Another year has passed since purchasing the Morgan Three Wheeler. It is been fun as well as challenging. The driving experience is like none other and puts such a grin on your, and others, faces that it cannot be adequately conveyed with my limited vocabulary.

The frustration of trying to get it to stop weeping oil from the front pinion seal has been maddening to say the least. Since our nearest Morgan Dealership is over a thousand miles away it doesn’t make sense to have it transported in a covered truck to the dealer and back at my expense. Once it is there the dealer told me that I still would have to pay the difference in what Morgan pays him and what he charges, and that is a BIG difference. Morgan will not pay a local dealership that knows how to work on a Morgan and is licensed to work on the engines so I do the work myself. Thanks a lot Morgan…

I decided to depressurize the oil tank and let it breathe. I found a shop in Pennsylvania , Morgan Custom, that is building custom oil tanks for the Three Wheeler. It works like a dream. The oil tank cap no longer leaks, the crankcase breather hose on the tank no longer leaks and the crank pinion seal weeps less. A big win win and I get an oil pre-heater built into the tank and a sight glass for oil level checking and oil clarity. Also from Morgan Custom his excellent fuel distribution system. It puts the fuel filter BEFORE the injectors and adds an adjustable pressure regulator. He uses AN fittings and very robust fuel lines for the modification. I also added a re-positioned crank case breather tube and rerouted it so there were no low points in the path to the tank. I have since put the breather hose fitting into the reed valve cover plate because I could get a larger diameter hose on the system allowing it to breathe even better.

I also added the Phil Bleazey Bevel Box mount which eliminates the NVH Kit. Another great thing since it makes drive belt adjustments more reliable and the clutch feel much more solid.

I added several gauges for oil temperatures in engine and Bevel Box and added a real fuel gauge and a real oil pressure gauge. I also added a real decent battery, an AntiGravity LiOn unit with lots of CCA and much lighter in weight. Expensive but worth every penny.

I also added the Stage 2, 569 cams and Roller Rockers, to the engine and changed the locked ECU from MMC to a locked Stage 2 Tuned from MMC. It runs MUCH BETTER, and the Roller Rockers made for a very free reving engine which makes me pay more attention to the tachometer. Speaking of which, I swapped the speedometer and tachometer locations making it easier to read.

While waiting on parts I added a different steering wheel, just for looks.

I removed the center lower gauge and added a toggle switch on the engine oil temp gauge to measure tank oil temps with the same gauge but a flick of a switch. I usually have it reading engine oil temps and it is only in the coldest part of winter do I add heat to the oil tank to preheat the engine oil. It make for easier starting and quicker rise to operating temps.

Another 6 months with the Morgan 3 has brought me to trying to find a rattle I have had since day one of owning this fun little machine. so, I decided to purchase one of Mr. Bleazey’s Centa Conversion Kits so i had a pilot bearing for the transmission input shaft as well as being able to replace the rollers considerably more easily.

After accomplishing the install of the unit one of my many rattles has ceased. Also, the car feels more mechanically connected to the road with a more positive feel to the clutch. The installation was well worth it.

The transmission bellhousing cleaned and ready to accept the new clutch and Centa drive unit. I should have changed the throwout bearing while I was in there just as a preventative measure.

this was the source of the shaking and one of the many rattles that is a Morgan.

While I was not able to drive for a while waiting for the parts to accomplish this transformation i managed to find a Stage 2 Tuned S&S ECU. I was not able to find a local tuner that knew anything about the G56 Emerald Stage 2 Tuned ecu and I am not a tuner so I removed the Emerald. I sold the Emerald to someone who has access to a Tuner since it is unlocked and has a lot more potential. It ran great once warm but needed some adjustment for the cold start; it was very rich when started and needed adjusting which was beyond my capability.

now the vehicle runs like it should have from the factory, and i will have another year of trouble free fun drives, hopefully.

Before I modified anything, at around 1500 miles, I used a bore scope to look into the cylinders and look for scored cylinder walls or things that just did not look right. The only thing I came up with was cylinder differences. One was much more dirty, with chunks, than the other, rear cylinder being the worse. Lots of carbon buildup IMHO. Will change fuel providers from Shell to Chevron.

I ran cleaner through the fuel system for 3,000 miles and this was as clean as it got. I decided to swap out the heads for a new pair of Ported and Polished I had in my shop. Good thing I did, the exhaust valves have been leaking for a long time and has probably been the cause of big plug and exhaust port temperature differences, not to mention rough running at slow rpm’s. It runs much better now with noticeably more compression.

Installed these new ones.

Ready for Spring cruises in the little beastie. While it was still possible I purchased a set of P101 wheels and had them powder coated to more closely match the leather.

It has been quite the year learning the in’s and out’s of the modern Morgan Three Wheeler. Learning why Morgan Motor Company might have done what they did in the design of the machine and how to better the design to make it more reliable.

there are also design criteria that apply to placate the various government agencies for foreign sale, export and import regulations. The most odd thing Morgan did for Three Wheelers that we’re headed toward was to leave the British idea of a “fog lamp”. It is a small red lamp below the rear license plate, and nothing, zero, lighting up front for fog. I guess the Brits are more worried on what is going to hit them from the rear than where they are driving in the fog. I changed all that by removing the wee red lamp and installed a backup lamp, something they did not deem necessary. Now I have real fog lamps up front to see what might be in front of the vehicle while driving in the fog! While I was working on the rear lighting I took out the useless reflectors below the turn signal lamps and added tail lamps that also had stop lamp included so now there are 4 brake lamps and 4 tail lamps to aid in being seen in the fog. Eventually I added another high mounted pulsing brake lamp between the roll hoops.

while I was adding lighting to the front in the fog lamp project I also added Daytime Running Lamps. While I was searching for a lamp I discovered a Hella lamp that was a two part lamp. It had the bright main portion of the lamp and a section of the lamp that could be activated separately for a Cateye illumination for when full bright was not necessary. The fogs (PIAA manufacture) and the DRL (Hella manufacture)

are all LED lamps so as to not overload the circuitry. One more set of lamps that I added were Fender Lamps. In the quest to not overload the circuitry I also added LED main headlamps made by Speaker.

it did not seem right to have such a vintage looking vehicle and not have fender lamps. They also provided the people who might be alongside you while driving to know that you were wanting to turn. They also add more to the Emergency Flashers when those Flashers are activated since I put the lamps on the turn signal circuit.

With the lighting done I turned my attention to the mechanical things I found to be not quite correct. There was talk on the Talk Morgan website about the oil temperatures and engine temperatures so I thought I should measure it. I selected a place in the oil circuit that was easy for me to access but certainly not the hottest location in which the oil is used. I put a sending unit in the Return rubber line from the engine way up near the tank reservoir where the oil had a chance to cool a bit after going through 3 feet of hose. I was a bit startled to find the temperatures reading what I would expect inside the engine! I wonder what the real oil temperatures are with a reading 230f at the tank? So I started to research oil coolers to try and drop the temperatures and to stabilize them since they really wanted to climb when in driving in the mountains. I found and installed a system that keeps the temperatures @ 180f.

I also added a clear timing case cover that is amber illuminated to match the cateyes just for fun and it does add lighting as well as theater😊

I took the black painted wheels and had them powder coated to match the interior leather, a purely cosmetic addition.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton