[Bellerophon]

I have previously written about the rear axle on the Bristol, but will
repeat some of what I have said.
First, all the gears for most of the 2 litre cars were made by ENV Gears of
NW London, these were precision ground gears of a very high standard. However,
ENV went out of business (not certain of the date but think it would be in
the later 50's). Bristol had to then resource, and went to Salisbury for the
rear axles which were not manufactured by the same methods and therefore not
as accurate. The result of this was that Bristol experienced noisy axles, so
much so that they had to take action, so appointed Percy Kemish their racing
engine man to sort out the problem. He told me that it took a while but found
that the problem was a quality one and was cured by better finish in
manufacturing, and a more selective fit. (not easy to get right)

Now the workshop manual gives full instructions on setting up the crown
wheel and pinion, and as they have been run together for some time now should not
cause a problem. One point to note is that the ratio is stamped on the
components, and would be most likely a 3.9 or a 4.22 on the overdrive cars.
However some cars which were used for sporting activities had the later ones fitted.

If some of our members do not have a copy of the workshop manual and intend
to work on the cars, they will save themselves a lot of bother by having the
facts to hand.

My regards,
Bellerophon