Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Steering kickback

I got my new car out yesterday, being the 1st day of the month, and was astonished at the amount of kick back there was through the steering wheel, when passing over averagely rough B roads. Now admittedly my car has to go to the dealer for the official PDI, [I collected it myself directly from the factory], and there may be some alterations needed at the front end, but wondered if others had suffered this problem, if not, what could cause it, castor, camber, toe???

On the plus side, those with noisy bevel boxes will be pleased to know that the new batch are significantly quieter and does not dominate the noise whilst driving. There is still whine on the overun, and a little noise whilst driving, but nothing like the banshee wail that the previous batch inflicted. Wind and exhaust are now the noises heard, and even the exhaust nearly gets lost behind at 50+ mph. I can also testify how easily it is to exceed 70 [by a significant margin] whilst passing other cars, on a private runway of course!

I picked up mine today also and absolutely love it!! However I have the same concern with steering kickback - its almost undriveable on the b-roads where I live. I picked it up from Allon White and will give them a call in the next couple of days.

I can also confirm that the Bevel Gearbox seems fine and the noise level is more than acceptable

Congratulations Paul and Simmo! Perfect timing to have your beauties delivered with the whole summer in front of you!

Just a humble question...where theare the photos?

Simmo, almost forgot, welcome to TM!!

I never found a problem with kickback on my test drive and I ran the car on some pretty unevenly surfaced roads.

I have driven mine approx 1500 miles now, I would agree that the steering has a degree of kickback, but you quickly get used to it. My bevel box seems to be getting louder as the miles go on !!

With regard to kickback through the steering wheel, I had a chat with Ian Parkinson, a stalwart of the Morgan three wheeler club, who happens to live locally, and he told me that another owner of a new M3W had used a VW steering damper to moderate the kickback, which seemed like a good idea. Of course if it can be eliminated at source that would be even better.

I've found the best way to deal with it is to just hold the wheel loosely and let it move around in your hands, good for the straights, but not so good on corners, it makes the car difficult to place, which could be quite useful if leaning on the front a bit! I have to stress that this isn't just a bit of vibration through the wheel, it is violent and very pronounced, making it difficult to hold the wheel.

Definitely think there's something wrong with my steering - watching the other videos there seems to be a reasonable amount of kick back but in my car it's quite violent to the point where you can hardly hold the steering wheel on some road surfaces. I have to hold on tight with both hands or the steering wheel can oscillate wildly... Suspect there is something amiss with front suspension set-up.. Will go back to my dealer and do a back to back with their demo car...

Hi Simmo!

Maybe you can check this video to get some comparison. He drives on some bumby roads and the steering wheel has some movements...but it does not seems to be as bad as you described it. He also mentions that the steering wheel give a lot of feedback about the surface - but not at all in a negative way.

http://www.teknikensvarld.se/2011/09/21/24030/morgan-3-wheeler-provkord/

You seems to be experienced in driving vintage vehicles so I think you are right, it sounds as if some suspension angles were a bit wrong...

Should be easy to correct once diagnosed, good luck!

You can see from my video Mike Duncans demonstrator that there is very little kickback from Mike Duncan's demo car and some of those roads I was on were quite rough. It does sound as though you need some setting up of the front end.