Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Mulfab Bearings

Hi Colin, thanks for the tips , you were right about it being fairly straight forward but expect it's easier on a car lift than sitting on a narrow carport floor. You do need a hefty tug on the new springs to get them to flex in as you said. The first side went very straight forward but on the other I am struggling to get the kingpin to engage properly at the top end and wonder if you have any tips to help locate it. Spent ages fiddling trying to.line it up without success.
Incidentally for those thinking of also doing the job you have to remove the hub with brake disc and take of the bracket for the calipers to get the new Mulfab bearing assembly to go in. This wasnt mentioned in anything I read.
Thanks Ken

If your trying to align the top bolt try a medium Philips screwdriver down from above and turn stub slowly from lock to lock. You can feel the kingpin and drilled threaded hole. Slight movements of the stub will align it. Sometimes, as you found, they go straight in and sometimes they need a tweak.

I used to use a long threaded bolt and nut through the top to remove and refit to compress the spring and I machined a tapered lead on it and this had the combined effect of not only making it easy to start the thread but it also centralise the pin, just a long tapered lead kind of thing.

If your struggling and close to Solihull it’s in my toolbox if you want to borrow it?

BR
Colin

Used a long bolt instead instead of screwdriver and pushed and pulled the spring all ways but the kingpin wont go up enough to engage the top bolt. I tighten up the bottom clamp bolts I used to push it in place up to the point where the amount left on the bottom spring to go.up is less than the top bolt thread but it wont go in. It's as if the kingpin wont go in the top part of the top dust tube. I wonder if the top end has got damaged somehow. I just wondered if you had any tips or does the spring have to come out again to look at the top end. I hope not as I really struggled getting it in that side.

Ok there is a rubber bump stop in the dust tube, it’s just like a thick rubber tube. It’s possible it’s dislodged or deformed. Sorry but the fix is to strip it down again and try the dust tube on its own without the spring over the top of the kingpin and make sure that the top of the pin will go all the way up to the top of the dust tube if it doesn’t you need to push out the rubber bump stop turn it over and re-insert so you have a fresh side where the pin engaged and put a ring of grease around the top of the kingpin to lubricate its passage through the bump stop. That should sort it.

BR
Colin

Any news? Is it sorted?

Hope all went well

BR
Colin

Hello Colin, yes thanks. Didnt get chance to look over the weekend so yesterday I took it off and could see no reason why it wouldn't go in properly so tried again. It took about an hour of fiddling before it finally lined up properly to go in. Think I was just dead lucky on the first side. Like you said it's a fairly easy job but if doing it again I would make up a long threaded bar for the top to line it up like you mentioned.
I haven't been able to test drive it yet but am expecting good things as can now easily turn the steering wheel with the wheels on the floor .

Apart from the lining up problem I would say the worst part was all the old grease, it was the black stuff and it was everywhere , when I took the homemade covers off the rebound springs were full. The car had been fitted with the remote greasers,albeit one had snapped off before I bought the car last year and been replaced with a normal grease nipple, and I think the previous owner had been over enthusiastic with the grease gun.i have taken them off and prefer to stick to the standard grease nipples.

Many thanks for the advice, fitted new seals from Wolf as you suggested when I cleaned and greased up the wheel bearings. The service from Wolf was fantastic as the seals arrived the next day .

Fabulous news Ken, very satisfying to sort it yourself. That confidence that you know the ‘feel’ etc is so rewarding.

Agree about Cain at Wolf and such a lovely chap.

The comment about the amount of black grease is why I bought a parts cleaning tank when I was doing kingpins for owners, dreadful mess.

BR
Colin

Took the car for a long test drive today and it's a different car with the new Mulfab bearings and springs, the steering us a lot lighter, it may need a steering damper fitting as there is a small wobble about 55mph (Mulfab said it might need one,) but may see how it goes as was only slight. Interestingly since fitting the kit the front suspension doesn't seem to crash and bang over potholes as before, or us this wishful thinking.

Latest MOG magazine has an article about fitting top brake reaction bars, and after looking it up on this site I am considering fitting them as said to be another great improvement
Thanks to everyone who.offered advice.

Read the above with interest. Particularly about refitting the top spring. When I did mine I doubt Geoff Capes could have got the top spring in by hand. Even with the bottom spring as low as it could go the top spring was a good 2 inches too long to fit in the space available. Hence the home made compressors I had to use.

Sorry but it really is that easy, I was sceptical till I tried it. With the kingpin and bottom spring out and the hub needs to be stripped as the disc gets in the way. The hub drops in the lower chassis member, bearing and spring placed in position, and you grasp the spring in the middle with one hand and the top with the other... it's best I found if you are positioned slightly above the spring, dont try and do it slowly but in one go pull on the middle and push the top of the spring which should just lodge under the top member, then still holding it tight push it fully in position and it's in. Stick a thick bolt in the top for safety while you are fitting the kingpin and lower spring.
Ken