LONG..BEWARE. Some thoughts.
To truly cure something, you must understand what is amiss, what is the ultimate goal is and only then figure how to achieve it. Amateurs shun logic and are inexplicably beguiledvby ready made stuff, sold to them at a huge profit. Professionals try to make one size fix all (the only way they can sell one-size-fits-all. Each trad being the different is not a profit maker. So they treat Morgan trad as if they all have the same degree of stiff chassis, which they definitely do not. Trad chassis flexing chassis is an individualized major flexing factor for each, different before it is installed, changing with the installed equipment, owner's driving style and leaf spring quality. Leaf springs
per se are actually more sophisticated than coil overs, especially for flexing chassis. They spread spring effect over a large area on a flexing chassis rather than focusing those forces to small points which become weaken and alter the chassis over time to sad effect. Leaf springs can infinitely shape the comportment of the car in unlimited ways.
In front, Peter Morgan once wrote me he used shocks them in front as customers thought a front end was odd without them.The all-important suspension travel in front is only 1.-1.25 inches,
though Cain and the MMC owner race preparer are working on this, I believe successfully. I am excited by both of them. I have never found another car (aside from go carts) with so little travel but remember the flexing chassis is also a delicious part of the trad suspension that we have loved for more than 100 years. We merely cannot quantify it save one car at a time. As is, the only vital needed action in the front is to cut down the silly, too long rebound spring. A Factory mistake and misunderstanding adopted after HFS left. I have been doing so for 30 years at the suggestion of JH2. It is costless but now huge amounts are made by a Morgan supplier essentially doing the same thing. However, rather than being almost costless, they charge for other unnecessary add-ons, make-the-car-more complex add-ons. And they will NOT sell you their rebounds only.
A tragedy for the less mechanically enabled. I should add a article on how to shorten trad rebound springs on gomog. Actually, a neoprene bump stop made to the right specification would be ideal. Cheap and smart. Neoprene did not exist 90 years ago.
The rear travel is only about 4-5.25" Exceed either travel, either back or front and you "bottom out". And I tell owners when they think something is wrong at the front to remove their shock and go for a drive on their personal test road, back-to-back and report. There are more of the wrong dampers installed in the front than proper ones! That one suggestion opened up an entire new era of understanding for Button.
Springs have a different task than dampers[/u. ]After your tyres they are the first line of road comfort and comportment. But most people buy price and longevity in tyres even for their hobby. Travel is the distance ride height divides the sprung and the unsprung weight. That is where springs and shockers work.
[u]Dampers have another task. More sophisticated than generally understood. They change the oscillations of the spring suspension to something humans find comfy. Get that wrong or truncate it and the cars become painful. Shocks MUST be made to match the existing travel, where it is and and the correct dampening for your car. Only three Morgan damper sellers in history, namely Rutherford, Tim Ayres and hopefully now Cain (I just ordered a full set a first after many years of buying shocks..watch this space) ) have sold dampers made for Morgan. Others, including the MMC and other after marketeers, use whatever is popular for the moment, or cheap for them for one reason or another.
(not that the most expensive shockers are always the best, that is a function of extension, where the extension is and the dampening rate and as noted, Morgans are very different from all other cars.). The chance of coincidentally matching Morgans with shocks not SPECIFICALLY made for them (despite what the ubect manufacturer says) is by wild luck only. (That can happen as it did with only KONIs) The fact shocks are adjustable is an inventory feature allowing fewer shocks to cover many cars. You will notice that large auto manufacturers do not sell adjustable shocks for their cars.
Here is the part that is going to get me disliked. But unlike today's world, I do not write to be liked or sell anything. I write merely to collect lore and what I have learned and share it. People believe what they want to.
THE GoMoG LAW OF EXPENDITURE: "The likelihood of a car enthusiast reviewing anything he has already purchased with passionate approval is directly related to how much money he spent on it." like Button and Sheally and some pros, most people follow this Law. Our bunch toss everything that does not better the car or make it simpler.
I tossed a small container load of such stuff last year. 1. As badly made leaf springs sag, the all important travel distance changes and diminishes. Ergo, the car bottoms far more frequently. It is curious fact that their spring rates do not change no matter how much they drop, but with a truncated travel you bang your way down the road . Easy to check. Your car at rest should be approximately mid way between the shock extension)
Using even very excellently made bump stops merely tracks the deterioration of your rear suspension. Those who use them want to change the unwanted and ever more frequent BANGs to more pleasant sounding THUDs. Their suspension and handling is no better. Degraded suspension, if any is left at all. The goal should be to have the best possible suspension and not to find elegant ways to adapt to a lousy one.
I stopped trusting MMC leaf springs in this area 20 years ago. I like the quality of the steel used by the latest toast of the town, but his offering of leaf springs to act as anti-tramp as well indicates a basic misunderstanding of leaf spring technology and merely trying to please the market. Imagine adding something to prevent coil springs compressing! Coil springs can be adjusted by preloading them but leaves have proper hope of adjustment, though the US sells leaf spring height adjusters. Leaf springs, ideal for trads, are not adjustable without tampering with their spring rate. Rob Wells tried something similar 25 year, made for him by a very reluctant Peter Mulberry, They made the cars back breakers. Grounds for divorce. When I asked the current fellow for springs rates..I stopped getting answer to my emails.
BTW, very few trads have a need for anti-tramp. Most models don't have it or can drive around it. I need it with my 300bhp and a very light Plus 8, but I use Mulberry anti-tramps which do not effect comfort. The leaf springs can still work. (Avoid the MMC copies!). Only downside is every 10 years or so you must press out and replace the cushioning at the ends. Also be frightened of the MMC one-side only antitramp. They were trying to save money to avoid the tramp having the drive train hit the propshaft cover on Roadsters, but having a single anti-tramp eventually twists the chassis. Logic rules once again.
3. I have been idly looking for a leaf spring maker for years. Leaf springs technology and maker is more advanced in North America and Australia with all the long distance truckin, there is one along every few miles along every highway. Their turnaround time is amazing as the trucks have to get back on the road ASAP. But I have too much to do and I am aging..[b]
which is enhancing my looks of course. [/b🙂 Without leaf springs to recommend, I cannot suggest a proper rear suspension for trads. Shocks yes, anti-tramps, panhards yes (there is a cheap costless substitute) . But it all starts with the right leaf springs. Only those with the few non-sagging leafs from 2004 on or the earlier springs can be helped. Anecdotally, Kevin Vernon and I installed 4 sets of leaf springs in two years when we were restoring my UK Morgan. The Factory fare all collapsed within weeks of using them.
I was lucky to have been saved using very deep connections. As another fact, the old style 5 leaf springs delivered with the car the MMC built for me in 2002. I insisted on 5 leaf and they are still fine. The rear has dropped 5 mm. That being said I place my Morgan on stands if I am not using it for 2-3 days or more.
4. Lowering blocks or lifting blocks are a cheap solution for leaf springs with the wrong arc or design. They accordingly provide another back breaking "solution" to ride height. Does the picture posted show a huge bump stop to address sagged springs while using a lowering block to lower the same springs? Why?
I admire the quality of work of these bump stops. They will provide a very precise and ongoing measurement of how much one's rear suspension has collapsed and the anticipation of worse to come. expectation of more. I do so wish this production expertise can be used to address the real problem. We need people such as these.
gmg.
