Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Replacement Rear Springs +4

So the time has come for me to look into new springs on the back.

Currently I am planning to go for the 4 leaf 4 seater springs that seem to be the go to replacement,

I did see a 5 link setup is available at a expensive price point.

What have other people gone for on the rear of their cars?

Thanks in advance

I'm changing mine to 4 leaf but currently have 7 leaf in my old 4/4.

Bought mine from BCC (recommended by Peter Ballard of SSL) - cost under £300 and delivered quickly a week or so ago.

Emailed Mulfab about theirs and they said they'd check spec and get back to me - that was about two weeks ago

I have owned 2 2008 +4’s one a four seat the other a 2. I had the 4 seats rear springs changed under warranty (several sets) and eventually the later 4 seat 4 leaf revised springs transformed the ride. I later sold it and moved on to a used 2 seat from the same year, the springs were shot so as I had been delighted with the ride quality of the 4 seat I fitted 4 seat springs to a 2 seat car and again the improvement was dramatic and I was totally delighted.

I expected a harsher ride but was assured by Peter Mulberry of Mulfab that the ‘rate’ was the same but the 4 seat had more ‘set’ so would give a slightly higher ride height. Hard to say how much higher as what’s normal? I measured 3 new cars at a Morgan dealer and all were different (centre of rear wheel to arch and even with a straight edge across rear deck, all were different to each other and even side to side!).

My guess is the car sat no more than 5mm higher so no big deal.

Totally and absolutely worth doing!

BR
Colin

This is the 2nd thread on this subject in last 10 days.

I went through the same thing and took a lot of advice and ended up with a great result.

See this thread

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthread...h/true/rear-suspension-2006-4#Post592599

I also have the Mulfab 4 seater leaf springs in my 4/4. Weightwise it should also work with a Plus 4 in the rear. I have been very happy with them for exactly two years. The car does not drive hard but nice and very controlled. When accelerating in the 4/4 I have a more direct conversion of power into movement than before. The old original springs had two problems. 1) they were too soft and the car constantly touched the frame. You can compensate this with too hard shock absorber settings, but that is not good and not the point of a good suspension. 2) The original too soft springs bend over before the power on the wheels changed into movement.
I did not notice any difference in the height of the car. Or if it should be, now the height is just right. In 2018 they cost £258 including shipping to Germany.

Well I can only pass on my recent experience with my +4. Make of it what you will…..

My car was in for warranty work just before Christmas so I had the original saggy springs replaced with 4 seater 4 leafs based on the recommendation that they could afford me extra ground clearance. That was appealing to me and given that the spring rates between 2 and 4 seater UK manufactured springs are the same so the ride quality should be the same too. On the face of it this made good sense. However I only managed a single 20 mile drive with 4 seater springs fitted before having them replaced.

Well I guess the recommendation was good from one perspective. They do offer extra ground clearance but unfortunately I’m very picky and found the ride and handling compromised. The car spent too much time sat on its rebound rubbers for my liking. Those are the rubber strips bolted to the chassis under the axle.

The difference between 2 and 4 seater UK springs is really just the camber. The extra chamber does give the extra height but it has another effect too. It increases the suspension’s bump travel which might be perceived as a good thing on a Morgan but at the expense of reducing the extension travel. And that for me on my car was a bad thing and compromised the suspensions performance. I believe on a Morgan around 10mm is the recommended min extension clearance at static height between the rebound rubbers and axle. On inspection with the 4 seater springs there was zero clearance on my car. I couldn’t even get a .025” feeler in the gap. There was another issue too. The axle u-bolts nuts were able to contact the chassis at full extension. Not something you would necessarily notice without checking nor something I wanted as I have read that the long term hammering effect of the nuts on the chassis has been associated localised chassis cracking. Whether true or not I didn’t want to take the risk.

The first image is of the new 4 seater spring fitted. You can see the result of the extra camber by the proximity of the u-bolt nut to the chassis return compared to the image below of the final replacement 2 seater springs with less camber.


After road testing this is me trying to poke in a .025” feeler between the axle and rebound rubber at static height with the 4 seater springs. A larger gap would mean that the u-both nuts could significantly bash the chassis on bumpy roads.


Hope it helps and good luck with whatever route you take.

It is a matter of money but if you want the best go the 5 link suspension route. Adjustable ride height, good ride and handling.

I note lowering blocks on the first picture, but missing on the second. I've read that they have an adverse affect on handling - could this have exascerbated the poor handling issue?

I was told that the lowering blocks were added to make the car look right and not appear unusually high at the rear, I don't believe they effect the travel. I’ve heard t too that they could compromise handling a little but I don’t know if that is true or not, I only drove the car around 20 miles. What was striking to me was the ride was more ‘jarring’ where I believe the suspension was running out of extension travel. The ride with the replacement 2 seater springs that had a similar stiffness but more travel was much better.

This is just my interpretation of my situation. Not all springs are the same or cars for that matter. Other are very happy with their 4 seater springs.

Dan White of Suplex has developed some new 4 leaf asymmetric springs which are of very good (UK-made) quality and designed reduce axle tramp. I have put them on my 2014 Plus 4 (the one with the 250 bhp turbo engine) to help control spring wind-up (along with anti-tramp bars). Even before the engine change the original springs on this 2014 car were useless -- sagging on one side even with no-one in the driving seat and someone in the passenger seat. I have been told the batch I got were made in Sri Lanka! I'm not sure if that's true. Anyway, I've only done about 2k miles on the new springs but I'm very impressed so far. Hope this helps.