The hydraulic system

The hydraulic system of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a very ingenious, safe, complex but also a vulnerable system. When there are no faults or malfunctions, it is a very comfortable and masterly mechanism. However, most Silver Shadow owners have storys about faults en repairs on the system. On these pages the whole system is explained and the hydraulic components come to life by simple animations! The explanations are mainly composed by Rob Wilde and are edited to webpages by myself. The beautiful coloured diagrams are drawn by Rob. We stress that we cannot accept any responsibility for any damage to or malfunctioning of your car if you maintain or measure your car based on the presented information. Please read the disclaimer.

HYDRAULICS IN GENERAL >>    Overview of the    hydraulic system.	You get an overview of the hydraulic system that is applied to the Silver Shadow. With this overview you can position the hydraulic pages in their bigger context.
BRAKE SYSTEM >>    The complete operation    of the brake system.	The brake system is drawn up in triplicate and in later Silver Shadows in duplicate. In this part you find a diagnostics table for faults in your brake system.
HEIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM >>    The complete operation    of the height control system.	The height control system was fitted as well to the front wheels as to the rear wheels. In 1969 the system on the front wheels was eliminated. Here you find a diagnostics tabel for faults in your height control system.
PRESSURE CONTROL >>    The build-up of pressure    in words and images.	To be able to brake and to keep the car on height a quite amount of pressure must be built-up. Here you can see how that is done.
HYDRAULIC DIAGRAMS >>    All hydraulic diagrams.	The manuals of the Silver Shadow are provided with colourful hydraulic diagrams. Yet it costs some effort to understand them. Here you find all diagrams in a row, drawn again by Rob Wilde.