Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Chassis upgrade kit for pre 2014 M3W

Definitely yes. Unless the chassis has already cracked of course in which case it will be more complicated.

I have been in correspondence with Morgan UK, Belgium and France to see if there is a Morgan dealer anywhere near me who can do the inspection on my Mk.1. The answer appears to be no. The nearest one is the west side of Toulouse, about 8 hours drive away. I don't really fancy a 16 hour round trip in the M3W. The Belgian outfit who do have a couple of agencies in France, have said they are going to charge labour on the job.

I have also been trying to get more details from Morgan (without success, of course) of how the visual inspection is done. If it is simply eyeball, I think this is a total waste of time, possibly leading to false confidence of the absence of cracks.


I ran big single seat cars for some years (F2 and F3000) on the European Hill Climb Championship and I know that for crack testing, the very minimum you need to do is to use Magnaflux fluorescent crack detection fluid but for things like the annual inspection of suspension members, I always had them x-rayed and/or ultrasounded by an industrial crack detection company.

Just had confirmation from Russ Cartwright at Morgan, that all parts and labour for any modifications or repair on the chassis are payable directly to the agent by Morgan not by the owner.

To do anything more than a visual inspection of the areas of interest, realistically the engine would need to come out and since the bodywork obscures about a quarter of the circumference of the tubes then the bodywork would need to come off too. After that to carry out magnetic particle inspection the coating should be removed or you could miss defect indications, if you went for dye penetrant inspection then the coating would definitely have to be removed, preferably chemically or you would be likely to get false positive and negative results.
My own feeling is that the cracks probably propagate rapidly from nothing to easily visible very quickly indeed so if a thorough visual inspection doesn't pick up anything and the new brace is fitted then that should nip things in the bud...assuming of course that the new bolt on brace can restrict the movement sufficiently to sort out the fatigue life.
I will take a (not terribly well) educated guess that the little triangular stiffener plates that were added to the chassis design sometime in 2013 have mainly moved the origin of these cracks from the turns of the wishbone bracket welds to the forward turn of the stiffener plate welds.

It would be interesting to know the root cause of the cracks.
Is it road handling stresses / hitting a speed bump too fast , or the sheer torque of the motor trying to twist itself out of the frame and rotate around the prop shaft , or something else.

I have not seen a description from anyone who has had cracks properly describe them or supply pictures ... anyone ?

I don't honestly know whether it is engine vibration that is the root cause or suspension loading...could easily be a bit of both.

As for pictures here are some to show what can be found; the first is of a late 2012 chassis which had the bolt in cross brace but no stiffening plates and was taken with the engine out. The others are of a late 2013 chassis which has the bolt in cross brace and the stiffening plates but not the triangulation tubes of the 2014 chassis nor does it have the new bolt-on triangulation arrangement. I had looked at the suspect areas after returning from TOTH without seeing anything but when I had a look a couple of nights ago I spotted the crack immediately then cut some tie wraps to get the headlight cable out of the way and got in with an inspection mirror. Probably only 500 miles between checks and only on my last run out at the weekend did it start making a variety of new squeaks from the front left corner.


2012 chassis - engine out - right hand side.


2013 Chassis - left hand side - inspection mirror under end of stiffening plate.



2013 Chassis - left hand side - close up of upper side of tube


2013 Chassis - left hand side - close up showing underside of tube in inspection mirror.

I am now waiting for the return of my M3W to Malvern for rectification. The logistics are being sorted out but the workshop is apparently booked out till the end of September with three wheeler work and Mark Evans is on holiday till the 20th so when exactly I get to drive my car again remains to be seen.

This is purely just an observation on my part, but where the two upper tubes go forward for the upper A arm mounts, the front of the main frame is very rigid. The upper A arms on every bump are pushing inward on the full length of the upper tube all the way back to the main frame cross tubes. It's right at that point that the frames are cracking.

Even with the new reinforcement tube and gussets, the front upper A arm mounts are still going to be pushing inward on every bump and flexing the upper tubes.

If you look at the pictures of the Liberty Ace, it uses a similar tube main frame with the forward tubes for the upper/lower A arms to mount to........ but they have an upper front cross tube that bolts into the front of the upper tube which gives that whole upper tube assembly a box like strength rather than just cantilevered forward tubes on the M3W from the main frame tubes.

The Ace used this same bar to mount the headlights, the ole two birds with one stone approach.

My gut would still say to have a tie bar on the front would be a better solution rather than beefing up the cantilevered upper tubes back at the main frame tubes. The tube could easily be a bolt in and it could be chromed and used as somewhat of a "crash" bar for motor protection as well. Just a thought.

Thanks Calum , at least folk know what to look for now.

It’s frightening to see that. The reasons are quite obvious for anyone with mechanical background. It’s called mechanical fatigue of the tubes at a flexing point in the frame. Any good engineer is able to master the frame with sophisticated computer programs. Every time you hit a pot hole or a bump the frame flexes at that point and in the end collapses. When you add triangulation to these tubes they stop to flex. That’s what should have been done from the beginning.

As it is difficult to run a lot between the numerous breakdowns, there were too few vehicles with high mileages to have a good return of the problem.

I’m still waiting for my letter from Mark Evans and also for a reply to my letter sent to him on 5th of January.

Gutted for you Calum - I hope it gets fixed soon.