Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Spirited Driving

Yes Devol bushes. Mine always seemed fine though GoMog has some horror stories on them.

Many thanks to all who have responded - your thoughts and suggestions certainly have given me something to work with. I'll probably take the car to Revolutions in Perth (nearest Morgan Dealer) and ask them to review the steering geometry / set up / parts etc. The steering wheel is a Moto Lita - wooden Rimmed wheel and fairly large so definitely not an aftermarket sporty job. I did drive a Morgan at Revolutions before deciding to buy one however on a test drive you don't really get to throw the car around. There are plenty of people racing them and doing auto tests etc so I am guessing a more agile feel must be possible!

In my experience Devol should read Devil bushes

Really ? That is the opposite of my experience , I would go for negative camber to improve turn-in.

The Morgan front suspension will always be heavier than a Mazda MX5 , especially one with power steering, but there are ways to lighten the load which may be what you are looking for.

Firstly I would get the whole front end geometry checked by someone like Cain (Wolf Performance) , if any of the measurements are out he can correct them.

Then try a teflon washer at the base of the mainspring as supplied by GEE. This helps overcome the friction between the mainspring and stub axle.

If that is not enough , try a steering bearing modification by MulFab, needs a new front mainspring to suit.

Lastly (and most expensive) you can get a power steering kit fitted, but I would try the cheaper alternatives first.

Agree Totally with Andy G. My first few thousand miles touring in UK and France in the Plus 8 I would agree with you-but I was coming from modern front wheel drives and a seven running a bit of negative camber so i only had to think about the corner and it turned in.
The Morgan is a much more vintage experience, and after hustling it through a few corners at LeMans realised that I had to rethink my whole style and then we played happily together, they do have a surprising amount of grip at the limit if the road is smooth, but low speed Parking etc is still huff and puff.

I found both by experience and documentation Andy that a little toe out will increase turn in at the cost of straight line stability, supporting Dave's comments. I understood some racers deliberately set such to improve turn in by reducing the understeer however slight provided by toe in.

Enthused immediately after fitting SSL RS front kit I took the car for a run and found it could be chucked about like a go-cart (relatively speaking ). Later though I realised it was not holding a straight line so well. No surprise that a laser check revealed toe out (ex factory!) which was corrected with minimal toe in, retaining most of the excellent turn-in.

I'm running more or less parallel and turn in is excellent, my Morgan steering experience is easily the equal of my Chimaera, just less nervous as my TVR had a 2.2 turns lock to lock power rack which was extremely direct.

Admittedly I do have the Mulfab front wishbone conversion which utalises a Mk1/2 Escort rack, for the benefit of the OP who may not know about this setup it completely replaces Morgan's traditional sliding pillar front suspension with a subframe that carries unequal length wishbones and coilovers.

The system works really well but is no longer available, however, I believe this guy still holds the drawings so could potentially reproduce the system

https://www.mulfab.co.uk/

Here are some photos of the system.

Well, no wonder "turn in is excellent". With that suspension I would expect as much...

Looks more like a modern car than a Trad Morgan: I expect the ride is significantly improved as well as turn in.

Why did Morgan spend so much on the CX when all that was needed was full IRS, 5 link rear andthe engine in the Super 3?
We shall never know.

Hmm....an opportunity here for someone to buy older, tired trads and fit IFS, 5 link rear and a new engine.... re paint, re trim, and offer at about £50k?

The ride quality from the front end is indeed very good, as is the handling. I'd rate it as superior to my Chimaera as there's much less dive than the TVR under braking, however, there was no front anti-roll bar used on the Mulfab wishbone conversion so it's my plan to add one (adjustable of course), this will further enhance turn in and allow me to fine tune the car's on the limit understeer/oversteer behavior.

For the record I didn't specify the Mulfab front wishbone conversion myself, the first owner must have really hated the Morgan sliding pillar arrangement as very early on in the car's life he forked out a massive £6.5k to have it custom built and fitted. As I understand it the work was largely completed by Simon of SiFab who worked for Mulfab at the time, Simon's TiG welds are beautiful, he is clearly a very talented welder/fabricator and it seems while the car was with him it also received one of his lovely aluminum radiators, another gift to me from the previous owner if you will.

When I bought the car last year the rear suspension was really letting the side down, so to compliment the excellent front end I binned the terrible Morgan springs that had gone soft in just 10k miles. Clearly they were not correctly tempered and Morgan's spring supplier almost certainly didn't use a quality 5160 steel, I have no idea if this was solved on later Trad chassis cars but let's hope it was because my springs were shocking.

No pun intended

I replaced these dreadful rear springs with a pair of BCC anti-tramp leaves that are properly forged in Sheffield by Owen springs using quality steel, I'm sure 5160 or similar. I paired them with Bilstein dampers from SSL, lowering blocks were then used to drop the rear and centre the wheels in the arches. The front end being on adjustable spring platform AVO coil overs offers full ride height adjustment, this allowed Techniques Morgan, who set the car up, to dial in the relationship between the front and rear, finally I went with a Panhard rod to eliminate any lateral axle movement.

Jacking the rear end and rotating the rear wheels seems to suggest the car received a limited slip diff, it's my understanding this was standard on the Roadster and Super Sports models so either the original owner specified it, or an LSD was all Morgan had on the shop floor when they built Monty so perhaps like the eye watering expensive Mulfab front wishbone conversion and the ally rad I just got lucky again?

More recently, and now the handling is sorted, I've been inspired to tune the Duratec 2.0HE engine Morgan used in my Plus 4, it's a power plant that seems to respond really well to simple breathing improvements such as a decent exhaust manifold/system and a better inlet manifold, with these two changes alone Monty’s engine was now shifting a lot more air and clearly needed more fuel to deliver its power potential, my solution was a Plug & Play EMU Black aftermarket ECU which has proved absolutely fantastic. I estimate the engine is now making in the order of 175-185 horsepower, the car goes like a stabbed rat. In the next few weeks the engine will receive a pair of Newman Phase 2 fast road cams, beehive valve springs, and 440cc injectors that I'm reliably informed will deliver a further 30hp.

And the point of all this work?

Well, it all started when I got the car home from auction last summer and found out it had benefited from the Mulfab front wishbone conversion, apparently it's one of only six Morgans that ever received the setup. I was really impressed with the way the front end behaved, there was clearly a little go-kart waiting to reveal itself so I felt compelled to sort the rear suspension to enjoy the car's true handling potential, once I'd done that Monty was absolutely crying out for more power so the tuning plan was hatched.

Essentially, I figured I had the ideal platform to create my own version of the Super Sports with better handling, mid range torque and drivability, but for less money than one of the rare one of 60 Super Sports models. I've definitely spent a few grand less than a Super Sports, but will it beat a Super Sports in all these areas?