Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Roger's new suspension aids

I got Rogers (like a piece of art looking) bumpers some weeks ago.

Thank you again for the great service Roger.

I currently have little time but yesterday I removed my alli tooltray to have a look at the axle.

There I found a verry hard bumper in the middle of the hoop. Is this a Morgan version of a bumper?

And if it is a part from the factory - did you remove it?

Was this an OEM addition? I've never seen it before.

I understand why it's been done but from an engineering point of view, I don't like it for 2 reasons.

Firstly, when the diff housing contacts the rubber it is transferring a shock load into the the rear hoop in it's weakest position and they've drilled holes in the hoop.

Secondly, when the diff housing contacts the rubber, in effect it stops moving upwards. However the wheels and outer parts of the axle will still try to move upwards and induce a significant bending moment into the joint between the diff housing and the axle tubes.

I'm not saying it will fail but it's not good engineering practice and, if it was my car, I would fit Roger's bump stops and remove this rubber.

Only IMHO and usual caveats apply.

My 2015 4/4 has this piece of rubber from new - but mine looks slimmer than the one shown and I had no witness marks on the diff. I did honestly wonder what its point was, my prop would rub the body long before the diff ever kissed the rubber pad. I agree very much with Ivormog's comments, I have a set of Rogers aids and they work perfectly.

My 2014 car has this fitted. No witness marks on the diff. The springs hit the body first before I fitted new springs.

+1 for Rogers aids - very worthwhile mod imho!!

The thin rubber is standard on recent cars, certainly from 2004.

My Roadster has a thin one, as did my 2012 4/4 Anniversary, and the 2016 narrow P4.

I have a set of Rogers rubbers, just no time to fit yet.

Big thumbs up from me for Roger's Rubbers!
Massive improvement. Only takes an hour or less to fit Dave........
Nick

I'm reasonably sure that my car in its original configuration did not have this rubber. Perhaps it was fitted to the 4/4s because the lowering blocks tended to allow a metal to metal contact on the hoop and/or the underside of the tool tray. Undoubtedly Roger's rubbers and a set of decent dampers are a better solution. If I recall correctly what Peter Ballard told me the Bilsteins have internal conical rubber bump stops.

All three of my cars have had the block on the diff.

Hi Bernt

Yes I think that is the factory bump stop. Pic of my 2006 4/4 below and mine looks a little thinner than yours. It wasn’t making contact and I didn’t remove it. My car would bottom on the heel board and the diff would hit the tool tray even with new springs.

Hopefully yours will not make contact when the new stops are fitted and optimised. You could always confirm by putting a smear of grease on the diff and seeing if it gets transferred to the rubber pad.





Peter, re the bump stops fitted to the dampers.

You can buy them and retro fit them to other types of dampers too not just the Blisteins. But I’m of the opinion that the adjustable stops offer a little more precision when it comes to fine tuning the rear. There’s a huge variation in the tolerances between cars let alone the difference in height across a single car so a ‘one size fits all’ bump stop might be a compromise. Being adjustable there is a secondary subtle benefit with the conical stops other than their main purpose of preventing body impact. They do add some useful progressive stiffness to the springs towards the end of the compression travel. Early days yet but for those that like going around corners fast I suspect they might be having an effect on body roll too.