Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Moving Headlamps Outboard

Finally got the brackets to move the headlights outboard where they belong. Looks to be a pretty straightforward process, but I do have one question. If you look at the diagram below, #6 is the bolt for the upper coil-over mount. If I get the front wheels up off the ground, will the coil spring be completely relaxed so that bolt #6 can be safely removed? Or is a spring compressor required?

This doesn't answer your question any, but with the bar as shown, it bolts to the upper front frame members that the upper A arms bolt to. "IF" there is any way without looking totally dorky, keeping the bar might not be a bad thing to do as it would reinforce the two upper front frame rails and give the frame a bit more cross strength.

Maybe using the original headlight mounts for some smaller driving (fog) lights. With a bit of work the turn signal mounts may be able to be removed, but they may also still look good in that spot with the headlights just moved outboard.

I know I don't have anything in front of me and this may be just totally ridiculous to even suggest, but my fear from the very beginning with the upper frame rail cracks is that Morgan did NOT do a proper job to tie the front frame rails together side to side. The ACE has a similar bar, but Pete used it to tie his two upper bar together and it looks good.

Just a thought and you do have ALL the parts there, so try to see if it could work out for you to keep it and make it look like it's supposed to be there.

I'm sure someone else will answer your question soon.

No spring compressor is required, just jack the front end up and you can remove the bolt from the spring/shock unit.

Thanks Rog G. Glad to not have the complication of a spring compressor.

Dan L - I've thought about keeping the U.S. headlight bracket for strength. My concern is that the outboard bracket shares the two upper mounting holes with the inboard bracket.



If you look at the bolts currently holding the inboard mounting bracket, there's very little thread left past the nuts. If I were to add the outboard bracket, I'd be concerned that there would not be enough thread engagement. And I'm not motivated enough at the moment to try and source slightly longer bolts .

You might have to raise or lower the wheel a bit to find the neutral load position .

that is what I had to do. Also, you will need a longer bolt as it will not tighten to the "lock nut" part ( and not too long-and it is a TIGHT fit and the nut has to be in front).... ruined a signal that way as it settled on the muffler as the nut fell off and the bolt backed partially out.

I also had to "persuade" the new bracket toward the front a bit so the turn signal would not hit the suspension.

Send me a PM and I can send my phone # if you have questions.

Got the headlamps moved outboard, and I have to say it was about 5x the PITA it should have been. As a former design engineer, I can tell you Manufacturing would have had me hung if I gave them a design like that.

I got motivated and got some longer bolts and attempted mount the outboard brackets while retaining the inboard bracket for chassis strength as suggested by Dan Lockwood above. When you get them all bolted up, the outboard bracket was in contact with the exhaust on the RH side. I could not get a piece of copy paper between them.



So, back to Plan A with just the outboard brackets. Mounting the brackets was reasonably straightforward. The holes did not line up perfectly, so had to assemble loosely at first and then tighten. Then had to cut the wires to get the lights off the inboard bracket and into the outboard bracket. As I was moving them around, I had a moment of panic as the red wire came out of one of the headlights. Opened both headlights up and saw in the other headlight that the red wire was just electrical taped to the empty socket for the parking lamp - phew. Thought it had come off of the connector and I was going to have to pull out terminals and reattach wire, and it was already pretty short... Soldered and shrink wrapped all 10 wires and bolted them in place. As Rodger had warned, the turn signal lamp interfered with the upper suspension A-arm on the passenger side.



Had to get the persuader and bend the headlamp bracket forward slightly. Finally got it all reassembled and SUCCESS!



She's looking the way she should have from the start

As a side note, I was very surprised how fine the wires were for the headlamps. I has to be 22 gauge or something. You'd expect something a bit heavier for an incandescent headlight - LED maybe.

Looking good Scott👍

Looks so much better with the headlamps outboard - nice job.

Try slackening the exhuast manifold bolts and treaking round the pipes if you need more clearance - they rotate in the manifold when loose.
You will have to loosen the coupling to the baffle as well to let that end rotate.