Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) What Did You Do To Your Morgan Today?

+1 for the remote greasing kit.

John, brilliant with the picture thank you! I have now been out to the car and, using this picture, was able to clearly identify the top and bottom nipples. Everything is quite clotted with grease but I assume that's just what happens.

You mention that the grease will start to come out the bottom of the stub axel (for both the top and bottom nipples if I understand right). Is the bottom of the stub axel below the lower nipple? And, should I let a lot of grease come out, or stop pumping once I start to see the grease emerge?

First, please excuse me -- Richard, of course. Thanks so much for the picture and other guidance!

I have now greased (I am truly embarrassed by the stupid amount of satisfaction that affords, and utterly unwarranted given the amount of hand-holding from this generous group...).

A final question if I may: the grease seemed to emerge from underneath a sort of round cap located underneath the spring. Is that as it should be? See pictures below:




Thank you once again for being so helpful!

Hi, if your lower suspension is caked in grease it is wise to clean it up as it can find its way onto the brake calliper and disc and you certainly don't want lubrication there! Its a good idea to keep it very clean here really as grease holds road grit/dust and together that makes a grinding paste which will wear your hub bushes prematurely, especially the lower set. when greasing a car you have little knowledge of, you will need to make an assessment. Firstly yours shows expelled grease so someone it seems has greased it in the past. Is it newish looking grease or old and dirty?

There's quite a bit discussed on the site here about grease and guns for you to look at and decide for yourself what you'd like. When you first grease the pins/hubs if your car hasn't been greased regularly or correctly you may find that you are pushing in what seems an impossible amount but you are filling a reservoir between the two bushes. A regularly greased hub will almost push out grease from the first or second pull of the gun but when the grease does start to show itself push a little more out to clean any grit away that might be in that area. Also assess the quality of the grease that first appears, You may find you need to flush a fair bit of old degraded grease out. Greasing, cleaning and looking after the front end is a messy job. I have always found that no matter how well you look after this area it always seems to get you grubby. But you will notice an improvement to the front suspension when correctly done.

Morgan recommend 500 mile intervals between greasing but now people seem to go with a 1000 mile interval or monthly.

I'm afraid I am not a fan of remote greasing. You need to see what you are doing and clean away excess grease as you go ..... It just makes sense. When I first got a Morgan I thought what a great idea it was, but its not for me, but each to there own! Perhaps if you are touring the south of France in a white suite it may offer some advantage!


Can I suggest that you get a copy of Dave Wellings excellent book 'Buying and maintaining a Modern traditional Morgan' It will answer so many of the questions that you will want to ask, readily to hand it will become your friend. Good luck with your car Adam.

Thank you Sewin!

Duly noted on cleaning the suspension area and the risk of contamination of the brake disk, it did look a bit dodgy there with big gobs of grease all over the place. I will give it a good cleaning! I can see your point that if a remote greasing system is used it's still important to have a good look-and-clean down in the messy bits...

As for the expelled grease -- the garage I bought it from greased it upon delivery (about four weeks and 2000 km ago, so a re-greasing was really due). I put in about 4 good pumps of my long-handle grease gun on each nipple, and noticed that the expelled grease was kind of striped, with one side of the ribbon of expelled grease being fresh and clean looking, and the other side being black. You can kind of make that out in the second picture above. What is the protocol here -- should you continue pushing in fresh grease until no old and dirty grease emerges?

I have a copy of DaveW's truly excellent book, which I acquired about half a year ago when I first thought of buying a Morgan (and before I knew about this amazing forum), and which has been my constant companion throughout the process of finding my car. I have written to him separately to thank him for writing that and express how useful it is for a newcomer to Morgans and to someone who isn't mechanical but wants to "dig in". One thing I noticed in his section on greasing is that there aren't any pictures illustrating just that particular procedure. I reckon that for the mechanically experienced that isn't at all an issue, but for someone starting from zero with auto mechanics a picture such as the one so thoughtfully provided by Richard above is truly worth 1000 words.

And about that tour to the south of France in a white suit, although that is unlikely to happen I promise to share a picture should it ever come to be!

Thank you again for the help and guidance, and best regards from Sweden.

Adam.

The colour change is just different types of grease - nothing to worry about. The place where the grease emerges is below the bearing that is installed beneath the main spring to make the steering a bit lighter and is perfectly normal.

Wipe the excess off carefully to avoid contaminating the brake disk. If you stop just as the grease starts to emerge next time, you will reduce the amount of effort required for the clean up.

To the bottom right of your second picture, you will see a smaller spring. This is the rebound spring. If you look at the RichardV6 picture, you will see a black plastic sleeve which covers the rebound spring and prevents a build up of road grit sticking to the grease. That cover makes King Pins & bushes last an order of magnitude longer. You can make one out of almost anything flexible. Mine are Mohair supplied by DaveW. Richard's look like they were supplied by Wolf Performance (& require a dismantling to fit).

Many thanks indeed, Paul, very helpful guidance on the grease. And, duly noted on the benefits of a cover for the lower spring, I will look into that. I wonder if DaveW is still supplying those (I think dismantling the suspension is well beyond my pay grade, at least at this point!).

Yep that's probably the truth of it as per paul's reply! It will be a graphite based grease hence it looking black. just for your assurance I have never seen grease turned black in the hub before unles it went in black! I tend to use a graphite EP grease for the added luricant effect of the graphite. It is hard to keep that lower suspension area clean. Keep all your holed socks and cleaning out the lower spring/pin area is made much simpler! use them like an American shoe shine boy!

Thank you Sewin, I have alerted all of my immediate family members to save me their "holy" socks -- they must think I've gone off the deep end...

Socks also come in useful for Morgans with bumpers - prevents accidental scuffing while in storage (not a good look for driving !)