Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Suplex suspension upgrade .

On the back page of the latest Mog Magazine is an advert from Aero Racing for Suplex suspension upgrades , "a new and sophisticated front and rear suspension system ......Available for 4 and 3 Wheel models "

Is this instead of the comfort kit (which I'm still waiting for ) and what about the Spax adjustable damping kit ? Or is it perhaps a missprint ?!

Anyone know about it ?

Confusingly, the factory appear to have accepted 'uprated' suspension kits from both Spax and Suplex for the 3-Wheeler. I've not seen the Suplex kit, but the Spax setup is well understood and I have fitted a full set to my car just recently (still not had a chance to try it out properly though, due to rubbish weather). I am lead to believe that the Suplex kit will be a lot more expensive than the Spax package, which was only about £700 for both ends all up.

Comfort Steering is still required, as although the Spax kit suggests being able to lower the car enough to minimise the impact of bump steer by getting the steering arms close to horizontal, there is in fact a limit to how low you can go due to shock<=>header pipe interference.... I ended up lowering the car by only about 12-15mm, which is unlikely to make much difference to the bumpsteer issues in truth. But the quality and adjustability of the dampers should be much better than the stock Spax items - I hope!

Is there an adjustable Ohlins shock we could use?

No Ohlins kit available, but of course an Ohlins specialist would be happy to spec and build one for you. I had a custom-made Ohlins kit put together for my Renault Sport Spider by the UK importer/distributor and it is outstanding. You'll have to spend about 5x the cost of the Spax kit to get one though I suspect. Despite Ohlins being excellent shocks, I doubt the rest of the car does them justice, as the platform is not what you might call leading edge.... !

I have lust finished fitting the Spax set up today, although no road test as its off the road for the winter.

I have set the ride height at 130mm front and 150mm rear.

As a bonus my steering arms are now level.

So I now have to reset the tracking and then check the bump steer, I'll post results as soon as.

Mr Dab - do you not get spring-platform-to-header-pipe interference at that low a ride height? I managed 14cm front and 14.5cm rear, but that front setting was required to get the spring platform clear of the exhaust only.

I have the Spax kit in-hand as well, though it will be a few weekends before I can install it front and back. Would love a brief writeup.

What are these kits trying to correct?

What is included in them? I saw a listing late last week from someone here about some parts, but I'm still not exactly sure what all comes with the kits.

Thanks in advance.

Install was pretty easy, but I had the benefit of a pair of trolley jacks to get the car easily lifted. A simple piece of 2"x1" widthways with a jack under each end and up she comes. Rears need the top mounts undone and then the car jacked to expose the bottom bolts beneath the car (careful not to stretch the brake hose) and fronts are easy as they just need the weight taken off the suspension to release the tension.

Measure body-to-floor heights before you start, so you have a reference point.

The point of these uprated Spax shocks are 2-fold;

1) They are an uprated unit, with better components and improved high speed damping. They are adjustable to suit your driving style and roads and have height adjustable platforms....

2).... which in theory should allow you to lower the car to such a point that the track rod arms are horizontal and therefore better at handling the toe-change during suspension movement, ie: bumpsteer.

I have yet to prove 1) but have failed on 2) unfortunately, in that my car won't sit low enough to get the arms horizontal due to the shock body hitting the exhaust. I might look at trying to 'tweak' the exhaust slightly out of the way, but I doubt there's enough movement available. As a result, I theoretically still need the Comfort Kit, but will be going the Empire route instead, which is the proper fix. However, I firmly believe that those who have cars with greater shock-to-pipe clearance will be able to improve their steering by getting those arms parallel to the ground, which is what the Comfort Kit does. This will help a lot.

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that nothing has to be parallel with the ground. The important thing is that the lower wishbone is parallel with the track rod, so that they move in the same arc at the suspension moves. This is at least how I set my car (see photo) up last October with the upgraded SPAX coil overs, and this has, in my opinion eliminated what little bump steer there was.