Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) My23 brakes

Frustrating and a long-term blight on the vehicle and the brand....

Hi Ian
Luddite could be right in that brake fluid could be part of the problem, and YES you should get your brake fluid tested for water and replaced when required. We have already done the twice in the Plus Six.

However there is nothing in your car's brake system that cannot be retro-fitted. The brake system is simply an collection of components that starts with the brake pedal and ends with the pad gripping the rotor. To rectify the situation short of ripping the whole system out you need a brake expert with considerable experience. As with your suspension problem you went to suspension design engineers, in our case Peter and Dan at SSL. You didn't just replace the springs or the dampers, but you fitted a purpose designed system. With your brake system it is not an simple as just replacing four complete assemblies. We may well have more than one simple problem so you/we will need to work through the whole system. YES starting at the end of the system by replacing the brake pads may well be a logic, simple and relatively cheap point. And yes you may well effect some improvement.

It's worth a CRACK!!
Kerry

Hi Kerry,
New pads and brake fluid replacement it is then. As you say, it’s the logical thing to do and the cheapest option. Car currently in winter storage so won’t be done until April.
Hope you get your issues resolved. It does sound as though they are more significant than mine. In some respects I think I’ve been spoilt having driven Lotus for 15 years and they all had brilliant brakes I.e. Elise, Evora and Exiges. I am just trying to get a similar feel and performance.
Please keep us posted.
Cheers
Ian

NZplus six. Yes brakes are brakes & agree this can be sorted. My 4/4 has a completely different system but exhibited similar symptoms re brake travel. It transpired that somehow race spec rear shoes had been fitted. Also the auto adjusters were badly set up. Hence the peddle travel was caused by having to expand the shoes & then not a lot of friction as normal driving, does not really heat up the rears.
How all this came about is still a mystery as I have the invoices for standard shoes not race spec.
Anyway it was all sorted free of charge by the garage owner. Really interesting in how quickly he disassembled & rebuilt the rear brakes, without removing the hubs. But they do support some well known race teams.

Iain Litchfield is the man to talk. to re. brake/suspension upgrades for the CX range.. He did the development work for Morgan on the earlier CXs and had a package that transformed the cars. However Morgan did not follow through with it as it was too expensive for them, so they cobbled their own solution together and the result was a recall for brakes and numerous reports of saggy springs and dodgy ground clearance.
I do know that Litchfield developed springs and dampers for the CXs with Nitron and much R&D went into the Nitron package. I believe the brakes Litchfield used for the package were AP Racing but I don't know any more details. Needless to say, Litchfield is not very happy with the way Morgan treated them. but you can go to them and have all or part of the package retrofitted to your CX. This is what I am doing the early part of next year.
If you don't know who Iain Litchfield is, look him up, he has quite some resume and Litchfield Motors is a stone's throw away from the Malvern Works.

Same Litchfield that did all the Japanese import stuff when 22B and GTR was all the rage.
I did not realise that they were so close.

Did they develop the 'Godzilla' GTR ? I know the Litchfield name from somewhere...

He is probably the best known BMW tuner in the country and yes he did the GTRs and Supras etc, etc, but his workshop was full of Ferraris, Lambos and McLarens when I was there a couple of weeks ago most being race prepared. There was also a Porsche that had been so modded that I couldn't work out what it was (and forgot to ask).
He is a guru and has been in the top tier for many years.
Morgan were shortsighted (mad) not using the package he developed, as the recall must have cost them far more £££ than the extra cost of the Litchfield package over their failed solution.
Typical Morgan mentality...

ThAnks for sharing. I will contact Lichfield in the new year.. 👍👍👍

Let us know how you get on, if all goes well there could be a long queue, me for one.