Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Charles Morgan and Sliding Pillar

On a video on Youtube, I watched recently you have Charles Morgan saying "he will not change the front suspension of the Classic".

So what has changed recently with the long term project to replace the front suspension design of the classic.

eddie

from when was the video????

Sorry can't find it now.

Is there a long term project to replace the front suspension.?

I know that Rob Wells (of Librands fame) was developing a new Morgan IFS and showed a prototype at the Simmonds trade fair during the Centenary. This is, of course, independent of the Works. HTH.

Librands sell it now.

I'm sure the sliding pillar suspension was a wonderful and innovative solution when it was invented. I can not yet judge on personal experience but, reading the forums, it does seem to me to be the source of many problems at surprisingly low mileage.

Given that better solutions are now available I see no reason why Morgan should update. If vehicle manufacturers had not used the best technology available in its time we would still be driving cars with rigid front axles and drum brakes.

Well, it might be so that there will not be a change to the classic. The classic must surely be the 4/4.
But given the developments lately with the new Ford V6 engine I just can not see how it could be possible to keep the sliding pillar for those models.
But please let the 4/4 stay intact.

OK, how much is it? I guess it's expensive!

That misnomer - Sliding Pillar...
The trad Mog front suspension does have some advantages - it is simple, easy to maintain and keeps the tyre surface in road contact at a constant.
So, it doesn't have a great deal of travel, big deal. It can be set up to give more movement early in compression, by slightly shorter main springs, so that both main and rebound are not pressing on the stub axle (that's the moving bit BTW, not the pillar) concurrently. Though it seems counter-intuitive, having both springs in compression acting on the stub axle increases the spring rate. So, in standard form (until the new generation, shorter, rising rate springs appear) the Trad has falling rate suspension for the initial suspension travel.
There is an excellent article in an edition of Uncle Melvyn's magazine, The Morgan World, by Peter Ballard. Bit of a suspension guru is Peter. Riding in his 4/4 CVH is competely different to my unmodified '76 4/4 (with its falling rate setup).

Cheers,