Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing How long should front suspension last?

Well my mot was passed today but the tester picked up play in the front pillar (classed as a kingpin in his book)
An advisory to sort before the next mot
But
All front and rear suspension was replaced (Rutherford updates) in July 2013 at 60,000miles (cost the last owner £2500 at a well known morgan dealership )
Just under 6000miles ago now
So the question is
Is this normal wear ?
I'm a bit concerned I may be stripping the suspension before the next mot.
I did examine the suspension myself whilst the car was in the air.
It does have delectable play (front offside has next to no play)

Cheers all

Steve
With regular greasing and stainless pins the front suspension on my +8 lasted almost 45,000 miles, and it was still passing MoTs with ease, so there does appear to be something wrong.
Spanner Juggler fitted hard chrome king pins and grooved phosphor bronze bushes at my last rebuild and again with regular greasing I am confident they should outlast the car, as Colin did the job very thoroughly and used a fully adjustable reamer to get the clearances absolutely precise. I was considering gaiters over the rebound springs to protect them from road grit and filth, but have not fitted them yet.

How often are you greasing the pins? Are you using the one-shot oiler? Do you have a top grease nipple?

6000 miles is pretty low to knock out a pair of mild steel kingpins, but I've heard of worse. Of course, if the greasing has been neglected or committed, or the reaming wasn't done properly, then it's a surprise it lasted that long.

If you can get to him, get someone like SpannerJuggler to redo your kingpins properly with the latest grooved bronze bushes and hard chrome kingpins. Then they will outlast you (so long as you give them a squirt or two of grease every thousand miles or so).

Delectable play sounds like fun!!

I suspect that the reaming might have been a tad too enthusiastic! The standard stainless kingpins on my 4/4 lasted 13,000 miles when they were picked up at a check up before its first MOT. That's with greasing at the recommended 1000 miles. I wasn't amused.

Mine last 24,000mls two of which have been Plus 8's with oilers used as they should (sparingly but regularly) be and greased every 1,000mls.

The 2009 Sport at 24,000mls was showing no signs of wear with greasing top and bottom at 1,000mls.

I don't track day my car or hill climb it.

My Roadster had advisories on both sides at the second MOT at a stupidly low mileage. As mentioned above, setting the clearance is precise and I'm not convinced that this is good enough from new.
When you strip it down you will see the wear. If the kingpin is hard chrome and unworn, all you'll need is replacement bushes. The top one might be OK.

As has been said, the art is in the quality of the reaming. Too little and the suspension is tight, too much and it is lose.

BUT taking a Morgan to a workshiop unused to the ways of Morgan is also a potential problem: Morgans are unlike other cars and I believe there are specific exemptions for findings that, on any other car, would result in a MOT fail. So before spending money take it to a Morgan specialist.

Another comment: different MOT technicians have differant obsessions. For 10 years my old Mercedes 190 received the same advisory notes, till a new MOT technician arrived. The running advisory dissapeared. A new one arrived. I ignored that one too till I sold the car.....

I'm wondering if they REALLY replaced or if they just cleaned them up a bit?

You say all suspension front and rear was replaced do the invoices show that the kingpins were replaced for hardened chrome ones? And the bushes?

Not just the springs and dampers etc.