Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Centra Compensator falling apart.....

Surely the BMW coupling has some torsional compliance otherwise what's the point of using it?

Also, I may be mistaken, but I understood the KH coupling to be from the current 2019 M4 so heavier duty than would ha e been available before this year

Phil Bleazey now uses custom-moulded high-temperature Polybush rollers.

I'm pleased to report that these are now in my car!

Do they sound or feel any different?

I would describe the Bleazey Centa retrofit as making the car drive as it should. There are no rattles on idle. There is smooth, jerk-free take off and power delivery. I can release the clutch with the engine on tickover and the car just moves forward with no drama. Not that it’s something I plan to do a lot, but it may come in useful in stop/start traffic.

When we took out the old rubber rollers, three of them looked OK but one had broken up.



This after 4 Years and 8,000 miles. The car was actually driving OK on the three rollers but it was a bit ‘clonky’ on idle and I’m sure that it would only have been a matter of time before the remaining ones failed.

Phil’s kit also improves other areas of the assembly.

He fits a beautifully machined spline insert that fits over the crank spline which is tailored to your individual engine. This is a much better fit than the stock item, is made of a harder material, has no jaw marks on the bearing surface (!) and incorporates an o-ring to further prevent oil leaks. [The factory use silicone sealant for this purpose by the way!]



He fits a phosphor bronze bush/bearing to support the forward end of the inner Centa, thus relieving strain on the bearing mounted within the clutch flange. This may not be a big issue if all 4 rollers are in good shape, but if one or more should fail then it’s inevitable that an imbalance will occur and that bearing will have a hard time.



It’s also pretty future proof because if the rollers should need replacing at some point in the future, this can be accomplished from under the car in less than an hour, rather than being an engine–out job. You can see the machined access hole in the above photo.

There are numerous other minor improvements that are also incorporated such as replacing fragile fixings with more robust ones.

On top of all the mechanical benefits, I got to spend a couple of days working alongside Phil to accomplish the job, so end up with a good understanding of how everything goes together. It was a pretty full-on, two day / two man job to remove the engine, do the mods and put everything back together and I was glad that I was working alongside such a tallented engineer. Phil will sell you the kit for you to fit yourself but I personally wouldn't recommend this approach unless you are very confident in your engineering capabilities.
On top of everything, Phil & Claire were very hospitable and a good time was had by all.

I can second Andys experience exactly , having being "Bleazied" in the very same way a few months ago.
Top modification designed and executed by a top engineer.
I now have approx 500 miles on since the mod and everything is as was on day one - perfect.

Nicely done! I wish he was closer.

Very interesting these rolls resistant to high temperatures.
Can we adapt them in the drum of the centa without any other modification?

They are slightly shorter than the standard Centa rubber rollers due to the changes Phil makes to enable removal from under the car. Having said that, Phil would be able to definitively answer your question.

Andy,

I have one of the BMW/Mercedes couplings from one of the original Harley M3W compensators in my shop. It does not have any rotational or torsion flexing. It does allow for a very little bit of flexing angle wise between the two couplings though.

From what I found when researching them, they have like a carbon fiber disc molded inside that is aligned with the six holes, three for shaft and three for flange. And it's probably not as "solid" as a metal to metal, but you're not going to get any wind up accel or decel with engine torque with the KH setup.

Over the years there have been several Harley adapters for VW transaxles and from the pictures I've seen, there's not room for any type of a compensator; so much be direct coupling through the clutch. These were not production, as in M3W production, but have seemed to last.

So just maybe there's enough damping in the BMW coupling to absorb the crank torque spikes.

If I were to start from scratch, I would use the Lovejoy type coupling that would allow for 5 to 14 degrees for rotational wind up and still handle the rated torque of the motors. I would not be worried about the extremely high torque spikes that some here have indicated, upwards to 1500#/ft. I would just go with the dyno torque reading and feel comfortable with that. I'm sure they would be the worst at idle, but no load then anyway. Under power and at rpms, my gut tells me that it would not have time to react to them anyway, but to just smooth them out like an average so to speak.

Rob is going to be putting his KH through very tough testing and time will tell. On the Miata forums, the part that's not a problem ever is the transmission. These Miata 5 speeds are very tough and almost indestructible. So M3W has that going for them.

The KH or any other coupling type connection is greatly simplified over the Centa or earlier Harley compensator setups. Fewer parts is always a good thing!

Dan, I certainly would agree that fewer parts equals greater reliability.

Looking forward to the KH testing results.