Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Avos

Finally got round to swapping my front shocks from the standard factory fitted Sachs shocks to Rutherford AVOs

I’m interested in doing a swift back to back comparison to make up my own mind which are preferable so managed to do some miles this morning, swap the shocks this afternoon and another run this evening.

The transformation is startling, less crashy, more controlled and considerably smoother. There seemed no faults with the Sachs, both moved freely with good resistance in both directions. The AVOs are just better in every respect.

I’d be interested in a similar test with Konis and Spax if I ever find a decent used set at a fair price

I know some criticise the AVO for poor longevity so we’ll see what the future holds


2012, plus 4 with just under 9000 miles.

I'm happy with my AVOs. They are 3 or 4 years old at this point. I didn't do a comparison since the old shocks were almost 50 years old.

My experience of AVOs was mostly good, and the rears which were already on my Roadster lasted well. These rears started to leak after a lot of bottoming out, which after fitting Rog's assists would not be a problem anyway.

Some of you will recall that after a Highland trip, and losing a front top mount, I fitted Spax Gaz at the front, and more recently added to the rear, so I still have a couple of decent rear AVOs in the shelf.


I'm very sceptical about the dark art of dampers on Trads, after personal experience. Driving with one disconnected should show, but it didn't. My GDI non adjuatable Spax were excellent from new, and adding AVOs made little difference, other than being slightly harder. My GDI remains on AVOs. The Spax Gaz on the front of my Roadster were subjectively more compliant, but they have a shedload of adjustments, so how can you ever really square this circle? Now Spax all round on my Roadster and set soft. It feels good, but little difference to AVO, and little difference to having one disconnected.

I've just had a set of 4 adjustable AVO's on my 4/4...... All seems well......🤷🏻‍♂️
The whole morgan suspension thing seems pretty subjective........
One person will claim they've done 100,000 miles on the original set of shocks and the car is like a magic carpet and the next will say his feels like a dumper truck with the very latest and newest replacements..
If you work from a starting point of 'they're all very basic' and 'it won't feel anything like a modern car' you won't go far wrong.....😁
Accept that it is what it is........ and tinker if you must......😂

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The issue with AVO's on the rear of a Mog is the VERY limited travel and if they bottom out (full compression) a few times, it busts the internals and they leak.

Hopefully the newer batches (from Cain at Wolf ?) will have addressed this with some simple bump stops fitted to the top of the piston shaft during build, but you'll need to look under the dust shroud to check

I think that one potential source of reported issues with AVOs are that people might not have realised that there are (or were) different stroke combinations available, and that these need to be matched to the suspension movement of the car to which they are fitted. Normally they are(were) available in two lengths, suiting a longer or a shorter ranges of movement.

When I was up at Kevin Vernons back in 2013 installing my Suplex front suspension, we decided to fit a pair of AVOs on the rear as the existing Spax shock absorbers were a bit old and tired. Measuring up the movement on my car to figure out what maximum/minimum lengths we needed, we found that the minimum length required was too small to be able to fit the long series AVO, and the maximum extension required was too large to fit the short series.

Fortunately it was easy to get a set made up with a custom range of movement to suit my car, Tim Ayers of New Elms sorted it out for me and it didn't cost anything more than the standard price.

If people have been fitting an inappropriate length of AVO shock absorber to their cars then it's quite possible they might have had problems.

My front AVO's purchased from Cain in 2018/19 had compression bump stops under shrouds. Was persuaded to fit the Spax gas assist shocks when fitting SSL RS kit later though.

I am by no means an expert on suspension, Morgan or otherwise.......🤷🏻‍♂️....a lot of folk claim to be, so I guess it's just a case of picking one whose opinions align with yours......🤷🏻‍♂️

There is a list of variables which I suppose would include.....
Tyres:- make, age, condition, sidewall depth and pressure.
Model of car:- weight including engine size, number of passengers and luggage.
Suspension components:- condition, age and set up.
Chassis:- flex, strength, condition.
AND.....how all those variables work together............🤯🤯🤯
etc etc etc.......
Add in the variable and unique build quality we know and love and it's going to be tricky...................😂

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All so true, The facts as stated though mean that its never going to give you a BMW like ride. How can it when the suspension travel is way under 2". Julian has it spot on in that unless all the variables are addressed at the same time you will never achieve the best ride it can give, although that will never be anything short of challenging unless the road surface is like a billiard table. Don't forget the classics we are driving today were developed on the race track and there's no pot holes there!
Shock absorber travel length is a problem especially on the rear. between top and bottom mounting point the distance is short so to achieve a functional working length is difficult as either on compression or over extension the operational length will present a problem somewhere which is likely to damage the shock absorber.
The long and the short of is, it needed a higher top mounting point allowing a longer shock to be fitted. This would allow for over extension of the suspension to occur without full extension of the shock and under compression of the suspension it would not hit the minimum compression of the shock.

On my car I seem to have been lucky enough to have just crept in before the dodgy rear leaf springs hit the production line. I have religiously serviced my rear springs, changed out the Sachs original fitment shocks and fitted Spax adjustable's from SSL with Rog's suspension assisters. The spax adjustable shock has a huge range of adjustment and I run mine set at just 4 clicks up from minimum. At this setting I can feel a stiffer function from the shock than the originals gave yet it allows adequate travel without crashing.... I haven't tried them without Rog's excellent assisters but why would I need to as they along with the BRB's were the best functional mod's I did to the car.

The front end does still crash a little to much for my liking and I think that only fitting progressive rate springs could help this a little. The bump reaction felt at the steering wheel seems to not be present when power steering is fitted.... Perhaps a steering damper could replicate that? With spring assist to help self centring a bit!
I think that I could enjoy my car much more if I could resolve these front end issues.

Just driving solo or with passenger affects the weight distribution in the car and how the suspension setup has to cope...........