Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Advice please!

A couple of arbitrary contributors to the rev hang or soggy throttle response on a Duratec that I've noticed and propably worth mentioning. Fortunately, these are both easily fixed.

The first can be attributed to the plastic throttle body. If the car left the factory with the round rubber air intake hose jubilee clip over tight, it can distort the plastic body, compromising the throttle butterfly sealing. Whenever you take your foot of the throttle and close the butterfly, air can still creap into the engine past the butterfly plate, slowing down rev drop as the idle control valve grapples with the extra air load. And it gives an unresponsive soggy feel when you rev the engine.

The other is the throttle butterfly sealing. That is done manually on every TB using a tiny paint brush and applying a hard sealant. I have a couple of spares and they all have slightly different amounts of sealant. It results in the same effect as above if not perfectly sealed at source.

I did replace my plastic TB with a metal equivalent and spent some time sealing that. I thought something worthwhile if keeping the car long term so it all works very nicely now.

Very interesting Rog and a well shared point for probable rectification.

An interesting feature my car had was that if you tightened the jubilee clip with the engine running (engine warm), you could detect the idle speed pick up very slightly so would slacken back to the point just before it increased, even if didn't feel secure. So perhaps a simple check.....

I'm going to see a Morgan with the following description and would appreciate any thoughts/comments.

"A fine useable example of a 1988 aluminium, wide-bodied, low-line Morgan 4/4 in Royal Ivory. 146912 miles but new 1905cc engine (cvh), gearbox and clutch at 85000. Recent full service (July 2024) with overhaul of braking system (rear brake cylinder) and brake fluid change. One previous owner and in my enthusiastic ownership for past 26 years. Full service history and documentation going back to around three years pre-purchase by first owner (including correspondence with Peter Morgan). Since then I have kept the car in excellent running order (plus new rear springs, clutch, new radiator, etc). New alternator Jan 2022. Galvanized chassis, aluminium bodywork and Cuprinol retreated ash frame. Replaced rocker (cam) cover and sump gaskets August 7th 2021. Garaged and rarely driven in the rain. MOT until 26th June 2025. Desirable extras over standard Morgan 4/4 - roll bar and scuttle roll bar, new leather a few years ago, ash frame re-treated, sports exhaust manifold (plus spare straight through stainless steel exhaust), Plus 8 spots (different replacement lens in one), Moto-lite steering wheel and restored walnut dash with non original warning lights, adjustable rear Spax shocks. Five new wire wheels and tyres in 2020 (£1500) utterly transforming the car's response. Many spare bits and pieces. Not in concours condition but bodywork in excellent condition. Easy lift hood swivel levers just fitted also, plus spare tonneau".

Very genuine seller. It's obviously a very high mileage tough with the new engine. Maybe a good first Morgan?

First 5 year old tyres are close to needing replacing. It seems to have been rebuilt so you need to judge ow good the work is.
What is the price?

I would at least require a new MOT which expires in only a couple of months.
Will it be ok on e10 fuel, because that’s where we are all going before too long.
First engine gearbox & clutch lasted 85 k and the replacement has now done almost 62k…make of that what you will.
If the price is right AND you are handy with spanners, then maybe.

Looking at the MOT history, it seems there is often some minor item that needs to be attended to. But that is not unusual. It's only done 1000 miles since 2018 though, that might be more cause for concern, given that quite a lot of money was spent on replacing the wheels and tires, and then not really made much use of. 3 MOT fails in 5 years - but only minor stuff - but that does perhsps indicate the amount of regular fettling that might be needed on this particular example.

It depends what you are looking for as a first Morgan. As Doug says, if you happy being hands on, and you want to tinker rather than drive then this may be good. If on the other hand, your ambition is touring Scotland etc and driving rather than spannering, I'd be more inclined to visit a couple of dealers and have a couple of test drives, and see what might suit your ambitions, and if possible maybe then spend a bit more for a more recent example. Just my 2p though.

Could be a good genuine car. A car of that vintage with aluminium wings will have mild steel wire reinforcing the wing bead. The resultant corrosion needs to be dealt with properly. Look for inconsistencies in the wing beading indicative of filler and bodgery.

Any car sitting around for vast periods of time will almost certainly have issues that will reveal themselves as you bring them back into regular service, eg will engine gaskets and seals have dried out and start weeping once brought back into regular use. I didn't notice anything about the kingpins and when they were last replaced. Such a high mileage car, have all the bushes etc been replaced. Certainly check for corrosion and oxidisation between the body and wings, the chassis and rot in the wood frame. What is the state of the wiring harness?

After all this time of ownership why sell it now with just a few months left to run on the MOT?

As other posts on this thread have suggested, there'll be lots of watch points, knowledge required, and potentially much work to be done. IMHO definitely NOT a first Morgan.