Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Dimension needed -Plus 8

Can someone help please. I need a couple of measurements to establish how low the ride height on my car is as I suspect the new engine and wet sump set up is too low at the moment and is either due to modified engine mounts or lowered springs.

What is the dimension to the ground from the centre of the lower front cross tube on the crosshead? What is the dimension from the lower chassis rail to the ground at a set point and what is the ground clearance under the sump?

Any 80's or 90's las 8 will do.

THANKS!!!!

A 1999 +8 is quoted as 6 inches of ground clearance in the Morgan 1991 -2009 an Ultimate Portfolio.

I will do the cross head to ground and chassis cross member to ground measurements tomorrow (please forgive the delay I have just tucked into a good bottle of red with the missus , and don't think I want to go and get grotty under the car right now) . I expect you realise that the sump is not the low point under the car , it is the gearbox cross member. Where do you want the chassis to ground to be measured from, normally the chassis is pretty much level and so the measurement from the bottom of the Z-section to ground should be pretty similar wherever it is taken I think.

Race cars used to mount the cross head higher in the chassis rail to reduce the ground clearance, If it seems too low , this may be the reason. Does the "cheek" of the frame front sit level on the bottom chassis rail , or is it moved up a few cms?

Thanks Andy, that's really interesting! The crosshead return "wings" or "Cheeks" are indeed above the bottom of the chassis rail by about 4cm.

That would certainly improve things, however, repositioning isn't straightforward as the brake reaction bars are bespoke and welded. Nothing that a bit of extra thought and work can't resolve though....

OK here are the measurements:

Bottom of frame front cross tube to ground : 17.2 cms

Bottom of bottom chassis flange to ground: 16 cms

Bottom of sump to ground: 12.5 cms

Bottom of gearbox crossmember to ground: 9.5 cms

The 6 inch figure given by John above equates to 15.24 cms , so is obviously the chassis to ground clearance figure , not the lowest point.

To the best of my knowledge my car is standard with respect to the chassis and engine mountings, so I would expect these figures to be typical (but we all know just how much things can vary!)

That's fantastic Andy, thanks for your help. I have a job ahead of me in the garage then but at least I know what's standard now.
Mike

Mike

If you are going to be starting to reposition things perhaps I should add a couple of data points:

1 The measurements were taken with the car unladen

2 The tyre size is 205/60 x 15 at 24 psi , many racers opt for lower profile 205/55 x 15

Thanks Andy, I just needed base measurements but assumed they were your tyre sizes. Mine are on 17" centre lock peg drive wheels with 245 rear and 225 fronts, both are low profile, so I'll set up ground clearance and rake accordingly.