An additional confirmation of the spline count has just been sent to me by a lady called Karen at Moto Lita, it's possible she was the same lady I first spoke to on the phone who incorrectly informed me my steering shaft was 48 splines, in returning my follow up email perhaps she was looking to correct her earlier mistake?
Either way, Karen has kindly confirmed what I now already know, more specifically she explained all post 2007 traditional chassis four wheel Morgans used a steering shaft that measured 14.94mm and hold exactly 29 splines with no master spline. This is most definitely a Rover size, the 14.94mm shaft with 29 spline specification was used on the 200, 400 & 600 series models and the MGF sportscar, all produced by the Rover Group from the mid 1990's to the early 2000's.
There is also some evidence to suggest the 14.94mm shaft with 29 spline specification first came in to use on the Rover SD1 produced between 1976 and 1986, but this would need fully confirming. It could however point to the Morgan Motor company buying up a supply of new/old stock Rover steering shafts from one of the models referenced above, or perhaps even the venerable old SD1?
This is classic British low volume sports car manufacturing practice, supported by the wasteful over production of parts by the dying UK car industry, small volume manufacturers such as Morgan, TVR and many others made use of a ready supply of cheap new/old stock components that would have been costly for them to produce themselves in the small quantities required.
I appreciate none of the above is news to most of you, and the information I've uncovered on the correct specification of a modern trad steering shaft is largely just a geeky deep dive into answering my own question that spawned this post, but hopefully it will help others in the future?
However, in my typical 'rabbit hole' research fashion it also lead me to Rimmer Brothers who will sell you a brand new/old stock MGF electric power steering column with associated wiring for a very reasonable £336 including the integral electric motor itself.
https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-500000040I appreciate there are Morgan specialists already offering EPAS systems, and Morgan even did it themselves, but the aftermarket systems can be costly. I'm left wondering if my latest discovery of the cheap new/old stock MGF power columns would represent the ideal cost-effective starting point to convert a modern Trad chassis Morgan to power steering?
With excellent proven controllers available at reasonable cost from DC Electronics, a quality conversion to speed or strain gauge referenced EPAS could be created using only new parts, but for a very reasonable price!
