Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Suplex 5 link Suspension

So today I went to Williams for fitting of the new 6 pot callipers and vented 300mm discs. There were some minor issues which are being resolved tomorrow, but they fitted all OK, I will report on the brakes next week once I have used them in another post next week.

The end result was that I have been loaned the Williams Morgan with 5 link rear suspension and had a 90 mile drive home in variety of conditions. Various people have asked me if I have driven a Morgan with 5 link and what I think, so here it is.

The return journey was down the M4/M5 for 60 miles (a mistake as I spent 30 minutes in heavy traffic due to an accident ), and 30 miles on twisty A roads.

1. Rear end feels more stable, I believe due to less rear body roll

2. Turn in and stability is good, as a result

So is it better? Well this will depends upon what you are looking for IMHO, I have had a few opportunities to push hard through bends and there is no perceptible over or understeer. But if you are looking for, or expect, a more comfortable and easier ride then you may be disappointed. In fact I think it is much the same in ride comfort as a trad setup with pan hard rod, although maybe it is how it is setup on this car. I did hit a few big bumps and to be honest I did not think much difference to how my roadster reacts. The one area that is an improvement is cornering predictability, and I suspect once you feel confident could push on pretty hard. Much as how I experienced in Peter Ballards car as a passenger.

Is it worth the cost, a very difficult question to answer, depends on how deep your pockets are and what you want from your Morgan. IMO there are quite a lot of owners out there who like to think they are raging boy racers but aren't really , maybe I am one of them. If you are then you will probably like how it feels and improves cornering. If you are a more tame driver then maybe its not for you.

I would advise anyone considering it drives a car with the 5 link for a sensible amount of miles first and makes up their own mind.

I will be returning to William on Monday morning and will take the pretty route with down some varied A roads with some nice twisty bits, so will try and push a bit harder and report further.

Adrian

Was there any mention of the price fitted? I spoke with them this morning and they promised to get back to me with a number, but alas nothing yet. I appreciate that it is not going to be cheap, with the fitting taking approx. 10 hours of labour, plus the cost of the kit.

I suspect there is going to be an impressive reduction in weight , one Morgan leaf spring probably weighs more than the entire kit. Is the leaf spring unsprung or sprung weight, I am not sure?

If the improvement is in the handling rather than the comfort we have an opposite situation to the front, where the softer main springs coupled with the spring assisters definitely do give a much better ride and control over poor road surfaces, and in my opinion this is more immediately noticeable than the handling gains.

I certainly intend to test drive it thoroughly before making up my mind and committing to any expenditure.

Andy, I have no idea about cost but I would be prepared for a big bill plus around £1k labour I reckon.

There is definite handling improvement, steering being very positive, but will it be worth the cost? That will depend on how you use the car, if track days and fun runs are your bag then maybe. To get the benefit on roads with say a nice set of bends your probably going to be pushing a bit too hard, from a sensible driving perspective.

One thing to remember which a friend pointed out to me, is that there is still another issue with the rear axle, under cornering the wheel on the outside of turn will tuck under at road contact. This is due to drive shaft flex, it bends, the fulcrum point being the outer drive shaft bearing. I believe there are a few videos about showing this happen. There is no simple solution for this other than to replace the drive shafts with beefed up ones, but in my mind that might put undue stress at the bearing point on the wheel, or independent rear suspension with floating half shafts.

In my mind a Morgan corners and handles quite well already if it has decent adjustable shock absorbers, front brake reaction bars, and a panhard rod, and a anti-tramp bar for a car with more power, obviously it needs to be setup right as well.

It depends what you want, there will be gains but wether the cost is worth it will be down to each individual's view.

Difficult to believe the 5LL suspension would be a disaster considering its on the APR4 as far as I know so I am still keen to get a kit , cart springs don't have much give when hiting bumps !

One advantage will be the ease in which the springs can be changed or adjusted to give different ride attributes. Adrian says that there wasn't any real improvement in comfort but that may be down to stiff springs being fitted.

I would resist comparing one set up to another, it really depends on how well they are designed and implemented as to whether they work or not, same with the trad set up.

Jays, as you say it may have stiffer springs but I suspect not, I will ask Henry. I would have thought it would be set up with comfort and improved handling in mind, as its prime purpose was to demo it to us lesser mortals.

There could be the danger of this falling into the category of the latest must haves when in reality most of us are quite happy with the standard set up and a few tweaks like reaction bars are all we really need. Ah there's the nail on the head, Wants and needs, quite different animals!

It's probably me but I'm beginning to find myself left behind when it comes to technological advances.. My camera has more features than I'll ever use, same as my phone, my DVD player, even my central heating controls. At the moment my Morgan suits me well and I know 5 link suspension would be just another thing I'd never get full benefit from.

It's happened before with MGB suspension. Usually at significant cost and questionable benefit. The advantage of five link as said earlier is ease of changing ride height and spring rate. But where the cost is £X,000 I don't imagine there will be many takers, especially from those who change cars frequently.

Yes Dave, I tend to agree, I have taken up quite a lot of time looking into the Morgan trad suspension set up, made some changes on my +8 that resulted a very well handling car, but the trade of was comfort. Great for track days, not so good on bumpy pot holed roads. Its all about balance. I have some ideas for the rear end keeping the standard set up with some minor inexpensive tweaks, and likely to be easy to implement, which I will be experimenting with over the winter. I have discussed these with those more knowledgable than myself and the general consensus is that it will probably work, improving ride and handling, by how much we will have to wait and see. Once I have tried and tested I will advise. I have some similar ideas for a simple trad front set up, but will this will take a bit more time and money.

IMSO there is only so much you can do with rigid beam axle, and a pillar suspension system.

There is only so much suspension can do with a rigid axle.

Ideally you need an articulated rear axle with half shafts then it gives suspension the freedom to independently control each wheel.

It will be interesting to compare to the ARP4 to see how close they are the ARP4 doesn't have the constraint of working with existing chassis mounting points, it may or maybe not give it a subtle advantage?

The nice thing is people have the option should they wish to pursue it!