Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Upgrading to Empire Racing Front Suspension

I received this note from Bill at Empire a couple of weeks ago.
Pricing below in Euros plus shipping

This is what the Empire Racing Kit contains from Bill Chaplin;
A kit which comprises of all the parts ;
New top fully adjustable wishbones .
New steering arm ends
Steering arm raising spacers
4 off rose joints
Billet aluminum wishbone mounts
2 off support tie bars
The cost of the full kit is £795 + p+p
Please let me know if you need any more details
Many thanks
Bill Chaplin


The local Morgan Dealer here in South Florida is a high end new & used car place that when I asked about Morgan service, they recommended a local Morgan Service center close by in West Palm Beach.
Stahl Motorsports, Danny Stahl and Evan Blaustein who is factory trained said they can help with any of the work needed on the M3W including changing out the front end. (561) 833-0696
I'm so very glad they are so enthusiastic about taking care of all my Morgan needs that I can't figure out myself.

so I quess I have a plan!

As I surmised, Bills workshops are under 3" of floodwater at the moment, which is why things have been slow on the kits, but he is coming over to my house next week to take the original kit off my car for measuring and jig making purposes, so once that is done, things should start moving. He is still saying that he thinks kits will be available in around 4 -6 weeks time.

It will be really easy to fit, for anyone with a bit of spanner aptitude, or any half way to reasonable workshop will be able to do it, as well as setting it up once installed, but I will ask him to make some useful notes whilst he is preparing things, which should help.

I'll keep people informed as things progress, or don't hesitate to contact him directly.

Thanks for the update, PaulJ.

I have an email into Bill but with the floodwater issues, I'm sure he has plenty to keep him occupied at the moment.

As a side note, thanks for being the "guinea pig" for the mods as well as taking your ride out of commission for the measurements.

Based on your reports, it would be nice to know what Bill did in the way of set-up. Considering his back-ground, I'm sure his educated guess is better than mine.



Things appear to be looking up in M3W world.

Z

I sent off an email as well today. Thanks again for your time. I won't likely apply the kit myself, I have a really nice suspension shop a few miles from me I take my track M3 car to, can't wait to see their face when I roll up in the M3W.

As far as set up is concerned, it was a little while back, but I think he left camber and castor as measured before the kit was fitted, and he set the toe at 0 degrees, or parallel, if you like. I liked it just as he set it up, but the opportunity is there to play around and see how things change.

My car us off the road for the winter, so it is no hardship. I've been doing a few small jobs and it has to go back to a dealer fairly soon for a new bevel box, which by the way, a little birdie tells me are coming through from Quaife a little quieter, but I'll believe that when I've had it fitted.

I take it that Quaife is the same outfit that built Brit bike transmissions?

My other British addiction...in the process of two bike builds at the moment.





Z

I put preview after taking possesion of my mtw the bellows were already spherical micro cracks, after 5 months of use and disassembly to change the train before I realized that was worse, so the lower ball joints are starting to be hard and seize, so I will be replaced with identical ball austin metro me meme by security.

Nice collection of bikes!!!:)))

A quick update for all those interested in the progress of the kits.

As I mentioned earlier on in the thread, Bill at Empire Racing Cars is still working in floodwater at the moment, nevertheless, he found time to come to my house yesterday to remove the original wishbones and ali. brackets from my Three Wheeler, to take all the measurements from, and make jigs etc.

He will be getting an outside CNC machinist to make up the billet ali. bits and is doing the wishbones in what is left of his workshops.

He mentioned that he has had a couple of requests to have the alloy brackets anodised, rather than be left in plain polished ali. The anodising can be easily done, in any colour, although black seemed to be preferred, at an extra cost of £35.00 for the pair, the wishbones themselves were to be painted satin black. I asked him if the spacers could be made out of stainless steel, which didn't seem to pose a problem, and I think he is quite prepared to absorb the slight price increase.

He mentioned he may get a couple of extra kits made, in view of the level of interest. As a reminder the kit not only lifts the steering arms to the correct level, but actually resets the suspension arm geometry so that the upper pivot points are at the optimum setting, in line with the existing steering track knuckle joints and the lower wishbone pivot, and as a by product of using two spherical joints on the top wishbones, means the camber and castor is now fully adjustable, for those that want to experiment.

He did mention that he would also be writing a set of fitting notes, complete with pictures, to illustrate the various stages in fitting. In practice, it didn't look difficult getting the kit off my car yesterday, taking about 45 minutes per side, possibly a little longer to fit, as the original wishbones have to come off. He didn't even have to take the spring/shock absorber units off.

He anticipates getting the bits back from the CNC shop in 2 - 3 weeks time, and he hopes that he will have got going with the wishbones by then too, flood water permitting, but I'll get back to you all with a progress report then.

Thanks for the update Paul.. I do hope poor old Bill doesn't get washed away in all of this.