Those who are familiar with Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motorcars realize that they never break down! Really, it is true! That said, they do occasionally "Fail To Proceed," or FTP for short. That's where I'm at right now in Moab, Utah.
On our drive through and back from Canyonlands National Park yesterday, I really didn't like the road because although it looked smooth, it must have had ridges or washboarding built in because there was a bad vibration when driving on that road that started about when the pavement changed. When I got back on "good" pavement and the vibration did not stop, I realized I was wrongly accusing the park service for the vibration sensation. I experimented to try to figure out when/how the vibration was occurring, and if I laid down power at all the vibration would go away. If I let off the gas, whether I had any gear engaged or not, whether the overdrive was on or not, the vibration was present.
When we stopped for the night I got under the car to check fasteners all along the driveshaft/differential/gearbox/overdrive. Tightened everything I found and as I moved up to the overdrive I found the problem. The overdrive mates to a flex coupling between itself and the gearbox. Where the overdrive mates to the coupling there are four large screws. Well, there are supposed to be. There were two left, and those were loose. While I was able to tighten down on those, I can't drive it like this. Since they are a British threaded set screw (3/8" BSF, 1" in length), I'm not going to find any in Moab. So as silly as it sounds, I'm having two screws overnighted to me. I'm having a few extra things sent as well (two spare ignition units 'just in case' and some waterpump grease to hopefully remedy a waterpump leak I have).
Thanks again to all the support I've been getting, this time Tim Jayne is sending me all this stuff overnight so I can get back on the road. We'll now be delayed by another day, but Pike's Peak is still in the plans, even if I have to cancel other park visits to get there!
Oh, and when I fasten these new screws in, I'll be using locktite.....
What was that I heard you say? That any failures would likely not be due to Mr. Royce's engineering but due to subsequent attempts to improve his work? Yup. On the other hand, if I thought my 6.9 could do this trip with fewer problems, I'd be doing cartwheels.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the break - the weather seems to have broken here, so you will likely not have any more vapor lock problems. Robert