receive immediate attention. A complete failure of the dynamo has taken place. Petrol Pumps. There are several reasons for noisy petrol pumps, but in my opinion a lot of work, complaints etc., would be done away with were the pumps situated either at the front of the engine or at the back, where noise would not be noticed. We ask for trouble in the present position on all the cars. However, to deal with those already fitted - (1) Diaphragms not central cause a knock. (2) Setting of the diaphragm less than five turns back from choc amplifies knocks. | ||