Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing GDI + 4 Rear Shocks? Wolf?

My 4/4 would bottom out at times when it was new and I swapped out the rear shocks for adjustable ones and once I found the setting the suited me best, the bottoming out was a thing of the past.

The added benefit was being able to stiffen them up a bit more to suit my needs.

IMHO, I would do the shocks first. A bump stop kit will of course stop you bottoming out but the weak link here is the shock not doing it's bit in preventing it.

The problem I see there Perry is that a shock absorber is not a spring assister being designed primarily to dampen rebound reaction so will only have limited effect effect on the dynamics of a sudden compression over a bump and less still on a longer duration compression. Tightening an adjustable shock absorber to the point where it limits bottoming out would maybe create an unnecessarily stiff ride at other times. That's why I suggested above you need both dampers and bump stops. If you wanted to narrow the cure down I would have started with bump stops first.

I agree with Richard when my S1 Roadster was bottoming out Rogers kit solved the issue.

I upgraded the suspension on my +4 GDI with adjustable shocks and uprated front springs along with new kingpins from Wolf. The ride has been transformed, no or very little bottoming out, but still retaining its Morgan-ness. Highly recommended. Incidentally, due to change of circumstances, the car's now for sale........PM me for more details.

I appreciate that but if the shocks on the OP car are in fact weak, that would cause the bottoming out. I am basing my input on the fact that while mine did bottom out from new, it was on extreme undulations or me being careless. The adjustable shocks I had installed are set a few clicks up from the softest setting, so far from the stiff side of things and actually, it is more comfortable now than with the factory units.

A bump stop IMHO isn't solving any issue that might be present in the shock absober itself or the springs for that matter. I personally would be hesitant in installing a bump stop unless the car was sorted where it didn't bottom out in nominal day to day driving without them.

Interestingly I'm currently working on one of our daughters 'rusty buckets' it's a Daihatsu thingy now in it's 23rd year & surprisingly reliable for the abuse it gets

Live rear axle, leaf springs, pretty basic tube shocks...(sound familiar ?) and guess what, a basic rubber cone bump stop OE fit, mounted on the top plate of the spring U bolt plate...SORTED ! the Japanese designers knew what it needed

I’m considering some form of ‘bump stop’ either Wolf damper (which have an internal bump rubber I believe) or Rog’s excellent solution. This is only because our local council have introduced some viscous speed bumps and even at below 10 mph the rear crashes down with an almighty thump. The car is fine otherwise and drives and handles well and never crashes even over the worst of roads (and they’re pretty bad here) and is fine over normal speed bumps too.

So am I correct in thinking the wolf dampers also act as bump stops?

I’ve tried contacting Cain with no success so far. And Rog thinks my car will need a slight modification to allow his assemblies to fit.

I may go belt and braces and take both routes

Cheers, Gary

Far better that the bottoming action is caught and stopped by bump stops attached to chassis Gary. Otherwise all the force is taken by the expensive? shock absorbers and transmitted to the mount rail putting undue strain on their upper mountings.

Perry if you or others want to solve the bottoming out issue at source fit new quality leaf springs and let the shock absorbers work as designed. You may end up with a less compliant ride though if too stiff. The progressive bump stops are not a bodge as you intimate but an accepted industry method of limiting leaf spring flex under extremes as Cooperman alludes.

And check the tool tray and rear shelf (if you have them), some of the crashing may be the diff housing whacking the underside of the tray and causing the jack to jump around alarmingly, Don't ask how I know, but I rectified this a couple of years ago thanks to Rog's spring assisters (and cleaned it all up !).

I don't have an issue to solve Richard. As I've said, I solved mine with better shocks and they are set to a VERY soft setting. Happy to say I don't have a bodged job as you insinuate but rather a very comfortable and sorted car. 3500 plus miles of crossing Europe and happy to say I didn't bottom out once. Said shocks now have 18,000 miles and going strong.

Not all problems are solved with one solution and was simply sharing my personal experience. One thing I love about this forum is being able to share a different point of view, and most times it's not frowned upon...

Good luck to the OP