Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 M3W Bonnet vibration

2017 M3W. Experiencing a nasty vibration from the bonnet in the passenger side(USA) rear. The latch/fastener in this corner is rather difficult to affix when attaching the bonnet. Wondering if the fastener needs to be replaced, or if anyone would suggest switching to a different style of fastener, or adding rubber of some sort between the bonnet and body. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

This is not uncommon and a strip of rubber between bonnet and body should sort it out.

If you have the twist/turn Dzus fasteners then I found the order in which you tighten them made a difference to how easy it was to do. After a lot of trial and error my car mine was to put both pins in the holes on the left side then twist and lock right front, right rear and then the left side could be done in any order!!

Floert:

I have the same vibration, as you describe. I believe the problem arises from the poor mounting of the Dzus-type fastener from the factory.
I have obtained four Vintage Bonnet Fasteners from Morgan Spares, and will be installing them in the near future, when I bring my 2015 M3W into the shop for its 10,000 mile service.
I will report on the results.

Tom

If it's the fastener itself which is a bit loose you can space it out with one or more 7mm E Circlips.

One of mine is more awkward than the others, so I do that one first. Works for me.

As mentioned above with Dzus fasteners each bonnet has it's own idiosyncrasies and on a trial and error basis of trying different techniques will sort it. In my case with one difficult fastener I do that one first then the diagonal opposite one then the one across from that one and then the last one and this works well.

I have the vintage bonnet fasteners and one of those rattles too - they were factory fitted. The mechanic at Morgan West said he could not see a way to fix it, and I've never managed to stop it either.

JohnMat: Thank you for the input; you may be saving me some shop time.
I will try to address the rattle by installing more robust aircraft-type Dzus or Camlock fasteners. They are available from either Aircraft Spruce, or Skybolt.
The installation is a bit involved, requiring special tooling, but it may be worth the effort.

If you haven't added additional rubber or woven anti chafe strips between all the edges of the panels I would do that first. Both Dzus and Camlocs aren't really designed to hold things firmly. They are designed to give a little and allow for small amounts of movement between panels, without fear of losing the panel, which almost guarantees some amount of 'buzzing' from the bonnet at certain rpms. These machines are crazy big vibrators and not much to be done about it unless you change the engine mounting. I've received my M3W Services motor mount kit but have yet to mount it. Will likely be a winter project, as now it's driving season.

Steve is correct in regards to the high amount of vibration the bonnet is subject to.
Even though I have used Camlocks and 1/4 turn fasteners in the restoration of classic biplanes like the Stearman, (which, with the Pratt and Whitney R 985 450 Hp radial engine has pretty good vibration on its own), I have had to replace a good amount of Dzus' that have worn the mounting holes in the panels to failure.
I have tried everything from chafe strips, rubber, shop rags, plastic washers, wood strips, incantations, etc. on the 3-W, with poor results.
Skybolt Aircraft Fasteners now offers, in addition to their excellent 1/4 turn and Camlocks, a new structural fastener called Skyloc EXT. These are built for high-load, high vibration applications where panels must withstand shear and tensile forces, such as in aerospace, defense, motorsport, and advanced industrial use.
The EXT has an external thread shaft configuration that, according to the manufacturer, resists loosening under severe vibration, provides a greater clamp load in primary and secondary structural panels, and has tolerance for installation variability, including curved panel geometry and minor misalignment.
Of course, one has to consider the unintended consequence of panel cracking under load, which leads one to think about the M3W motor mount kit, which leads onto think about cracked exhaust pipes... etc. etc.

More likely this will also be a winter project.