Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Stumped on fluid leak

Thought I'd post an update.

Did another inspection and took it for a drive. Upon the first undulation in the road I felt a hard return. Keep in mind I was only going 5-10 mph where the brick road I'm on joins up to a slightly high asphalt. Well, the next 3 miles I drove the front end felt brittle. I pulled over and took a look underneath. Both lower springs now have a massive gap like the one I posted initially on the drivers side and very strangely the front end is sitting a tad lower with almost a tucked wheel look. I also found splatter on the side tyre wall of whatever fluid is leaking.

I drove home gingerly and now waiting for Sept 21st for when it's booked into an independent.

I will say that Oakmere did reach out after me sending them the pics. They advised I should bring it back to them as they feel it just needs a cleaning and perhaps a top up on grease. I've explained I did that and seeing as it's all supposed to be new from last month, I explained that to me it seems something is very wrong in how it was installed. Waiting to hear their response. The question is am I better off cutting my loses and paying yet again for the kingpins to be done correctly....

That’s such a disappointment, beginning to wonder if you ever really needed new king pins, your old ones at least worked properly.

The right thing to do I suppose is to give the garage the chance to retrieve their reputation over the treatment of both you and the car although I totally understand any reluctance you may have to do that.

It seems unfair that you have to pay twice for a job you don't even know with certainty needed doing.

Good luck with your resolution to this problem.

It's a pity you are not closer, my independent did mine for £400.

I’m a novice, just like their apprentice might have been. Maybe he put oil instead of grease in his grease gun? Pump a hefty amount of grease in and see what squeezes out? Too daft?

Maybe not and worth go.
I would hope though Oakmere sort this rapidly for you

Not daft at all. I'm being daft as the king pin shaft is quite slick with what looks like oil. Might film it in case you are correct and I'm then asked to prove. That's my after work chore blocked in!

So, I pumped some grease into the kingpins. Keep in mind I've put on approx 250 miles since they were replaced. I managed to get 5 pumps on the lower and 6 on the upper before anything major started to push out. IIRC I only managed 2-3 in the past. I also noticed that the grease was coming out quite black, the stuff I was pushing out. I have the red stuff in my gun. As I've only ever used red, is the clear/yellowish grease known to turn black? Apologies if that is a daft question. It wasn't all black, 80% black with some showing as clear.

As for the lower springs. They were both not compressed whatsoever when I parked up last night and this afternoon I went out to the garage and found them compressed. I can only assuming the something isn't allowing the kingpins/suspension to compress after decompressing or something is temporally seising things up.

Lastly, I felt the darker 'old' grease was not as thick as either the red stuff or the clear stuff that was also coming out. Might explain the slick oil-like coating on the kingpins themselves.

Looking forward to the 21st when a professional can take a look and sort it.

Not in the least unusual for old grease squeezed out by fresh to be black Perry. Road dirt and even minor wear of sliding components will affect the colour.

I started off four wheel ownership just using a few squeezes of my Abnox miNI Wanner grease gun on each of the four grease nipples. I'm up to around ten on each now and every 750 - 1000 miles. I too use the red & tacky but have never seen it come out that colour.

I do clean off old after greasing session using a long old sock to prevent it getting onto brake discs. If you do get any on same, clean off with brake cleaner.

Ditto. I use folded kitchen paper towel not an old sock.

Whatever you use to clean up, you need to be so careful to avoid breaking off the speedo sensor. Having been formed from a hollow bolt, it is quite brittle.