Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Body Mounting Bolts

Hello all -

I recently purchased a 2013 that is quite lovely, but has an impressive amount of rattles, creaks, and pops. I've slowly been tracking them down myself, but one of the most jarring is the sound of the body mounts (outboard below the gauge panel) that make a loud crack sound over every bump. I don't believe there is any damage (yet), but it feels like if I continue driving as-is that I risk creating more issues. All of the noises seem to be coming from the forward half.

I've located the body mount bolts located near the driver/passenger knees and at the end of the footwell. All of them feel quite loose. Additionally, there appears to be a stud with two nuts on each side (again, near the knees) which are also loose. I'm hoping that tightening all of these will quiet some of the noise, but I'm unsure of any special procedure or spec for these.

My trouble is that I can't locate any of these in the Parts Book to know whether the hardware is correct, and I haven't seen much discussion on the topic here. I've seen a few posts saying to "tighten" these but I'm not entirely sure how to complete that task. It sounds so simple! Searching here and elsewhere online has been unproductive.

I'm left with a few questions:

1) Is there a particular order that these should be done in?
2) is there a torque spec? The mounting bolts (with the hex head) appear to have a rubber washer, so "tight" is a bit confusing.
3) The outboard studs seem to spin without tightening. Are the double nuts intended to be lock nuts? How exactly do these mount?

Cheers for any assistance you can offer!

If its a 2013 then do you have a bolt at end of each footwell and a bolt/screw to the side of the knee?

Later cars had additional fasteners.

FYI - There is also a bolt that is directly below the boot lid Dzus fastener - this is on the underside of the body going thru a chassis tab then thru the wooden body frame to clamp the body to chassis. (always interesting to find no chassis tab - especially on m3w's that have had a chassis change due to nothing fitting quite right)

The knee 'fasteners' can either be the a course threaded stud to screw into the body with a threaded section to accept the double nut (?) to clamp the body to the scuttle chassis tab or much more common is a countersunk wood screw (various sizes) with a washer.....If its spinning then basically the wood frame has 'stripped'.

The torque setting....tight is it.

And your correct they won't always tighten after 13 years...hence the wood screw (s).

For Rattles I would check:
The fuse box cover - put a rubber strip/foam pad under the returned edge on bottom and sides.

Bonnet front corner both sides (the front cowl part) - put a self adhesive pad on the body where the rubber plug is (if fitted/still there).

And don't forget to check the chassis for cracks as this will also create rattles and creaks.

Thank you! I appreciate all of the details.

I'll check again and see if I can assess the state of the stud itself on both sides. If the stud is stripped, what's the best course of action?

As for other rattles, I have already added some adhesive foam tape to the front cowl piece, which had unfortunately worn through the protective tape and some of the paint. (And naturally, was making quite a racket!) The fuse panel cover got the same treatment, because of the same symptoms. The dash panel was tight but still rattling in one spot, so I added a piece behind as well. The RH side body rattles constantly against the chassis but I think I can also cushion that with tape. Like I said, a lot of rattles!

I haven't identified any chassis cracks but I have at least inspected the more common areas and haven't seen anything of concern. There is a chassis brace so hopefully that will at least reduce some of the risk for now.

Edit: I did some more investigating. It looks like the RH "stud" is actually a wood screw that is stripped inside the wood. Is it worth trying to fill the hole with a structural wood epoxy? Or, should I just drill another hole? There's plenty of room in that area.

(Whether I fill it and re-drill it or make an entirely new hole, do you know what size bit I might need?)

Additionally, I looked at one of the body mount thru-bolts and it will not tighten fully. I think I may be missing a washer, so I may just try adding another under the nut and seeing what happens. There's not a ton of thread length to engage to begin with!

Not sure about all the body to chassis fasteners as mine seem to be fairly secure. I would say that structural wood epoxy would be a stronger fix than another hole for pulled chassis fixings.

I will say that other sources of annoying rattles are the headlight pods, some tape under the retaining ring for the beam unit often helps. Also the outer seat belt release unit fixing bolts (the 17mm ones) are sometimes too long and the body panels vibrates on the bolt tail, you can see if this has been happening and file a bit off the bolt. Profile draft excluder helps reduce rattles on the bonnet panel contact points and the boot lid, as well as helping to keep the boot water tight(ish).