Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) So, have you driven your Morgan today?

5 of the GEG made it to the Rumburgh Buck. A great cross country drive via lots of twisties. The pub is a CAMRA pub and the N E Suffolk CAMRA pub of the year.
Oub website link
A nice pint of Suffolk Bitter , fish , chips & mushy peas plus blackberry & apple crumble iwth ice cream for £21.
Five of the four cars. Belle being the odd one out parking wise


Other desserts were available

I cannot stress how good this dog friendly pub was. The Mauldons Suffolk Pride was excellent ditto the food which is served seven days a week and very reasonably priced by today's standards.

Thanks to Fox Terrier for suggestion. I will be back for one.

Great photos....

Agree regarding only just nipping up top rubbers

This is a photo of the top rubbers from Spax front shocks and there is definitely a spacer visible

Thanks Jon although a little confused as to why you would not tighten down fully onto metal spacers. Your pic illustrates my earlier post regarding the SSL supplied Spax shocks, allowing a limited light compression of rubbers when fully tightened down.

Bob and Doug, the SSL instructions re not overtightening top rubbers appear to refer to the Bilsteins supplied by them in earlier RS kits and likely not updated for the Spax adjustable gas shocks now offered. The advice is still relevant to lower eye mount rubbers though which can be overtightened.

Given the universal front damper top mount plate has an enlarged hole to accommodate the metal spacers, I imagine the Bilstein's and maybe others have mount rubbers with a shoulder to fit within this hole and limit the shock spindle sliding around within? The spacer solution makes so much more sense to me though and cannot see why fully tightened they would cause my mount plate to break, as you can see the rubbers do not appear to be over compressed.

Having driven over 400 miles back from Ullapool, with one front damper disconnected over every conceivable type of road and surface, what I do know now is that your choice of damper on a Trad, certainly at the front, will make little difference to how your Trad drives.

The single setting Spax on my 2016 Plus 4 were very good. I couldn't resist changing them for AVOs, but the difference really is marginal. Whether they are better is subjective, and what really is "better"?

Although I've ordered replacement parts for the AVO, I decided to fit some Spax gas adjustable on the front. Another probably futile experiment but we'll see.

The bottom mounting..the AVOs have two bushes with a steel tube inside. The fixing stub has a raised section beyond the threads, so I tighten the nylock until the penny washer seats on the raised section.
The Spax just have two bushes, without a steel insert

At the top, the AVOs have a dished washer, then a bush with a raised lip to locate in the hole in the bracket on the crosshead. Next another bush with a raised lip then a dished washer on top, plus nut.

The Spax have two smaller but thicker bushes, each has a dished washer both sides, and one of each washer is shaped to locate in the fixing hole. Interestingly the Spax have a nut and locknut, rather than a nylock. There is no metal sleeve in the bushes supplied.
I'll nip the nuts up until they look right and feel right on the spanner.

That's a long-winded way of saying it really won't make a lot of difference.

The Spax have 28 clicks, so I'm starting out at 12. See how we go.

Now I'm tempted to fit Spax adjustables to the rear........

Richard, I'm not saying that over tightening definitively did break the top plate but over tightening the top bush will put extra stress into the top plate.

If you think of the movement of the damper, the bottom mount attached to the stub axle moves through a significant arc when steering. The top mount is fixed to the cross head so it can't move.

As the bottom mount swings around the arc, if the top mount is tight it will put a bending stress into that top plate and also into the rod of the damper.

All of course IMHO and ready to be proven wrong.

Also, The wording of the SSL instructions specifically mentions the Spax damper in the same paragraph as the not crushing statement.

All I would add to that is that if you watch the movement of the damper when steering lock is applied, the piston rod rotates in the damper body. So probably not much stress on the rod, but a significant stress is put through the bushes, top and bottom. Even initial fitting distorts the bushes, and it's the same at the rear.

The biggest crashes I hear are from potholes on corners where the suspension goes fully compressed and gives a single loud bang. Usually from the outside wheel. The question here is what causes the bang. It sounds metal to metal, but that could only be from spring binding unless there's compromised contact elsewhere. The top if the kingpin has that simple rubber tube bumpstop, but that shouldn't bang hard. It could be the damper bottoming out, and if that happens the shock will travel into the lower mounting on the stub, and the top plate. But even then the bushes will take the load.

After 15 years I still can't figure out what causes that occasional hard bang on corners.

Not today, but it will now be a bit quicker to get the Morgan out. The driveway obstacle left for a new home this morning.
Tomorrow should be heading for the AV8 cafe at Kemble (Cotswold) airport as a Spitfire is supposed to be running passenger flights. We have a table booked for lunch, so with the nice weather, taking the Morgan seems to make sense.