Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Kingpin supplement - rebound spring protection.

There are various ways to protect the rebound spring and lower kingpins from road dirt and moisture. Some of you know that I made some gaiters out of Mohair soon after I came to the world of Morgan, and they have been a success over two+ years of mixed weather on the road. Mine were the originals which I hand stitched. They are certainly not fancy, but did the job. Since then I have pressed MrsW into sewing a few up from time to time, although the needle picks up the adhesive from the Velcro, and rubber from the Mohair, so it's a pain to do, although these are nicely finished.

Moving on - I wondered if I could improve the original design, given that I now have new kingpins to protect. So step 1 was to seek out some leather offcuts on E-Bay. My first shipment was too stiff, so I looked again for supple soft leather. I got on very well with a lady who supplies leather, and ended up with a piece which was just right. Here's my pile - it looks bigger here than it is in reality.


I hoped to be able to sleeve the kingpin base with leather inside the rebound spring, but this is impossible. I then considered sewing a leather tube and feeding it over the rebound spring on re-assembly, but this is also impossible. There's just no clearance. Which left me with a Velcro solution. Next call was John Lewis where I purchased some heavy duty thread and leather sewing needles.
The next job was to cut two pieces of leather to fit round the rebound springs, then treat them with Nikwax for weather protection.


Then I hand sewed thin strips of Velcro to each piece. It was necessary to trim the size because the rebound springs are not full length when fitted. Hand sewing leather is hard graft, and I broke one needle...........

Here's 'before'....


And now with leather gaiter........What a snug fit
I checked that it was OK on compression.


My plan was then to fit the mohair gaiters over the top, for additional protection, so I had MrsW sew a pair up, because I didn't have any 'in stock'. I should have known better - the leather created a bigger diameter, so the original size didn't fit. So then I had to cut a bigger pair, and persuade MrsW to sew them up...............
You can see the size difference here.


That fixed it, and they fitted over the top. Is this 'over the top' I wonder?


And under compression.......


But now for the icing on the cake. What about a proper shield?
I measured up. and tried some 2mm aluminium, but it was too hard to bend into shape. And it made a lot of mess.......


So plan B was 1.2mm aluminium.......here it is with the brown paper templates, and shaped - I'll show how in the next photo.


Never throw anything away..... The old kingpin dust cover was exactly the right size. I shaped the aluminiun over this using the rubber mallet in the background.


More to follow>>>>>>>>>

Next a trial fit.......get the picture?


And this is how it will fit on the lower cross tube - here one has been drilled and the other is waiting to be done....
The U bolt is 43mm, or 1+5/8".......


Both drilled and ready for paint:


One side (offside) ready for fitting:


And this is how it looks.... slight adjustment will be necessary to the mohair gaiter. The dome headed nuts & washers are stainless steel. (13mm spanner).


Closer view of the other side.......both this and the previous photo are with the rebound springs compressed. It's essential that the shields clear the stub axle nuts which are visible. I just need to fettle the gaiters which need tidying up where they poke through the bottom. I've tested the steering and compressed and decompressed the springs, and all seems well.


Offside from underneath......


Offside from the rear. There is adequate clearance to the brake disc, the camera makes it look much closer than it is here......


So all that remains is a road test. I'm pleased how simple this job turned out, and the cost is minimal really. In fact it might rank as one of my best innovations to date.

I almost laughed out loud when I read: "I got on very well with a lady who supplies leather,"

what you really need now you have hard chrome king pins is a machined recess in the bottom of the stub axle to take a motorcycle type fork seal - you could then pump in some heavy oil - I have heard of STP being used on king-pins - although I will switch from LM to CL for my standard set up - Castrol CL is about the consistency of golden syrup and is apparantly less likely to absorb moisture than LM when used in low temp areas

It's a slippery slope, graduating from neoprene to leather...

Good stuff Dave, I hung onto the mohair covers when I sold Tink. RTA still has corrugated plastic conduit on the rebound springs for the present. I use moly when greasing KPs.

Cheers,

Just back from 42 mile run.
The tidied up protectors are fine. Note that I've held them in place with cable ties.

Post Photobucket reboot from January 2011

There are various ways to protect the rebound spring and lower kingpins from road dirt and moisture. Some of you know that I made some gaiters out of Mohair soon after I came to the world of Morgan, and they have been a success over two+ years of mixed weather on the road. Mine were the originals which I hand stitched. They are certainly not fancy, but did the job. Since then I have pressed MrsW into sewing a few up from time to time, although the needle picks up the adhesive from the Velcro, and rubber from the Mohair, so it's a pain to do, although these are nicely finished.

Moving on - I wondered if I could improve the original design, given that I now have new kingpins to protect. So step 1 was to seek out some leather offcuts on E-Bay. My first shipment was too stiff, so I looked again for supple soft leather. I got on very well with a lady who supplies leather, and ended up with a piece which was just right. Here's my pile - it looks bigger here than it is in reality.



I hoped to be able to sleeve the kingpin base with leather inside the rebound spring, but this is impossible. I then considered sewing a leather tube and feeding it over the rebound spring on re-assembly, but this is also impossible. There's just no clearance. Which left me with a Velcro solution. Next call was John Lewis where I purchased some heavy duty thread and leather sewing needles.
The next job was to cut two pieces of leather to fit round the rebound springs, then treat them with Nikwax for weather protection.



Then I hand sewed thin strips of Velcro to each piece. It was necessary to trim the size because the rebound springs are not full length when fitted. Hand sewing leather is hard graft, and I broke one needle...........

Here's 'before'....



And now with leather gaiter........What a snug fit.......................
I checked that it was OK on compression.



My plan was then to fit the mohair gaiters over the top, for additional protection, so I had MrsW sew a pair up, because I didn't have any 'in stock'. I should have known better - the leather created a bigger diameter, so the original size didn't fit. So then I had to cut a bigger pair, and persuade MrsW to sew them up...............
You can see the size difference here.



That fixed it, and they fitted over the top. Is this 'over the top' I wonder?



And under compression.......



But now for the icing on the cake. What about a proper shield?
I measured up. and tried some 2mm aluminium, but it was too hard to bend into shape. And it made a lot of mess.......



So plan B was 1.2mm aluminium.......here it is with the brown paper templates, and shaped - I'll show how in the next photo.



Never throw anything away..... The old kingpin dust cover was exactly the right size. I shaped the aluminiun over this using the rubber mallet in the background.



More to follow>>>>>>>>>

Post Photobucket reboot from January 2011

Next a trial fit.......get the picture?



And this is how it will fit on the lower cross tube - here one has been drilled and the other is waiting to be done....
The U bolt is 43mm, or 1+5/8".......



Both drilled and ready for paint:



One side (offside) ready for fitting:



And this is how it looks.... slight adjustment will be necessary to the mohair gaiter. The dome headed nuts & washers are stainless steel. (13mm spanner).



Closer view of the other side.......both this and the previous photo are with the rebound springs compressed. It's essential that the shields clear the stub axle nuts which are visible. I just need to fettle the gaiters which need tidying up where they poke through the bottom. I've tested the steering and compressed and decompressed the springs, and all seems well.



Offside from underneath......



Offside from the rear. There is adequate clearance to the brake disc, the camera makes it look much closer than it is here......



So all that remains is a road test. I'm pleased how simple this job turned out, and the cost is minimal really. In fact it might rank as one of my best innovations to date.

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Post Photobucket reboot from January 2011

Just back from 42 mile run.
The tidied up protectors are fine. Note that I've held them in place with cable ties.





2017 note. Both my Morgans have these triple layered protectors fitted and they do the job well. They can't move because the aluminium plate is locked by the lower suspension bolts.

However single layer mohair covers (or any alternative material) also do a good job in keeping road grime off the bottom of the kingpin.