Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Wolf Performance chassis bash guard

Hi all,

Has anyone fitted the chassis crossmember bash guard by Wolf, Williams or BHM to a plus 4 2 seat with the MT-75 gearbox/ 2.0lt Duratec engine.

Several times in passing I've offered it up but there is no way it will fit into the crossmember 'U' channel without both sides of the front and rear returns to the main plate fouling the gearbox casing. I've spoken to Cain and he says it should fit all variants. The gap between the bottom of my gearbox casing and the top of the crossmember is negligible. Any help or observations would be greatly appreciated!

Mine was easy to fit on the 4/4 I had with Mazda box

I hope these pictures help ?

I have one on my 2011 +4 and although it has a few scratches it has potentially saved much more serious damage. My car is the Duratec 2 litre with Mazda gearbox

My concern was also the gap between the casing and cross member on the +4 with the Mazda box. The space for the guard’s mounting screws/nuts looked quite limited and obviously that’s in the static state. When the engine/gearbox starts moving around on thier rubber mountings, that gap will change. That’s why I decided to put a couple of tapped hole in the chassis rather than risk the gearbox chasing bonking the fixings, here. I guess the main guard could also be bent back a little or cut out if that were to contact the casing?

But worth persisting, this is how mine looks after one season of ‘lightish’ use.

Happy Birthday Sewin!

First check your gearbox mountings to make sure they are not sagging. If they look OK then put the plate in a vice and adjust the angles to give more clearance. I bit of heat might make that easier, but for the small adjustment necessary you should be OK.

Thank all, mine has the Ford MT-75 box (2010), its heavier than the Mazda box and the relief each side of the cross member is even less.

I think like you Rog I'll tap the cross member; maybe see if I can get half nuts on to act as locknuts if there's clearance or just a dot of lock tight if not!
If I fit it, it will definitely have to be modified either by opening out the fold angles which I fear may distort the heavy plate at the welds and cause damage or, rather relieve the plate at the contact points of the gearbox casing with some added clearance as well.

My real reason for the post was to find out if anyone with my configuration of engine and gearbox in a plus 4 had fitted one and how it fitted their car. also what there clearance between G/box and crossmember was.
I was thinking of maybe spacing the rear mount of the gearbox by a few MM's to give me some clearance at this point as mine only has about 1-2mm static and you can see evidence of contact in use. I can't see that the diff to propshaft or diff to G/box angle would cause a problem here as the minute angle change would be taken up by the U-J's and sliding joint. I don't think you could even measure the angle difference it would create and when you look at the chassis itself and the crossmember's accuracy I'm sure they all vary slightly in position. Yet all the rear mount spacers will no doubt be the same! As a last addition, the cross member shows no damage or deviation in it's construction or fitting no do the chassis rails which are straight and true.

Again any thoughts would be gratefully received. I have been an automotive R+D engineer for my sins but I don't think you can really apply any construction and use regs to a Morgan chassis, well not within any real tollerances anyway!

Thinking out loud re spacing the rear mount….

Probably worth a bit of experimentation first. There’s a bit of an unknown situation on the top side of the gearbox, as there’s no visibility. Depending on the space available, any critical clearances between the top of the box and the underside of the gearbox cover/tunnel could become compromised? Also as you would be pivoting on the front engine mounts, you would need to raise the rear roughly double the height of any additional midpoint clearance required at the guard (depending on the geometry).

Thanks Rog,

I've had a look from underneath and It looks like I'm ok at the bulkhead I'll get more up-close and personal soon. It looks as though there might be some adjustability at the rear bracketry but I was only looking with a torch. I'll get the lift lights connected up and see what I find.

Sewin

I have this plate on my plus4 with the Ford gearbox and it is all OK!
However I must admit it was fitted by BHM. Why not give Brett a call at BHM to see if he can offer some advice.
Good luck!

Thanks Dave,

I had a word with Melvyn's Boy's and they said they had never seen a problem with the gearbox mount and that there isn't really any room between the two elements to talk about. However, If someone had brought a car to me showing that as a problem I'd go for the mount too. Soon I'll investigate fully and see what I find then decide how to resolve the issue! I'll keep you posted!