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).
Customer complaints and investigations into low-speed wobbles on the 20 HP car.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\O\2January1926-March1926\ Scan183 | |
| Date | 19th March 1926 | |
| To DA{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}, from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} LOW SPEED WOBBLES ON 20 HP. We are getting several complaints from customers of low speed wobbles on 20 HP. cars fitted with 4-wheel brakes. These cars have the plain bush at the bottom. The latest 20 HP. car which has just left for France has got the latest pivots and a plain bush top and bottom. We tried this car for wobbles before it went away and we could still produce them, although if they do not get any worse, we should consider it satisfactory. Unfortunately however we know from experience that they will most probably get worse. The 20 HP. car is worse than the 40/50 HP. for low speed wobbles. This we think is due to the fact that we have 3° backward lean on the 20 HP. and only 1° on the 40/50 HP. We cannot reduce the backward lean on the 20 HP. without running into other difficulties, such as, the steering taking charge on corners. We went through all the difficulties of low speed wobbles on the original 20 HP. and it was chiefly that which drove us to the friction clutch arrangement on the pivots. The old 20 HP. had plain bushes top and bottom, yet we still could not run without the friction clutch. We realise of course that the old steerings were centrepoint and now we have gone slightly off centre-point. We are faced with the question however, of what we contd :- | ||