I spoke too soon that the Roadster had behaved impeccably............but it did get us home OK.
On the way to the event on Sunday, we heard a loud pinging noise, like a hammer hitting a tube, from the nearside rear. The road wasn't especially bumpy, and I wondered if a spoke had snapped. On later inspection the spokes were intact and the Morgan drove normally, so I though no more about it. A large stone hitting the exhaust could cause such a noise.
However, I've spent today cleaning the Roadster, including underneath, and I found that the offside lower shock absorber mounting, which connects the damper to the brake backplate has sheared off. It's not a great design, as the bolt holes are on the edge of the metal plate, but the direct acting force - you would imagine - would be down. But the way this bracket has fractured shows a sideways force at work.
I have ordered both sides, but will be off the road until the factory can supply. Look at the top edge of the left hand small piece and you can see a badly finished sawtooth pattern, ideal for encouraging a stress fracture.
From the side you can see how this bracket has been bent:
And here is the other side, which looks sound, but there isn't much metal around those holes!
What is amazing is that we motored over 400 miles with the offside damper totally disconnected. It never banged and there were some periods at fairly high speed round corners, and it never felt twitchy. There was no sign of the damage.
With hindsight, the only thing I do recall was that under hard acceleration, it seemed to squat more than normal at the rear. I put that down to the luggage.
From now on I won't worry so much about the number of clicks..............
