Talk Morgan Forums Thread Like Summary - Front suspension upgrade

Hello everybody,
I am planning to upgrade the front suspension of my 1964 Morgan 4/4 and I saw 2 adds in the Morgan magazine: the SSL and the Berrybrook. I am also planning to put a more powerful engine, around 120 HP. What can yo tell me about them. Which is better? I intend to use my car for road only. Thank you

WFWIW, I have to say that whatever set-up you have will work well if correctly fitted, all tolerance's are correct and it's clean and regularly serviced! When I first got my low milage plus 4 I gave it a thorough inspection prior to parting with the hard earned! and could see that it was suffering with what most are, that is, lack of use, old tyres and shoddy levels of service! This could be easily sorted and quite frankly you'll never drive another car that will show you just how much it appreciates that sort of care.
Dave W is spot on with his opinion of the Rutherford conversion but if a budget is a problem and you have the older style front suspension with the damper blades, removing them and fitting the bearings under the springs is a remarkable change. If you want to keep it as factory then the addition of PTFE washers at the damper blade help massively too! My plus 4 also had 60 profile tyres (standard fit) and when I changed all 5 I fitted the 65 profile which yes, does look better in the wheel arch but more it gives that greater level of softness in the suspension and a little more ground clearance too! Ironically the speedo is actually spot on now rather than overreading and for my style of driving i haven't noticed any difference in the handling although if I were to wear the tyres greatly it might under read by about 2-3 MPH however I have never achieved that as yet in a Morgan!
Lastly! All that faff about shocks! well here's a story for you! Originally they didn't have any fitted and it's rumored that Peter Morgan only had them fitted to pacify the punters as he stated that they just weren't needed! What does a shock do? It damps the spring bounce and gives an initial support to protect the spring with sudden harsh compression forces. Have you ever felt the resistance a Morgan specked damper gives ...... not much at all I can tell you! On the rear, yes, I would fit them as that's a different set up altogether and there you want to damp rebound and support the spring from sudden shock loading. but the front, well that has rebound springs and that's what they are for. Don't believe me, well I took mine off and drove it for a thousand miles as I really wanted to know just exactly what those limp wristed shocks were adding to the party and actually I couldn't tell the difference! I do run the car with shocks on the front though for insurance purposes and MOT but mine have the original SSL supplied option which are non adjustable otherwise its the standard factory set-up. There is one other thing that I would consider and that is a progressive main spring option as this does give a softer ride over the general road surfaces yet still has a stiff enough set up for the times you want to throw the car around a bit! If you race your car, well that's a whole different story but if you like the excitement of throwing it around the 'B' roads then its good enough so save you're dosh and spend it on a panhard rod instead! That'll give you that planted feeling on the twisty bits!

Here's the thing.....how many Morgans has anyone driven to even get close to knowing?

I've driven the three I've owned, and two others. That's not enough to even have an opinion.

I've never driven a Morgan with SSL or a five link rear and without knowing how that feels I won't part with the cash. I do know that the Rutherford system makes a significant improvement to the front end, from personal experience by doing that job twice.

But I also know that losing a damper, front or rear makes no significant difference toi the feel.