Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Opinions on Mulfab's steering bearing kit

I am new to Morgans, restoring a '67 Plus 4 (four seater). I've read a lot about pro's and con's of changing from the stock steering set up to the bearing kit from Mulfab. I have also been told that many are going back to the stock set up from any of the various bearing set ups...

My goal with my Morgan is to take nice quiet drives in the country (BC, Canada) on the weekends.. no racing, no stupid stuff (Do that in my TVR). How ever, I have the stock steering box and a 14" wooden steering wheel and want as good as steering as I can get (sorry, Gemmer out of the question). Do I or don't I go for the Mulfab set up, thoughts please?

I has this conversion done on a 1981 4/4 four-seater to make room for bigger brakes. It made the steering much lighter, but obviously not more precise. In the beginning it felt too light, almost as driving on ice, but I soon got used to it. Nevertheless, the rack and pinion steering was one of the greatest changes when I later traded the 4/4 for a 2008 Plus 4 four-seater.

Hence, if you want lighter steering go for the Mulfab kit, but if you really want as good steering as you can get (with no regard to price), a rack and pinion conversion would be the way to go.

Harald

I would advise sticking with the standard system, but make sure it's all properly set up. On a 60's car with narrow tyres there's too much danger of introducing St Malvern's Dance.

I understand that when you install steering bearing this removes the chance of 'St Malvern's Dance' as the twisting of the spring is taken up within the bearing's lateral moments

Don't think so Steve.
A lot have added a steering damper (usually VW) after the conversion.

I think it could be dangerous.
After my dealer bodged the last service I got down and dirty on the front end. I realised the damper blades were not set up properly and I used CL grease on the suspension plus checked the tyre pressures.

Resuling in a different car. Before that I nearly followed the dealers advice of getting my wire wheels exchanged or repaired.
So if set up right the trad front ends works fine.

I put this conversion on my previous car a 1996 4/4. It totally transformed the car - the steering was lighter when manoeuvring at slow speeds and the car seemed much more "Planted" in corners. Perhaps the front end wasn't properly set up beforehand, but I very much doubt it as it was serviced and set up by Bill Beck at Steve Simmonds and Bill surely knows what is right!!!!

The kit certainly was an advantage to my car - others may find different, but if I was in the same position again I wouldn't hesitate to fit the kit. My current car has the factory version of the bearings and it works just as well.

Cheers!

As far as I'm aware the dance is primarily caused from the steering system having insufficient inherent damping. It's the same phenomenon that causes supermarket trolley wheels to flutter or motorcycles to go into tank slappers.

Modern Morgans damp this out by having a greater castor angle - it's now set to 6 degrees rather than then 4 it used to be, and also by having r&p steering and wider tyres, the increased contact patch also acts to damp it out - so much so that the current cars have dispensed with the damper blades

It is not absolutely certain that fitting a thrust bearing will cause the steering wobble, but it might. It's possible to remove it by 'adjusting' the castor angle. I fitted a set to my 1986 4/4 and it wobbled like a very wobbly thing that had just had a dose of super wobble pills, so I checked my castor angle and it came out at 4.5 degrees. The alternatives available to me were to either bend the lower arms of the crosshead to increase the castor angle or simply to refit the damper blades - which I did.

With wider tyres, r&p steering and a 6 degree castor angle, the steering bearings are a good idea. With an older car, I wouldn't think that the same logic applies.