Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Roadster - Steering Feel & Stub Axles

This is something which occurred to me today after responding to the recent enquiry about retro fitting overriders. When I test drove the Roadster at the Dealers, way back in the summer of "Oh-eight", what struck me was the lightness of the steering and the constant feedback from the road. It was almost following every contour.

The first owner of my 05 Roadster was unhappy with the steering feel and discovered that the stub axles had been 'upgraded' for the 2007 cars. After some correspondence with his Dealer and MMC, he had the stub axles replaced with the upgraded versions. Part of the invoice for this work mentions that the overrider brackets were modified to provide clearance, and this is evident on inspection, where the cut-out in the bracket on each side has been enlarged under each track rod. The steering on my Roadster is nothing like that first drive. It's still light, but does not squirm over every undulation.

So this post is to record the fact that the stubs and brackets were changed at an unknown date but late 06/early 07 (probably).

And for the record, this is how it looks underneath. Until I have a close look at an unmodified early Roadster, I can't be sure what's changed, but from the look of mine, the track rods were higher. You can see beneath the trackrod that the hole has been enlarged.

Dave, was the work carried out at the Morgan factory?

If it was, the factory are very approachable, it may be worth making a phone call and asking if they have a record of what was done?

It would be interesting to know but it seems like you've got a great deal of it sorted out already.

Simon, the correspondence was with the factory through the dealer (John Gill). The factory provided the replacement spec stubs which were fitted by the dealer. The owner approached this issue as a complaint, and I suspect the most interesting part of this exchange was not written down!!!
I'll try to get some pics of an unmodified car and I suspect the changes will be obvious.

Interesting. I love tracking the history of cars, it really does build up and interesting story - especially with cars as bespoke as the Morgan.

When I get round to it...........
I might just pen a precis of my Roadster's History. It's a good read, and already I'm on the second ring binder of 'stuff'.
We were meant for each other. I looked longingly at it's colour picture in John Gill's advert for months............because it was dealer specced and they couldn't shift it. Anyway I won't spoil the story (for now).

Update:
I managed to get a picture of a new Roadster yesterday, but access was restricted. First here's my modded overrider bracket. Taken from the 'outside':

And here's the new Roadster. The difference is obvious.
There's also a visible difference to the rack mounting, which begs another look.

Today I looked at an original 2005 Roadster and the difference in the front suspension is obvious. If you look at the centre of the steering rack, on current models the track rods (the long bars which connect to the stub axles) are horizontal at rest. The 2005 spec has track rods which are angled upwards in a shallow V shape.This is quite distinctive, and can cause nervous, and some might say 'twitchy' steering. When a front wheel is deflected upwards, because the track rod is already angled upwards, the additional upward arc of the track rod shortens it's horizontal length. The effect of this is that the stub axle, and wheel 'toes in' slightly. So the car will tend to move away from the side under compression. If the other side lifts, so the suspension droops, then the effective length of the trackrod increases, which causes toe-out, and this will exacerbate the 'twitch' away from the "bump in the road". So an uneven road generates bump steer. The effect on corners where roll is present (not so much of an issue for Mogs), the effect is the same in that the car will tuck in due to the outside wheel on bump toeing in and the inner wheel on rebound toeing out.

Current cars have the ideal arrangement whereby the track rods are horizontal at rest. So movement either on compression or rebound is away from the position of maximum length - which means that each stub axle will toe in slightly either way. So no bump steer............

Looking at you existing bracket type before the cut out modification, it looks as though the long track rod would have hit the top of the bracket when the car was lifting, weight off, or been very close to it?

Another very interesting topic Dave.

You should definitely consider publishing your manual.

Post Photobucket Reboot from March 2009:

This is something which occurred to me today after responding to the recent enquiry about retro fitting overriders. When I test drove the Roadster at the Dealers, way back in the summer of "Oh-eight", what struck me was the lightness of the steering and the constant feedback from the road. It was almost following every contour.

The first owner of my 05 Roadster was unhappy with the steering feel and discovered that the stub axles had been 'upgraded' for the 2007 cars. After some correspondence with his Dealer and MMC, he had the stub axles replaced with the upgraded versions. Part of the invoice for this work mentions that the overrider brackets were modified to provide clearance, and this is evident on inspection, where the cut-out in the bracket on each side has been enlarged under each track rod. The steering on my Roadster is nothing like that first drive. It's still light, but does not squirm over every undulation.

So this post is to record the fact that the stubs and brackets were changed at an unknown date but late 06/early 07 (probably).

And for the record, this is how it looks underneath. Until I have a close look at an unmodified early Roadster, I can't be sure what's changed, but from the look of mine, the track rods were higher. You can see beneath the trackrod that the hole has been enlarged.



Update:
I managed to get a picture of a new Roadster yesterday, but access was restricted. First here's my modded overrider bracket. Taken from the 'outside':



And here's the new Roadster. The difference is obvious.
There's also a visible difference to the rack mounting, which begs another look.