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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).
Investigations into engine gear noise and flywheel humming issues.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 179\3\  img018
Date  2nd March 1932
  
-3- Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Mths.{Reg Matthews}2/2.3.32.contd.

The master period is rather low and only just above the power peak, which occurs at present at 3500 r.p.m...

Engine Gears.

The engine gears are presenting some trouble as far as silence is concerned and several cam wheels have been tried without success so far.

When first received the engine had fitted the usual Bronze camwheel with .001 backlash, this wheel was very noisy.

A Cast-Iron cam-wheel also with .001 backlash was then tried but if anything this gear was worse than original Bronze wheel.

A Duralumin cam-wheel with .001 backlash was next tried and although this gear was very bad at first it improved somewhat after running for some time but even then the noise was exceptionally bad, the whine then being quite as bad as the worst standard gears before being quietened.

After trying these gears with .001 backlash it was decided to try cam-wheels with .003 backlash since it was thought that perhaps that the crankcase did not expand as much as was at first expected and that the gears were perhaps meshing too deeply.

Up to the present time only one cam-wheel namely of Cast-Iron has been tried with .003 backlash, but this wheel was just as bad as previous ones.

The oil supply to the gears was then blanked off to see if the noise could be put down to oil being trapped between teeth but the gear whine was just as bad.

The dynamo pinion was then removed but this step also had no effect on the noise. The noise can therefore be put down to taking place between the crankshaft pinion and the camwheel.

Flywheel Noise.

Since the first report the ventilation holes in the flywheel have been blanked up and have considerably improved the humming noise, it is difficult to say whether the humming has been entirely eliminated as the engine gear noise is sufficient to drown any lower tones likely to be heard from the flywheel.

Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/S.Mathews.
  
  


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