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).
Use of half-floating axle shafts for cost reduction and comparison with other manufacturers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 114\1\ scan0038 | |
| Date | 24th September 1936 | |
| -2- hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls}13/KW.24.9.36. Secondly, there should be a reduction of about £1 per car if we used half floating axle shafts integral with the bevel wheel, and about 10/- per car if the shafts were splined at the inner end. We recommend trying the half floating arrangement as a means of overcoming, by eliminating them, the slack in wheel drivers - at the moment a source of considerable trouble. We do not think we should fear half shaft failures. Rovers have experienced failures, never resulting in a fatal accident, but their axle is hardly comparable to a R.R. product. The old Bentley concern had one failure on an 8-litre (using a smaller shaft than we suggest) after 82,000 miles. We have this shaft and attribute the failure to faulty material. 90% of the cars in the U.S.A. have this design. There is no need for us to overhang the wheel centre line beyond the bearing at all. We can test the butt welded axle tube on our present axles as an immediate step to reducing cost, and recommend that Wraith starts with the present 25/30 axle followed by the cheaper tubes and later by the half floating construction. We have sent to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} a more detailed memo. on all the information we have obtained, and more technical requirements of the axle interior. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls} | ||