Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) rack and pinion steering question

I have had morgans most of my life,most of them have had a steering box bolted directly to the chassis.The latest one is a GDI plus 4 with rack and pinion steering, but still has a certain amount of vibration to the steering wheel.Having had a look underneath it seams the rack is solidly bolted via 2 aluminium machined brackets and 2 steel L shaped brackets, to the front frame,with no rubber bushes in sight.On my 70s lotus elan the rack is held in place by 2 moulded pieces of rubber and 2 metal clamps,insulating it from the chassis.Has anyone out there thought of,or done a conversion on a morgan ,insulating the rack from the front frame,so the rack does not get the vibrations,from the chassis

Isolating the aluminium mounting blocks from the frame is an interesting thought. Certainly on my previous car it may have helped as I could feel the engine and exhaust resonance through the hard wooden wheel. I don’t have this on my current car at all, only feedback/vibration from the road wheels. I have replaced my wooden wheel with a padded leather one and added a steering damper. The feel is much nicer and more relaxed. I would recommend both.

Setting the bolt torque might be critical, as with damper mounting. Over tightening would compress the rubber and remove the vibration absorbing quality. Locking the nuts would help keep the bolts in optimum tightness.

The inner track rod ends are metalastic bushes to isolate the steering
On a “conventional “ steering rack the track rods are metal/metal or metal/plastic and don’t provide any give

I have not seen the innards of the rack,but cannot imagine that there is sufficient rubber in the metalastic bushes,to alleviate all of the vibrations,there are quite a lot, especially with a wooden steering wheel,which I would like to keep. so I am thinking more rubber would be an advantage

I spent many years reading of steering issues on the MSCC DG, eMog and others though most wished to rid themselves of the St Malvern`s dance which over the years was perhaps resolved by the larger footprint of wider tyres..? To read of someone wishing to be isolated from the possibility of steering feel is new on me..., but then we are all..err...maturing to some degree. Perhaps if your tyres are of a lower profile with less sidewall deflection available than your earlier Morgan(s) there may be more bump thump and sideways deflection fed back into the steering... I`m guessing the state of the roads these days may not help... Hmm..?

I’ve got a quarter of a century’s experience of Morgans.
Dealers worldwide,and the Morgan factory come to me to sort out problems and to make parts

You really don’t need extra rubber in the rack mounts

If there’s a vibration issue look at

Tyre balance
Tracking
Rack free play
UJ/track rod end play

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As above.
Some have added a “ steering damper” when experiencing St Malvern’s Dance. I think there are details in gomog plus a couple of TM’ers have tried them.

I don't know about others but fitting steering dampers seems in a generic sense at least to hide an otherwise curable problem along the lines of those listed by Simon. Furthermore given the seemingly by design, limited self centering action, fitting a damper is surely going to aggravate such.

I welcome feeling reaction in the steering over bumps but would not describe such as vibration in any shape or form.

Richard, my front end was set up very nicely by the previous owner including fitting the RS kit. I didn’t have any issues to mask. I was just curious as to how a damper might feel as there were a couple of good reports on here and I do like fixing things that aren’t broken…. I fitted one of Simon’s thinking if I didn’t like it would go straight into the for sale section but it suits my lazy driving style. Yes it certainly reduces some of the feedback but hasn’t noticeably affected the self-centring, that’s still sharp. One of the other benefits that even my co-pilot commented on was that if felt more stable at speed on the motorway.