Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing HardChrome Kingpins

Spanner Juggler has got a real horror story regarding this. Someone had been checking wear with the wheel jacked up so it was off the wear point. The king pin was in a truly horrible state, the car must have been a nightmare to drive.

Seems counterintuitive, but the soft bush material acts as a matrix into which the grit embeds and is then held there firmly whilst it grinds away at the kingpin.

Gentlemen JohnV6 and Hamwich, I appreciate your consideration and warnings. I can assure you the car was NOT checked jacked up but on the ground and by a very seasoned Morgan mechanic and -driver (as his father and brother), with a past in rally and racing. Actually I remember him commenting upon the right and wrong way of checking - being clearly negative to the wheels-off-the-ground method. I was not present at the MOT, but cannot do anything else but beleive that the checking has been properly done. The car is working perfectly, no steering issues. Anyway, I will keep an eye on this and also check with my mechanic the next time I see him, just to be sure. If there is a lesson to be learnt somewhere, I will give you an update.

Robbie,
this is the devol bush thread. I appreciate there are 2 schools of thought on jow to test the play.
http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/printthread/Board/8/main/26682/type/thread

Confused, but at a higher level.... I will read thoroughly once more and have a chat with my mechanic, then give you all an update. Thanks, John.

My car with Devol bushes showed only minor wear at 48k miles. When Rutters changed the king pins they showed me photos of it near worn through.

That method of checking makes total sense. Working backwards though if you can feel and see stub axle play with car jacked up or on ramps then:

a) it will be worse in the normal suspension loaded position
b) it points to worn bushes although there may be some kingpin wear as well

This leads to another thought though. If hard chrome kingpins last almost indefinately with regular greasing do stub axles still have to re-bushed on a relatively regular basis, or does the hard chrome somehow benefit the usual spiral groove phospor bronze bushes?

An exemple of kingpin wear with Devol bushes. 37000 miles, greased every 750 miles from 9900 miles (second hand car).

Replaced with hard chrome kingpin, spiral groove phosphor bronze bushes and SSL KIT.

Barely worn compared to mine

That's impressive wear.

I had a plan to replace the Devols in my previous car with these Hilube Vesconites and hard chrome pins. However when I sold the car at 25k miles the Devols were still passing the MOT so never got to fit them. With their super low COF I was hoping for a ride improvement as well as extended life.




I had also planned to give these PTFE wipers a whirl. They attach to the lower stub tubes above the bottom spring in an attempt to keep the muck out.



One day perhaps….