Morgan Story Part 2

Morgan BLK 9 1934 F4

PART 2

Œ Front seats. It was decided that with two very basic bucket seats provided with the car that some professional attention was required to cover these. I approached Paul of Cox & Perry at nearby Horstead if he knew of anyone who could cover these in either pvc or leather. As he did not have a dedicated upholsterer he would approach his mate Tim to give us a quote. I presented the seat frames and base to Paul who immediately recognised them as a basic seat pan similar to Austin Healeys and that his mate would be able to sort them out with no problem. The quote which came back was acceptable and the two seats were completely covered and upholstered in leather including the wooden base which acts like a mini toolbox under the seats. Once fitted they set the car off a treat. Morgan

Œ MOT 1. The MOT was booked for the morning of 9^th June at Nicholls Garage Stalham as this is one of the few garages locally which will MOT three-wheelers. The day dawned as the hottest day of the year and it was decided that I would go to the Coltishall garage to get petrol for the run up to Stalham and that Cynthia would follow at a decent interval in case of breakdowns. On arrival at Coltishall Island petrol station all pumps were shut as the tanker was then filling up all underground tanks. As I was unsure whether I had enough petrol on board to reach the garage at Stalham I decided to wait. Unfortunately the first pumps which became free were around the other side of the tanker. I quickly re-fuelled and was on my way.
Five miles up the road just after the Westwick crossroads the power died and the Morgan came to a halt. I pulled over onto a drainage platform just off the road and decided to wait for Cynthia to pass me by not knowing that during the few minutes of re-fuelling she had gone by. On reaching the garage where no Morgan was visible she made enquiries and was told that I hadn't arrived. She returned by the agreed route and eventually saw me stranded on the side of the road. Morgan rescue was contacted and again this was not straight forward as the original registration, ASV 161, had not been changed to the reclaimed one of BLK 9. They were very understanding and for the princely sum of £19.95, being the year's subscription to Morgan rescue, sent out a breakdown truck from the Nicholls garage at Stalham I was endeavouring to reach to take me and the Morgan home. Morgan

Œ Repair. The mystery of the breakdown was never fully sorted. During all the tests I always had HT spark at the coil but nothing came out from the distributor. It was decided to replace all; distributor cap and rotor arm and these are original 100E replacement parts and no other faults have occurred since.

Œ MOT 2. The MOT was re-booked at the Nicholls garage on 8^th July at Stalham again with no further problems. Minor issues raised were all sorted out and the remaining paperwork was sorted out with a request for a tax disc at our local post office.

Œ Interior Finish. On consideration of the interior requirement being pvc leather cloth over foam I decided to carry out the final interior finish myself using material supplied by Cox & Perry and a local foam dealer. This proved fairly straightforward with two dickey seats being built either side of the rear wheel and covering of the interior surfaces. I also carpeted the floors. Morgan

Œ Test Runs. The first test runs with two people on board produced some strange noises from the rear wheel making contact with part of the body. This was never fully understood as there were no visible contact points found on the body. Later with four people on board the noise was more noticeable and it was decided that the rear springing was too weak. After considering the problem I needed more spring tension and damping on the rear wheel. This was solved by building into the system a set of Dominator shock absorbers and springs as normally fitted to a 650SS as they have variable spring rate and the fixing points would be straight forward. Brackets were built to take the top of the shock absorber and put all the forces back into the body, extended rear spring bolts were made to take the lower fitting and with the required spacers the system has solved all of the rear wheel problems.

Œ Lionel's Run. This event took place in the evening starting at the Scottow Horseshoes. All was going well until I came across a section of road going towards a common which really upset the front end of the car. It became uncontrollable and I had to stop to prevent me going off the narrow track. I spoke to Alan Jones of the King's Lynn section as to which shock absorbers he had fitted to his F2 Morgan which had been fully sorted. He recommended AVO shocks with the correct length and stroke to match the front suspension. These have since been fitted and have solved the lively front end problems. They will need fine tuning over time but as they are fully adjustable, this will be sorted out.

Œ Dave Rogerson Memorial Run. We took the Morgan on Dave's Memorial Run starting from the motorcycle museum at North Walsham . The only problem throughout the day was the clutch, which, if I pushed too hard, re-engaged the drive shaft. In various articles it mentioned that overthrow of the clutch can cause problems with these engines. I needed to think of a way of restricting pedal movement. It became a great necessity after an incident at the North Walsham traffic lights approaching the finish of the run. I could not get first gear. After two sets of light changes it eventually engaged but this had to stop.
We were awarded the Dave Rogerson Memorial Trophy for being the oldest opposite class with Mike Henry picking up the award for the oldest machine with his 1925 Panther.

Œ Clutch problems. To solve the clutch problems and prevent hot air coming off the engine radiator system into the cabin I decided to fit an additional front bulkhead in the foot well. This would be able to take additional packing if the clutch were still overthrowing. A padded and covered board was fitted and on the first trail it proved to stop overthrow of the clutch and the heat coming in. This needs no further modifications.

Œ Front Dampers fitted. The front dampers have been a great success but with the flexible steering system fitted to these machines that in reverse and on full lock the tyre was contacting the top of the shock absorber. The top mounting has been modified to prevent this happening again.

Œ Hood and Side Screen. The car came complete with the hood frames and brackets so it was decided to make enquiries about fitting a complete hood and side screens. Making enquiries with Colin Wilson, a the Morgan Three Wheeler Club parts supplier and repairer, the earliest that these can be done will be early 2005 at Grays in Essex . They will need the car to build a customised hood and side screens as all the cars are different! This will conveniently allow us to write a closing chapter to the rebuild in the New Year.

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Bob & Cynthia