Rolls-Royce Phantom III - radiator removed

This is the easy part! The two black feet protruding from the bottom of the radiator are the support brackets for the shroud which fits between the front wings. Beneath the radiator is a silent rubber block mounting with spacer plates to adjust the height of the radiator. The 'best' part of the design is that the radiator acts as the forward support for the wings and headlights. The large front wing stays, one each side of the car, are mounted at their base with two bolts passing through the chassis into the radiator casing. The side arms on the radiator are attached by a bolt passing through the wing and hold the wing stay at the highest point of its arc. To add to the complexity, the wiring for horns, main and dipped headlights run in clamped conduit between the radiator and its shell. The wiring junction boxes, one on each side of the inside base of the radiator, are masked by the exhaust pipes and shock absorber filler tubes. Employing 'ET' with double-jointed fingers made the disconnection so much easier.

With the radiator removed one can see the congested nature of the under-bonnet area. Working from the bottom of the picture :-

A) the substantial box-section cross member containing the pivots for the independent front suspension

B) above which the horizontal tube holds the front jacks (under the wings) and has the spot lamp bracket in the centre

C) the butterfly with horizontal rods is the front brake compensating mechanism

D) the rusty rectangle is the radiator base support and itself is mounted above the steering drag-link pivot

E) to the fore of the exhaust down pipes can be seen small 'L'-shaped pipes with caps on, these being the shock absorber filler tubes

F) behind the fan are the two distributors: the left one fires the outer 'exhaust' spark plugs and the right fires the inner 'inlet' plugs (there are 2 plugs per cylinder). All HT leads are fed through pipe and rectangular section conduit - an absolute swine to remove in the centre of the 'V' due to the fuel and water pipes clamped beneath the carburettor and manifolds.

- the coils are horrible modern items.

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