My Roadster had a strange history. It came new with 'plastic' bushes and steering damper blades. The first owner had a big disagreement with the dealer and MMC about bump steer which he felt was dangerous. So early on the stubs were replaced with the later version , 06 onwards, with metal bushes.It doesn't look like the pins were changed. So at the second MOT with about 6k on the clock I got advisories on the pins. I changed them about a year later and both pins were badly worn. I don't know how well it had been greased leading up to that point.
I do believe though that there is little QC on the new pins & bushes and some are over reamed from new.
I can confirm that Dave, I was at the factory in late 07 with my dealer and another chap and we were both looking to spec our new builds (that lead to my 08 4 seater). In the chassis shop one of the guys picked up a hub assembly and the king pin fell straight out and nearly landed on his foot. Being a nosey bugger I wondered over to the chassis behind it where no one was working and up to the stubs on the floor and both sides the pins were so loose as to be ridiculous. I asked one of the chaps who was really helpful and chatty and he said they used to be so tight that you used to have to put them in with a rubber mallet, he laughed and said 'I think they bought a new reamer'. The worse wear I have ever seen was on my 02 +8, I pulled it down at 1500 miles and 12 weeks old to fit. 300mm brake kit from Peter M. As it was the first kingpin job I had done on a Morgan I pulled the whole front apart to have a look and see what is what, the bottom few inches of the mild steel kingpins was heavily corroded and it was on the nylon (Devol) bushes the lower on both sides was oval and chewed to hell. At that time Peter did not have the oversized OD phosphor bronze bushes so I put Devols back in with Hardchrome pins and pulled the whole shooting match apart again as soon as he had the bushes available. The standard pins used to corrode as you looked at them.
