Installation is best done using a hydraulic press (most machine shops can do this). In a pinch you can, with care, use the rich man's drift and drive them in. However, it is very IMPORTANT to get the reaming/honing right. Please click HERE.
Adding
an "O" Ring
Some say they have had good luck at extending bushing
life, and keeping the front suspension clean by installing an "O" ring
to keep the oil in and the dirt out. Drive the bottom bushing in about
1/4" deeper during installation. Cut off about 3/16" from your old bushing.
After reaming, insert an "O" ring in the bottom of the new bush and hold
it in place by driving in the cut piece from your old bushing (see sketch).
Be sure that the grease hole at the top end of this lower bushing is not
blocked. If it is, drill it through, taking care not to damage the threads.
Assembly of the Front Suspension
1. The lower C/P retaining plate must be removed from the old C/P and installed on the new one.
2. Muscle the upper rebound spring and cover into position at the upper suspension member (don't forget the damper blade!), and drop a screwdriver through the centre pin bolt hole to hold the spring in position.
3. Lubricate the spindle bushing area and C/P with chassis grease prior to assembly and perform a routine chassis lubrication when the job is completed.
4. Slide the centre pin up through the lower rebound spring, spindle, upper rebound spring, and cover. Place the jack under the centre pin nut at the bottom.
5. Work the centre pin into the suspension using the jack. Watch out for the spindle hanging up on the cover (inside the upper rebound spring).
6. You may find that the jack will not force the centre pin completely in as the jack will lift the whole car! If this becomes the case, wrap a nylon strap ever the top of the assembly, around the bottom of the jack and then secure the other end somewhere (I used the spinners on the rear wheels.) The retaining plate can usually be drawn home by using long bolts. These will have to be replaced after the top is secure. Remember this when placing the jack so a bolt can be inserted into the holes.
Note: We have installed an eye bolt in the garage floor. The cross-axle can now be chained down so that it will not lift. The assembly can now be jacked right home. This is a must if the engine is out of the car while doing suspension work.
7. Install the centre pin bolt from the top into the centre pin. Use a small mirror and flashlight to centre the pin under the hole. This can be difficult! When the centre pin is under the hole, thread the bolt home, and this completes the assembly process.
Note: Do not try to thread the centre pin bolt into the centre pin by "feel". If you miss and cross thread the bolt, you will ruin both the centre pin and the bolt. For the same reason, do not use the centre pin bolt to jack home the assembly.
8. The hub, if removed, can now be installed. If you have tapered roller bearings, adjust for minimum play (tighten the spindle nut to 20 ft-lbs, then back off one flat).
9.
Install the steering track rod if removed.
10. Install the calliper when the hub is on (Disk brakes only). Be sure to safety wire the bolts properly (see sketch).
11. Install the one shot oil pipes.
12. Adjust Drum Brakes.
13. Have your front wheels professionally aligned.
Front Suspension
Lubrication
based on an article from the ThamesMog site
N.B. READ WEBMASTER ADDENDUM BELOW
Morgan thoughtfully provided a means of lubricating the front suspension from inside the car, owners had managed for 40 years without this. This is no more than a pair of pipes connected to a valve connected to the oil pressure gauge output. When the valve is pressed oil is pumped from the sump into the top of the king pin and hence onto the bushes. The factory recommends brief use every 300 miles or so.
A few observations picked up from talking around the membership:
1. Dirty engine oil does little to preserve phosphor bronze bushes.
2. 300 miles is a very rough guide and it is hard to remember when it was last done.
3. The feed is not balanced to each side and one side can be dry while the other is flooded.
4. When the facility was first installed oil was
much thicker than it is now to the extent that the 10/30
SAE oil recommended for the
T16 engine probably does no more than wash the grease that was put
in at the last service out.
5. Disk brakes have now replaced the drum brakes of the time.
6. Excessive use leads to, at best a mess on the floor, an expensive bill for new disks and pads. At worst a bent car when you notice, too late, that the brakes aren't as good as they were.
7. The valve of the one shot oiler has been known to stick causing the motor oil to quickly evacuate the engine with all that entails.
Greasing a Morgan Front End.
by Lorne Goldman
The place that needs lubrication is the bushes. These
fit in the stub axle tube, one at the top and the other at the bottom of
the stub axle tube. As they do not fill the ebture lenght of the tube,
a grease reservoir or "grease holding area" is formed between the two bushes.
As the stub axle slides up and down the kingpin, this reservoir 
greases the kingpin (and therefore the bushes). The stub axle has a grease
nipple exactly adjacent to the middle of this reservoir to service and
fill it reservoir periodically at 1500 mile intervals. One fits a grease
gun fitting directly on to the nipple and pumps until one sees the grease
just beginning to seep out..preferably under the the damper plate. You
may have to turn the front wheels and find proper grease gun nose to fit
the nipple easily. (If it seeps out from the bottom, you bushes are too
worn!)
So why have a one-shot oiler? Well...it seems owners, way back when, didn't want to crawl under the car and do their duty, or at least do it properly. So Peter Morgan copied a Bentley system and introduced the one-shot oiler. He had a passage drilled down the centre of the kingpin from the top and then had it exit ABOVE the normal position of the stub axle at the damper plate. Why did he stop short? One can guess that he didn't want the oil to replace the grease in the reservoir. Oil doesn't help the bushes much..the area needs grease, not oil. He likely hoped that the oil would dribble down the kingpin and help some by oiling the kingpin and the damper plate a bit. History shows it doesn't help much and can dribble onto the adjacent brakes..dangerous.
The Factory discontinued the one-shot oiler in 2000. At that time they did, however, carve an annular groove under the damper plate that is fed from the grease reservoir between the bushes. This keeps the damper plate well and properly lubricated without effort. The rest of us with pre-2000 stub axles should take care to raise the damper plate with a jack and something so that the grease exits under the plate effectively.
In 2006, the Company changed the front end again to a simliar system made popular on eMog and removed the damper blades entirely, replacing them with a bearing system that should require no additional maintenance and reduces steering effort. See http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/rollerbearing.html
However,
the MMC did not use any of the systems that had been proven in the field. In 2008,
they decided that the bearing system they designed required supplementary
greasing. To acieve this, they again drilled a passage down the kingpin..this
time to the new bearing. The passage is bigger than the earlier one for
the now defunct one-shot oiler and is fed through a nipple placed in a
home-made top kingpin bolt.
| N.B. It should be noted that Morgan 4-wheeler front suspension did not change signifcantly for 60 years. However, since 2002, we have been able to track two one-shot oiler changes (and its elimination), 3 kingpin materiel changes, 3 kingpin designs, the elimination of the damper blades, the new bearing system and its modifications, 2 main spring lengths, 2 rebound spring lengths, 3 spring rates, 2 different bush materials, three bush designs and a series of different dampers. Apparently, the MMC is going through a transtion stage in this area and for greater help with yours, it is suggested that you contact eMog so we can sort out exactly what set-up your car has and how to deal with it. |
Greasing the all-important stub axle nipples (zirks) can be made difficult because of the angling and the shock in front of it,. This can be addressed in one or both of two ways. Replace the Factory nipples with angled ones (simply remove the nipple you ahve and tyake it to a Auto store to find 30, 45 degree replacements. Us the one that suits your greaser. Alternatively, or additionally, you can purchase an electric grease gun with a tube feeder.
Damper blade Morgans (that have not done a bearing conversion) are properly greased by prying up the damper plate to insure the grease exits from underneath the plate.
There are many who have favorite choices for the grease they use. John Sheally like white lithium grease.
Greg Solow (below) likes a graphite based grease. Lorne Goldman uses wheel and bearing grease.
GREG SOLOW'S COMMENTS
Be sure to get under the front of the car at least once
a month (1000 miles) take a good quality grease gun and pump plenty of
grease into the nipple on the hub carrier. How much is plenty? Just keep
going until you can see it come out between the springs (or wherever your
car lets it out first). MAKE SURE YOU WIPE OFF THE EXCESS AND BE CAREFUL
NOT TO GET ANY ON THE BRAKE DISKS OR PADS. Use a grease designed for sliding applications
such as a graphite based grease. Make sure the front of the car is well
supported and the wheels are chocked before you get underneath. DO NOT
RELY ON THE JACK ALONE. Ramps or axle stands are readily available.
If you don't fancy a monthly crawl then get a machine
shop to drill the kingpins so that grease can be pumped into the hub carrier from the top. This job is
best done at the same time as replacing them.
If you feel that you don't need to do it so often as you
don't do many miles consider that it is often the lightly used cars that suffer most from kingpin issues.
This is because they have less lubricant on the kingpin and rust sets in
faster and deeper. Rust makes the ends' (especially the lower one) outside
surface of the old mild steel kingpins into a rough rasp that eats away
at any bush material. Mild steel kingpins will rust in a few weeks and
they are no longer used by the Morgan driving community or the Company. The community has switched to hardchromes
and the MMC has gone to stainless steel kingpin. With their non-rusting
surfaces, these pins allow the front end to go over 100,000 miles (though there have been reports that the MMC stainless pins will wear for other reasons.)
1. During assembly ASSURE that the hubs have not
been reversed. Look at each knock-off and make sure it threads in the same
direction as the rear wheel on the same side. If you have removed the hubs,
and install them in the reversed direction (threads going the wrong way),
you will loose a wheel. It is no fun --- so check!
2. Check every nut and bolt again after you have put about
100 miles on the car. Also check for wheel bearing play and take up if
required.
4. When working on the front suspension, the cross-axle
must be seated on jack stands or their equal. Don't work on the car with
it resting on the Morgan jack. (Ed. or cinder blocks - See Misc
topics - Safety for a sad story.)
5. Make sure the calliper securing bolts have been
safety wired such that the wire will tend to tighten the bolts (see sketch).
6. Be sure to bleed the brakes if the pipes have
been disconnected (Drum brakes).
3.
Have the alignment checked after bushing replacement.