Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 A useful afternoon tracking down rattles

A useful afternoon tracking down rattles on my Morgan Three Wheeler

I decided this morning that I could no longer ignore the jingle-jangling that was going on with my M3W, so this afternoon I set out to track the culprits down and eliminate them.

1) The fuse box cover was slightly loose.
2) The right hand footwell access panel was slightly loose
3)The battery was very loose and one hold down rod was not in the correct slot. The strap had been tightened against the lock nuts further down the hold down rods and was not actually holding the battery down at all. The top of the battery was slightly scuffed. I put three layers of rubber self amalgamating tape under the hold down alloy bar to protect the battery, undid the lock nuts, repositioned the loose hold down rod into the correct slot, tightened the hold down strap so the battery was now firmly held and only then, did I back the lock nuts up against the underneath of the strap.
4) My Klaxon which has a pretty inadequate single point fixing was not 100% tight and also needed more anti vibration sponge rubber strips at the back under its motor and at the front under the horn.
5)The anti-rattle foam rubbers at the lower front edge of the mountings of the bonnet, either side of the locating pin holes, had pretty much worn through. Put some strips of heavy rubber tape on top of the foam tape.
6) Most of the Philips screws holding the metal trim under the leather padding on each side "arm rest" were loose. Two were on the point of falling out.
7) Glued down the fabric padding at the rear corners of the bulkhead, where the bonnet rubs against them. The corners had all come unstuck.

It is a lot better than it was but there is still a horrible resonant generated rattle from somewhere around the rear of the right hand (passenger on my LHD vehicle) foot well or just above the passenger seat. I think this may be a two person and stethoscope job to track down. I wonder if the seat belt buckle mounting is loose.

Wilson

Sounds like you had some fun......

It's worth checking under the roll hoop grommets. On some cars there is an alignment problem between the chassis and body which means that the roll hoop isn't centred in the bodywork aperture. Once the rubber grommet wears away, you are left with 'metal on metal' which can cause strange resonant noises just behind your ears.




The fix is to remove the roll hoop, grind away the offending bodywork and reassemble with new grommets. You may need to grind away quite a lot!

Another "normal" noise comes from the outer seat belt bolts that are usually too long and the ends hit the outer bodywork panel. Shorten the bolts by about 3 mm and it sorts the problem. The bonnet forward corner pads make a big difference, although it also make fitting the Dzus fasteners a bit more tricky if they are padded out. Headlamp retaining rims also rattle, some tape under them and then refit usually sorts them.

This is not the car for someone who hates rattles...like me. It is a challenge trying to get them all. I have experienced a few "strange" rattle free trips but they don't last for long before another arrives. It maybe makes you appreciate them when they happen, that engine is never going to be smooth.

The only rattle that really bothers me is the pinking from the engine at wide open throttle over 4000rpm with the later ECU and a Krazy Horse Stage 2 (569 cams/free flow exhaust) that I find really isn't great. Sadly it seems there is no one that knows how to tune with Protune 2 and has a M3W compatible dyno anymore, but that is a different problem.

Where did you mount your Klaxon?

Just behind the RHS footwell access panel. That was easy but I did put a stiffening panel of aluminium on the underneath of the footwell top panel and bonded to it. The difficult bit was wiring it up. The wires to the original horn were only about an inch long before they disappeared into a loom and it was quite difficult to connect new wires to them solder and then shrink sleeve. I have not used a relay as the Klaxon only draws 3A which is the same as the original horn and I would guess the switch is good for at least 10A.

Many thanks all for the useful rattle source suggestions. I will look into those. Given where I think it originates from I suspect the seat belt bolt is the likely cause.

The pinking on my M3W was wholly cured by G56 exhausts, G56 Ram air intake and a G56 ECU. A fair increase in performance as well.

Wilson

I have a Nautilus 130db horn mounted on a home made bracket fixed to the oil tank mount. Also for the novelty feature I had an American fire truck siren mounted next to the battery.

I'll send you a copy of the KH map in mine when I get back from the Jungfrau-Treffen. I also have KH exhausts a d 569 cams but no pinking

Thanks Chris. 👍 I have learnt that the later S&S ECU will not accept an earlier ECU map though. Sorry for the thread drift.

That is why I changed my whole ECU for a G56 one. Expensive but I have never regretted it. Fitting the G56 exhausts reduced the cylinder head temperatures next to the exhaust exits, compared to the heavily baffled originals by around 80ºC.

Wilson