Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Rebound spring gap ??

Slight Typo there John? No worries, we know you meant to say shouldn't. It definitely sounds like something's amiss. A complete strip of the front suspension is advisable here. If the cost of the SSL setup is prohibitive then just renewing the bronze bushes and fitting hardchrome kingpins would hugely improve matters.

If the car has been set up for sprinting/hillclimbing, then the previous owner might have fitted a set of Peter Mulberry's main springs, which were shorter than standard in order to make room for his steering bearing.

Yep should be shouldn't

Just an add to what has been said above. I replaced the front springs on my 73 4/4. The pair I took out were original, nearly 50 years old. They had sagged over an inch compared to the new springs.

Although I agree with the suggestions made here , I would suggest there could be an alternative explanation.

Before the advent of the SSL RS kit one of the tweaks made by owners was to cut the rebound springs by an amount so that they just touched the stub axle, is it possible that is the case here? This is easily determined by comparing the spring length against a new one.

Although the "drop test" will get the front end to settle into its normal static position , you can also achieve a similar result by turning the steering from lock to lock (although that may be very hard work in this case?) Not sure if the negative camber might affect this, do you know how many degrees of negative (normally 1 or 2)

I have the RS kit fitted to my +8, and I often see a significant gap between the rebound spring and stub axle , but once I have turned the steering a few times from lock to lock it reverts to a minimal gap which is the correct set up.

Fair enough, I’m 69 and have sagged a lot more than that

Congratulations Andy! Sadly it took a oddly long time to get to the obvious basics. On the other hand, unlike you, I do not
agree with the other suggestions here. But I am not as diplomatic as you.

No one here bothered to simply count the coils. I am attaching an image bellow showing a row of MMC rebounds. Forgive
the range but the MMC desperately cast about in modern years (post 2002) trying to figure out was wrong with their front end!
and by that time they no longer had the same level of acumen as the days of yore. I also I copied the rebounds of the person
who asked this group for help explanation, the one to the far right.

I began cutting my rebounds 22 years ago at the suggestion of John Sheally, the famous US racer who did the same since
the 1960s. I got the UK story from working with Bill Beck, Service then Development chief at the MMC, trained Baldwin.
As far back as the 1950s, the Factory staff realized that the rebounds prejudiced the front suspension, handling and travel distance.
Discretely, so that the"guv" would not know, they removed the rebounds entirely for the Morgan entries in trials and hill climbs. YES,
they used to have fun too! And, after all, it was costless. The crowd they competed against caught on, but cut off a 2-3 coils..like this
fella's . Also costless...

However, communities cling to illogic forever..spending HUGE amounts to avoid common sense. 40 years later, Peter Ballard, a
modern car designer joined the long line-up of moggers who use their eyes, soon after he bought his Morgan. He came to the same
conclusion my wife did after her first ride. "The suspension is broken, FIX IT". I, had already read enough Morgan stuff to adopt
illogic myself "all Morgans do that" syndrome. She was right, and I was wrong. Ballard replaced the rebounds with a 5 quid
progressive springs..though 3 pound rubber rebounds does the same job. A loose spring can rattle. Of course, Suplex same tweak is
a bit more than "costless" In my case, I merely cut down the springs, chose my tyres carefully along with mldler dampers.,..(dampers
are not really needed at all.( PM put them on because the community felt there should be some.

In short, assuming the tyres are properly chosen and the suspension greased,,I would guess that the subject front suspension is
better than 99% of those here. Note that he is a newbie whoose first post contains "first impressions it drives well". PLEASE don't make
the poor guy man spend unnecessary 1000s fixing something that is not broken.

Lorne

WOW. Lots to think about now. Maybe I 'leave well alone'. Looking at the pictures from Lorne it seems clear that the rebound spring has been shortened in order to make the explained 'cheap' fix. New picture shows the presence of steering bearings.
Tyres are Toyo 165 and not old - car has a steering damper which I'm guessing will contribute to heavy low speed steering??
I will lubricate all steering and suspension, check tyre pressures and see what results I get.
I can't thank you all enough for your inputs - I'm learning all the time.
Peter H.

Please let us know how it goes

The less expensive solution is shortening the spring, but :

pro : less expensive

cons :
. you have to dismantle the suspension, reassembly it without the rebound spring, measuring the height of the shortened rebound spring, shortening the rebound spring and assembling again the suspension. Two dismantling/assemblies. In your case you have just to measure and find a rebound spring with the correct length.
. by cutting the spring : you increase the stiffness inversely prortional to the number of coil.
The sit of the spring is not flat, you have cutted the flat coil on one end. Generaly the both ends of the active coils are diametrically opposite in order to avoid bending, you are not sure to get this.
. If the main spring is shortening in the time, the gap increases and cannot be corrected.

Perhaps SSL has a cost but offers a clean alternative and allows for adjusting the gap in the time. SSL kit includes paired dampers and bearing. During the assembly, compression of the main spring is less than in the standard and assembly is easiest.

Certainly not best practice just to cut springs for the reasons you say. It also looks by the witness marks as if the spring is never compressed and the slding axle maybe just kisses it.

I get the idea but for me frankly I like the standard set up