Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Brake pedal failure !

As part of it's 10,000 mile service Krazy Horse were changing the brake fluid on my car , while pumping the pedal to bleed the system part of the pedal broke . I haven't seen it yet so am not clear which part it is , I got my car in Sept 12 and it has the early type pedal arrangement with M3W cast into it .

Clearly this is potentially a very dangerous problem .

Blimey...how long did they say until a replacement or are they attempting a repair.

Well Peter hopefully a replacement is coming tomorrow , initially Krazy Horse could only get through to an answer machine !!

I've just called in to have a look at it . The pedal is welded to a short tube on the other end of which is a lever connected to the cylinder . This lever is no longer attached to the tube , oddly there is no sign of welding on this end of the tube so it's not clear what was holding it (it's not been taken apart yet) .
Anyway the result is that as you press the brake pedal , the lever doesn't move and you have no brakes !

Krazy Horse have said they could weld it but thought they'd get a replacement .
I don't think Morgan can adopt their usual head in the sand approach to this , it's a very serious issue .

Thanks for passing that information on. I have the later pedal box without the rather nice M3W pedals, they could still have the same fault as it is a similar design. Worth a check with a mirror and torch with some contortions to get down there, or through the access panel. Always nice to have some brakes!

Now might be a good time to re-configure those pedals over to the right a bit Hugh, and make some room for the clutch foot? I am pretty sure that if the accelerator is moved over about an inch from the sideskin, then the brake pedal moved closer, so there is just room for a shoe on the accelerator pedal, the same for the clutch pedal, it could just leave enough room for the clutch foot to rest down the side of the clutch. I will be speaking to Empire Racing about it when they have time to draw some breath.

Talking about Empire, there was a great 3 page article about them in Motoring News last week, and a 5 page article in this months Racecar Engineering Magazine, out yesterday in the UK, apparently.

Some photos ?

At least it broke there and not under braking!

Paul, I hear you on the pedal room. I had several VW's back in my late teen years and I had issues with the clutch/brake pedal and my big feet.

So what would you think it would be like for my big size 13US, 11UK, 45EU shoes with what you have now, let alone scrunching them even closer together?

The shoes I'm wearing right now at work are 4.75" wide at the widest, right where I would be pressing on the pedals.

Remember back in the '80s about the Audi and sudden acceleration at slow speeds? Most of the time it was while people were parking in their garage. They found out that the foot on the brake pedal would, in some cases, also press down on the treadle and boom, right into the back wall of the garage or the back bumper of the car ahead of them when parallel parking.

Having a wider foot well is the answer in my opinion, but alas, that ain't gonna happen.

I feel for you guys without any place to comfortably place your resting foot.

This, from a post I made in a different thread (also in response to Paul), may be useful:

"I agree entirely about how pleasant it would be to have space to rest the clutch foot, but that would require substantial re-engineering.

On the other hand, or rather foot, I am surprised by your right-foot problem. I take an English size 13/French 49 or thereabouts and I have to wear proper racing shoes to drive, otherwise the pedals are too close together. I cannot recall a better pedal set for heel-and-toe. Perhaps you should wear a larger right shoe!

But seriously, this shows how complicated ergonomics are. One still reads test reports from short journalists saying that a particular car will be perfectly comfortable for tall drivers and from tall journalists saying that it will be fine for short drivers, and often they have not really thought about it at all and are just imagining someone two inches taller or shorter than they are, which is not the point.

One thing Morgan might work on is a system whereby the pedal box can be moved without the need for an acrobatic mechanic who does not suffer from claustrophobia to go head-first into the footwell. This would be particularly useful for a tall husband and short wife who both drive."

I've got a short[ish] wife, but luckily she won't drive the Three Wheeler, actually I can count the time she has passengered with me on the fingers of one hand, and there has normally been a meal at the end of the drive, at the very least a drink or some such reward.