Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Noisy compensator

Hi Tim

I add grease when it starts to get noisy, which can be more than 2000 miles between top ups.

The grease I use is a high pressure blue grease from JCB.

Not expensive and locally available.

Whack a third of a cartridge in and you will have no bother. Mine is as quiet as a mouse with no snatching and smooth on/off power take up.

Centa The system attaches to the end of the crankshaft instead of the old HD system, replace the motor shaft as flying because it is longer.

One question,i have the old compensator,can grease be inserted through the top, under the steering rack,or its a NO NO?

thanks Matty - good to know that I am not alone!!

But what is the "slack" - I worry that its metal on metal - and that something is going to fail/go bang!

Well I've been thinking and testing it a bit more. it definitely doesn't happen if you keep the revs up. With motorbikes you would feel it as snatch in the primary chain. On ours beasts I reckon the bevel drive is the likely candidate. All gear trains have backlash to some degree or another or they lock solid. just rock any geared system and you'll feel it. I'm guessing the drivetrain components are running faster than the engine as they may do post overrun when you dip,the clutch and let the engine revs drop, those same components will be taking up the full slack(or backlash) in the various gear trains in this condition. Release the clutch on a slow engine and your removing that load momentarily causing the gear trains to reverse lash if that makes any sense. I reckon there may be more backlash coming off load on most gear trains and that why we feel it more on slow overrun than on acceleration. I think I may be overthinking this!!!!

Q8 my dealer told me its not a straight swap for the centa more work is involved so the job takes longer than the 8 or 9 hours to swap out old style compensator. Perhaps MMC can give you some guidance on how to do it.
DoO thanks for the greasing info. Do you have a part no for the JCB grease?

Tim.

Thanks Tim..i hope this winter i can enjoy it in kuwait hassel free(october thru april)it has 2000km's only since last season..any mantince tips to check/do before using it ?

Isn't JCB grease just "regular" high performance lithium complex grease (the blue stuff). Mine is from Castrol and I *think* it is the same stuff.

I spoke to a dealer today to book my car in for the annual service and we got to chatting about the Centa unit.

Apparently it needs a completely different fly wheel, which is lighter and therefore improves throttle response and also has a centre actuated clutch release bearing and not the fork type used on the old style compensators.

This is why it seems to take a long time to fit and costs so much.

Grease part number is: 4003/2017