Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Greasing Front Suspension

The photo was taken with the car on level ground. Measurements taken from ground to the lip of the guard vertically through the centre of the wheel – near side 670, off side 660. Gap between top of tyre and lip of rim – near side 43, off side 33, confirming a 10mm lean to the driver’s side (same as the gap between rebound spring and hub).

Interestingly the grease nipples were still all covered in thick black under body sealer and road dirt. I suspect they have not seen a grease gun since they were fitted – so much for the first service!

I cleaned all nipples and they took a good 5 to 8 full pumps before any grease emerged. When I jack the car the gap on the off side rebound spring closes.

I think it may be back to the dealer again....

As you have now greased the suspension, drive the car for a few miles and see if the problem corrects itself. As I stated in an earlier post, I think that side was sized from lack of lubrication. It really makes one wonder about the quality of the whole PDI after sales area. If the nipples were covered in underseal, they must never have been greased. I think with these cars you have to do it yourself, then you know it's done properly. Perhaps, you need to be looking for another service agent.

I'm confused over the lean. The photo shows your offside suspension with the hub some distance up from the rebound spring. Doesn't that suggest that the car is jacked up on that side?

No matter what, I'd certainly be banging on your dealers door!

I have driven the car more than 75Ks but no change. Problem is Morgan insist on using their agent. I have made contact with Morgan UK via email but Mark is working in the 3 wheel department for a few days so no reply as yet.

I suspect the problem is with the main spring, it sems to be too short

That would also be a reason, is the spring broken, normally a spring breaks near the top or bottom.

What are the rear springs like? It's worth checking that the lean is not caused by a sagging rear spring. Measure the gap between the bottom of the chassis and the ground at each side. MMC had some problems with spring temper a few years ago, especially with +4s and early 4/4 Sports - this would be around 2007-2009 or thereabouts.

The new 4-leaf rear springs should be fine.

In respect of the rebound springs, the setup ought to be that the rebound spring is not preloaded when static with the full weight of the car on the springs. Certainly on my Roadster this was not the case, although my new rebound springs were a half inch longer than the originals, presumably due to settling. If you reduce the length of the rebound spring, the main spring will expand which will increase the ride height at the front. So to retain original ride height you would need a shorter main spring. I’m not an advocate of cutting springs, because the ends are profiled to spread the load evenly and if you cut some off, it will localise the loading. A better way would be to space the bottom plate with an aluminium spacer, however the thread length at the bottom of the kingpin is limited, so it would make sense to split the kingpin spacer, half at the top of the pin and half at the bottom (if you can picture that).

Where the rebound spring is compressed statically, it will initially assist the main spring under bump until it is fully extended. The servo effect won’t be linear, it will reduce to zero in around half an inch. This means that the spring rate will rise in the first half inch or so, and become stiffer, and the initial softness may cause the front end wobble some cars exhibit, and reduced roll stiffness for the first half inch of travel on the outside front wheel.
On the road I don’t believe that the effect is detrimental, especially with decent dampers to eliminate the front end oscillation.

Conventional wishbone suspension doesn’t have rebound springs, but relies on rubber bump stops to control rebound, and in theory, the rebound spring could be replaced by a rubber hose, but it would probably not last anywhere near as long. The thickness of the rubber is limited by what will fit inside the cross tube hole.

In the case of the gap between stub axle and rebound spring, that would be just about “OK” if both sides were alike, but on a road with lateral corrugations, odd gaps will allow one wheel to drop faster than the other which is not a stable set up. It implies a faulty or broken main spring.

The traditional Morgan front suspension is indeed a strangely complex beast. Because the springs are contained top and bottom with the stub axle in the middle, the main and rebound springs act together in parallel, so the spring rates are added together.

At first glance this is counter-intuitive, some people believe that because the rebound spring is pushing upwards on the stub axle, it is acting to reduce the spring rate on the main, whereas of course it's actually doing precisely the opposite.

MMC have done a lot of work recently with their suspension supplier. Watch out for rising-rate springs coming soon to give the best combination of supple control over small bumps, firming up quickly to stop bottoming out over big lumps

nothing like a Citroen suspension to iliminate all that