Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) 2005 Roadster Axle issue

Well I will be darned, I had been in correspondence with the magic Dave W, as I was changing my Leaf springs on my 2005 Roadster from 6 to 4 leaf. It took a while on my lonesome however all good, much better drive etc. until I noticed it was leaning to the N/S, I popped under to check and found that the axle on the O/S is sitting on the bump stop and the N/S is not, its some 20-25mm above, which strangely enough is the difference in height I measured from ground to arch between the two.
Which side is incorrect?
Any thoughts?
Please don’t tell me I need to take it all out again!
Many thanks for looking, Paul

One inch of movement static before bump stop doesn't sound much to me and on the bump stop clearly wrong. Were new springs correct and matched for your Roadster?

Worth checking dampers have the articulation to match as well.

I think the 20-25mm is normal - as soon as you sit in, that gap will get bigger.According to Peter Ballard, if you jack the front of the car so the front wheels are just off the ground, there should be between 10-15mm clearance between the bumpstops and axle.

I think some springs are differently torsioned left and right to compensate for a solo driver. Have you got a set of those?

When mine were done, we had problems aligning the dampers. A spacer was required to prevent the damper shaft bending & binding. Roger on this forum has been experimenting with a sliding top mounting. Unfortunately due morgan differences just changing the springs does not always work. You need to do some trigonometry & get dampers that allow an amount of useable movement. Good luck.

If the camber was the same on the bench, There may be some stiction either at the ends or damper movement.

Did you tighten the spring bolts with the weight on the wheels? If not, do that first.

I would give it a while to settle, and if it stays like that, disconnect the rear dampers to make sure it's not these which are sticking, because as you know, the geometry is way removed from optimal.

Thanks all, I do have SSL front suspension, as far as I can tell they are tuned. I had done a 90 mile round trip with a passenger. Drive wise seems fine much, much better even over sleeping police persons.
Leafs were sourced from MulFab, for the car, after discussion with them, along with U bolts Saddle plates. Camber was same as the old 6 leaf springs, when compared.
It does make sense to me that the car leans lower N/S as the axle is higher in the arch than that of the O/S. So if the O/S is sitting on the bump stop there would be a larger gap between the top of the wheel and arch that side.

I did tighten the shackle bolts while on the wheels.
Dampers did take a bit off grief (bend wise) I’ll address that tonight, I have spacers now.
I'll report back soonest.

No difference with the shocks removed. Rear shackles loosened car bounced about etc.
I checked the level of my garage floor. Then the axle hoop and its definitely listing, so unfortunately it looks as though it could be the body of the car at fault as opposed to the springs or axle.
Uhm, I will call up Neale at MulFab see if he can shed any light on it.
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Well pics didnt seem to work, try again!
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Pics here Abbo. You need to have an image link between the img tags (otherwise it won't display in post) which typically end in .jpg, .gif or .png

Richard, just a thought have you got the springs the right way round? ie north to south. I seem to remember one end is slightly longer.

David Byrne