One Year On

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.