Morgan owners often note with rueful pride that they can distinguish the difference between heads or tails when driving over a coin in their Mog. I have my doubts as to the advantages of this sensory system when bouncing about on our Canadian country roads. The Canadian fact of small road heaving during the wild climate changes of our country provide sterner stuff to navigate than the pleasant rural experience one finds in most of Morgan's native Britain. I am not suggesting that our larger and newer divided highways are all pot-holed but our smaller country lanes have a special "complexion" rarely found in England. At the same time, Morgans should be at their best on winding country tracks.

We can, of course, train ourselves to drive slowly and sedately to avoid bouncing wildly and bottoming out to the distress of driver and car. We can also look to other solutions.

My experience with snowmobile suspension designing has shown me that one's range of pleasure and possibility improves with a suspension capable of taming the track. The better the suspension the more stretches that will become joyful adventures rather than a flirt with danger.

In 1989, the Morgan Motor Company offered an "improvement" to its rear suspension by installing rear wheel posts and a bracket bar for shocks. The bar crescent-moons over the differential and attaches at each side of the chassis above the axle. This affair has been dubbed the "ellipitical" bracket. The shocks angle IN from the wheels a few inches to the brackets on the bar.

THE MMC SYSTEM

My car was retro-fitted with this suspension system soon after it came out. I have little pleasant to remark upon it. Shocks should be angled so as to be able to deal as directly as possible with the the forces exerted upon them. This side-angling factory arrangement cannot be ideal. As well, my bracket bar passed less than one inch above the front of the differential allowing that space of "travel" before they smashed together. In my case, the paint on both the underside of the bar and the top side of the differential under it had disappeared. I had to order a new pinion seal for the drive shaft.. Later I realized that the constant impacts of the suspension bar upon the differential was the culprit. I have reports from British Morgan specialists that they have seen these bars actually flattened at the contact point with the differential.

N.B. The newest versions of this system have improved somewhat and offer a rigid ride with the impacts  now limited by a large rubber bump stop on the bottom side of bracket at the differential.

I then toyed with new bracket designs and during the process stumbled another rear suspension system offered by the after-market fellows in England (bless their sweet hearts!).

There are two possible improvements and both cost less than the MMC solution.

Rutherford Engineering has an upgraded "yolk" system which allows for a longer shock positioned and angled far more vertically. It is higher above the differential than the MMC configuration. The second is a kit, made by Ruttherford and Melvyn Rutter which fits all Morgans (there is a version for four seaters). It consists of two new U-bolt bottom plates with shock posts, two large metal side plates (with shock posts at the top) that affix to the sides of the frame forward of the rear wheels using four holes that are pre-drilled (check your car, you have them) and an aluminum 1 inch angle iron that attaches to the top of the brackets and straddles the car behind the cab wall. The bracket placement allows for much more space for shock "travel" over my previous system and absorbs the force more directly with less angling.

Installation is fairly straight forward but time consuming. Firstly, go to a machine shop, (NOT a hardware store) with the side plates in hand and buy the strongest bolts and lock nuts they have, preferably #8's or better. These bolts are NOT included with the kit. Don't forget you will need two extra bolts and lock nuts for the cross white metal bar.

Jack the rear of the car up about 18 inches, put it on jack stands and remove the rear wheels. Make sure that the differential is jacked to allow for access to the ubolts as otherwise they are too close to the frame flange. Remove the old system if you have it. (I planted the old yolk bracket bar as a garden ornament to much greater effect.)

Secondly, remove the large U-bolts straddling the leaf springs and pull the bottom plate. Replace the bolts and the plate with the new ones making sure to place the bracket properly (a diagram is provided with the kit). You jack up the differential if you need more space to access the plates' nuts. Take special care to insure the each nut used is a nyloc  and is properly placed to tighten down completely. If the nuts are tightened unevenly,  one or another will leave a tiny space to give you slippage problems.

Next, loosely attach the side plates to the two bottom  holes on each side of the chassis just forward of the wheels.
 

Now, attach the other two bolts per side and tighten all of them. Then attach the cross bar to the each of the plates where indicated. You will have to drill the holes in the cross bar but this is not a problem with the appropriate metal bit. Be careful to force the brackets inward a bit to create tension and then hold them there with the angle iron bar and while you drill. (If the tops of these brackets are not "tensioned" inward by the angle iron they can move from side to side.

N.B. MAKE SURE THE LEAF SPRINGS CLEAR THE BOLTS.  I had a friend who had my kit installed for him and couldn't figure out why he was "bottoming" on one side so easily. They had left the bolt sticking out in the way for the up and down movement of the leaf spring.

Attach your shocks with their rubber mountings, hopefully right-side up so you can easily get at the adjustment screw. Do not over tighten the shock bolts as if you start to crimp the rubber mountings this will effect the shock's performance. Adjust each shock up about 2 "clicks" from softest, put on your wheels and off you go for your test ride.

Adjust the shocks to your liking. It will feel weird at first but you will quickly adjust to the comfort as the shocks handle the road anomalies and your car seems to float of the bumps. Lastly, put the car back up on the jack stands and re-tighten every bolt once more. Some will need it.

It was an effort but well worth it and my wife loves me far more now.

The specific cost of this kit , the Spax shocks, the new u-bolts and fittings from the Morgan after market was approximately 300 pounds and a slow day for an amateur in installation time. I hope to try the Rutherford kit as well shortly.
 

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IMPROVING THE SUSPENSION ON A 4/4 FOUR SEATER
Vern Dale-Johnson at the eMog Pub

I rebuilt my 66+4 rear suspension about 5 years ago.  Used the Rutherford engineering individual towers "bolt on kit" made for the 4 seater (these fit in the original "shock boxes" in the rear footwells and are tied together using the "bar" that forms the front of the rear seat bottom cushion).  I highly recommend the setup as it uses the "long" Koni's or Spax shocks (as Lorne notes this gives maximum travel).

For the springs, when I rebuilt in early 90's I put in new 7 leaf springs then, when converting to the Rutherford system Dave Rutherford was kind enough to give directions on how to cut a 7 leaf system to replicate a 6. See below.

go from 7 leaf to 6 leaf by

remove leave 5 (3rd from the axle)
leaf one stays the same (duh! it has the shackles)
leaf 2 stays the same (tied to leaf 1)
leaf 3 cut the front portion to 15.5 inches, back to 18.25 inches
leaf 4 cut the front portion to 12.5 inches, back to 15.75 inches
new leaf 5 (old leaf 6) unchanged
new leaf 6 (old leaf 7) unchanged

you'll need to shorten the shackle bolts or have new ones made.  Don't forget to grind the new cut edges and oil between the leaves.