Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Need reassurance

Colin, you may want to ask Phil if they will extend the warranty given the lockdown.
John

AVO adjustable shock absorbers do make a difference and they are not expensive. If the car still has the factory fitted items, they may be MOT safe but are well past needing changing. On our current (2014) car, I replaced the standard shock absorbers at around 20,000 miles.

Good luck.

Phil is very knowledgable and helpful - pleased you were able to speak to him.

With regard to the petrol smell and cracked filler pipes, I have been working on the back end of the car the last few days and kept noticing a petrol smell which i thought was from the pipe (which is quite cracked). Turns out it was coming from the filler cap. Mine has no breather (1974!) so presumably has to have a vented cap. Is there a rubber seal in the cap which could perish?

Yep, mine has a small hole in the cap which I make sure I keep clear with an air line. I think it originally had a cork seal but I make my own out of some fuel resistant rubber I have. I keep it well covered in vaseline to peserve the rubber, and maintain the seal.

The T16 car has a pressurised tank and charcoal filter. It is a sealed system. But on mine the hose to the charcoal cannister by the wiper motor had perished.
Also there is a pipe from the inlet manifold to the ECU that I replaced.

If it is a strong smell I would suspect the filler or feed lines.

Hi Colin. How are you getting on now? I have just remembered that when I got my Plus 4 brand new 5 years ago it had a tendency for the front end to start bobbing up and down over certain road surfaces and at certain speeds. I thought it was something I would just have to get used to but it gradually went away over the course of the first year, presumably as "things" bedded down/wore themselves in/got lubricated properly.

Thinking about your “wandering” steering. When I got my new 4/4 in 2011, the steering was similar. Turned out that it had some toe out, rather than toe in.
Maybe get Alon Whites to check the geometry. Or increase the toe in a “tad”.

UPDATE

Well, the petrol smell has been under thorough investigation by me over the last few days and the source of the smell has been found.
All the obvious suggestions were checked, from filler cap seal through filler pipes and feed lines to the engine.
As informed this model is a pressurised tank system and so the lines checked accordingly including the pipe from air intake to Ecuador unit.

I purposely filled the tank to the brim and then up to the filler cap in order to check everything (wouldn’t normally do that)
With all the back end stripped off and the exposed tank open to the very hot sun, after a few minutes fuel mist was appearing from the seam that joins the fuel sender unit to the tank, I had previously dismantled and cleaned / reassembled the actual sender unit top. The seam had opened up in the heat along a 20mm line.
I took the car for a run and was overpowered by the fumes, upon return after just a mile the tank top was swimming in fuel and the fuel level in the tank had dropped by over an inch, which just shows how much it was throwing out.

A temporary repair has been done with Evo Stick metal repair until Allon Whites can effect a permanent job.

Now we can concentrate on the terrible ride quality, tomorrow I will clean and oil the rear springs and grease what I can. By dropping the front tyre pressures to 18psi, that has made a slight difference to ride quality at the expense of heavier steering at walking pace speed.
I will fit adjustable shocks to the front ASAP.

Well done finding the leak, that could have been very nasty.

I hope you have success with sorting out the handling with the dealer as these cars are worth the wait for their idiosyncratic qualities and once they bite they don't let go of you.

Good luck.

I still cannot see any mention in these threads of the age of the tyres. I would address that first before lashing out on shockers.