Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing King Pins & bush renewal

My vesconite bushing enlarged the moment they got warm, which was after ten minutes driving. The steering then became really stiff and awful. No cure but to let it all cool down. I went back to bronze.
Nick

Nick,just a few questions regarding your experience of using Vesconite for the King Pin bushes on your car, as I am in the process of doing the same to my 4/4. Firstly did you bore out the stub axle tubes so as to produce a consistent round concentric bore of close tolerence to the diameters where the bushes are fitted,and if that was the case then did you have the bushes manufactured for a resultant fit so as to negate the use of a reamer, finally did you use Vesconite or Vesconite Hilube.
If you could possibly answer this questions it may put my mind at rest or send me into a deep depression

Hi Owen,
My roadster came with vesconite from new in 2005. I struggled on for awhile suffering the usual they all do that/it's well within tolerances etc. Till I gave the car to Richard Thorne (reading) and had lots done to the steering.My problem was that I regularly park on client's drives and exiting involves lots of manoeuvring. I could hardly do it with the nylon bushes. Richard fitted power steering, which included changing the stubs etc ( I now have nipples at the top too) and having the bushes (bronze) machined on some special machine to very fine tolerances. I have had no trouble since. I've gone on about the power steeringbbefore..it transformed the car as it only applies itself at very low speeds, acts as a superb damper at speed without losing feel. So I love it but I have often wondered whether just changing to bronze would have done the trick anyway. There must have been loads of people with probs with the nylon as MMC very quickly went back to bronze.

Maybe this helps.
http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan6.html#DEVOL

I must say moving to a Suplex front end with bearings has transformed the load speed steering. I fittend hard chrome king pins & bronze bushes.

In my engineering experience self lubricating non metal bushes work in clea environments like rollers on conveyor belts but can't handle well the greasey gritty the front end inevitably has to face.

I have no experience of Vesconite..........
From a practical point of view with the brass bushes and new kingpins, my new bushes slid over the kingpins with a perfect fit. But obviously the stubs were not perfectly concentric along the length, because once pressed in, the kingpin wouldn't pass through without reamering (reaming?). The reaming was only a tiny amount to accommodate the misalignment.

You've hit the nail on the head there John +4.

What appears to be a fantastic solution in theory becomes all too often a compromise or worse in a practical application.

Static, Morgan's sliding piller appears as an ideal solution; unfortunately under dynamic conditions it's definitely less than ideal. But despite all this, it sort of works despite itself and it certainly adds character and mystique to the car!

Nor me. I bought the skinniest pair of spring compressors I could find and ground the lugs down to fit. Works a treat.

Thanks for your reply Nick, which leads me to a further question, were the bushes originally fitted to your car Devol bushes, these are blue in colour(Vesconite being grey & Vesconite Hilube being white) because I am aware that Morgan's had for a period used Devol bushes but not Vesconite Hilube bushes. With regard the Devol bushes, I believe they could be susceptible to water adsorption causing tightening on the King Pins,in some cases

Hi again Owen. I'm sorry but I don't know.now I'm ashamed and a little embarrassed. ?.but still, whatever they used Mmc soon dropped the whole idea didn't they?
Nick

Having read the gomog article referenced above, I do remember that I had to have new stubs as the old ones were sized wrongly for bronze bushings. Richard Thorne offered me the choice of oversized bronze bushings but I decided to go for new stubs so it was all standard for the future. Of course, this all took place long before the latest front susp. Improvement options, suplex etc.
Nick