Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Lumpy steering

Since day one of owning my Duratec plus 4 I noticed regular resistance when turning the steering, not very noticeable when driving and just noticeable when the car is jacked up and you turn the steering wheel. However when greasing the suspension and you turn the steering by hand using the hub it's really noticeable.
I needed to find a new garage for the MOT this year and the tester mentioned the resistance saying another Morgan he tests had no steering issues until one year when it was behaving similar to mine, the problem was the universal joint behind the cover on the inner wing was dry. He lubricated it and the problem disappeared.
He recommended I do the same, which I did today but found no dryness/stiffness in the joint. What I did find was the entire inner and outer wing actually moves up and down at the resistance point when you turn the steering! Is this normal? Is anything normal on a Morgan 🤔

Long story short, I unbolted the bearing housing that holds the shaft and the problem disappeared, tried reducing the amount of spacers, but that led to the joint bolt snagging on the inner wing cutout, reamed out the top hole to allow the bracket to drop a little which did help... until I fully tightened the bolts then it was back to being sticky. I can't lower it much further because it will hit the second cutout nearer the front of the inner wing!

I read the universal joints could be out of phase, or more likely I think is they're not exactly the correct length and are causing stress at certain times when rotating.

Anybody else experienced this issue? And how did you fix it? Or is it part of the full Morgan experience I was warned about?

GD have you checked the correct alignment of all the UJs along the column as if not aligned correctly it can cause what I think you describe. Recent thread on this site had some info, but can’t find it just now.

I take it that's what they mean by out of phase? I've not investigated any further at the moment but will when I get time. That's the first thing I'll check. Thanks for the reply. 👍

Just taking a wild stab at it, as I have zero idea of the steering set up in your Morgan or knowledge of how many UJ`s are in the system, or what angle they might operate at, though they can begin to bind if operating at the max angle they are designed to operate at, which may be indicated by a tight spot in the steering as the joint approaches that max angle, then frees off once past that point of friction. Though that you typed the inner wing seems to move in conjunction with the point of stiffness, deffo seems something is out of kilter in the area around the UJ`s...?

Not much help sorry Gordon.

Gordon, the requirements for steering shafts incorporating two UJ's differ from those for a propshaft. There is a useful pdf download available here explaining phasing of UJ's on a steering shaft. Care needs to be taken as they are not constant velocity joints so individually speed up and slow down as shaft is turned.

Once phased to your satisfaction inner wing clearance can then be addressed.

FWIW this is pic of my upper steering UJ as seen with steering wheel in straight ahead position.



As can be seen the spline bolt appears to be a right angles to the flats on steering wheel shaft. As best as I can judge the lower UJ connecting directly to steering rack appears to have matching spline bolt around 30° further clockwise as viewed from front of car.

An excellent article Richard. Thank you.
Happy Miles.
Bryan.

George, thanks for your thoughts, i wouldn't say any of the changes of direction in the column are more than what a uj should be able to cope with, however I would question the need to go out through the inner wing and then back into the engine bay as there appears to be a fairly straightforward path within the engine bay. It's possible that the standard exhaust manifold caused the path chosen? but because I have a S/S 4 branch possibly I have a bit more space than standard?

Richard, thanks for the link and the picture, that gives me a good starting point to check and experiment with some different positions of the joints. I take it that because no one else has encountered the same issue that it is not a standard Morgan feature and should be fixable. I'll report back later on with an update.

Edit. I've just re-read the article Richard linked and the piece about the length change as the joint rotates makes perfect sense and I'm sure it's causing the stress on the bearing that's attached to the inner wing.

Edit 2. I've just had a quick look, with my steering straight ahead I have the bulkhead spline bolt exactly horizontal along the bottom, the one behind the cover (other end of first shaft) is in an identical position and the uj at the steering rack is also horizontal but at the top rather than the bottom. So, I would say my setup is different from what Richard has. I'm off to Oldmeldrum car show today so won't be doing any tinkering till later on.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my very basic thinking Gordon.
As ever Richard is the chap to really know that which he is typing about...

Have fun at Oldmeldrum ... will miss it this year as off down in Yorkshire for an old pal's memorial service. Hope the weather is as warm for you as it is here! 🙂

K

Simple Demo.

Phasing