Morgan Series 1 Standard Special Motor PDF
Morgan Series 1 Standard Special Motor PDF
Morgan Series 1 Standard Special Motor PDF
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The information collected herein has been assembled from various sources but in particular
one person has generously made available his expertise. The sources are listed separately at
the end of the document. John Merton has provided most of the material on the motor and
was instrumental in the restoration of my own motor Q571E in 2008.
The Standard Special motor, as fitted to the Series 1 Morgan 4/4, is long out of production.
Detailed technical information has been collected to assist with the continued operation and
maintenance of the motor and various other components.
The information contained within has been collected in good faith and issued not for profit.
Responsibility for the accuracy of information cannot be taken by any party involved in the
presentation of the information. Corrections, additions, suggestions etc will be gratefully
received and will be included for the benefit of other interested parties.
The information is not necessarily complete and is meant to supplement the Morgan Manuals
and other available technical data with information that is pertinent today. Some original parts
are no longer available but can be replaced with parts from other sources.
As this document developed, other information came to hand and has been added when
specific to the Series 1 or the history of Morgan design in general.
1.
In 1937, Leonard P Lee, head of Coventry Climax Engines Ltd and the son of that company's
founder took a decision that was to lead directly to the adoption of the Standard Special
engine by the Morgan Motor Company.
Coventry Climax was a long-standing manufacturer and supplier of engines to the car and
commercial vehicle industry. They built and supplied the 1122cc inlet-over-exhaust engine
which had powered most production Morgan 4/4's since that car's introduction in late 1935.
However, the car engine trade had become increasingly problematical for Coventry Climax.
Several of its smaller customers including Swift (1931), Vale and Marendaz (1936) had gone
out of business and Crossley ceased the car production side of its business in 1937.
Triumph, which had made its own 4 and 6 cylinder engines to Coventry Climax designs under
a licensing arrangement, ceased this when it completed the move to its own in-house OHV
designs from 1936. Faced with the vagaries of the car trade, Lee decided in 1937 to cease the
manufacture of engines for the car trade, concentrating instead on a government contract for
the manufacture and supply of fire pump trailers using two existing old engine designs, the
smaller design being the side-valve unit from the defunct Swift.
Faced with the fact that its existing contract with Coventry Climax would not be renewed,
Morgan was forced to look for another engine supplier. The Standard Special engine was the
result.
Incidentally there is no truth whatever in the claims that surface from time to time that Triumph
rather than Coventry Climax itself supplied these engines to Morgan. Nor is there any
substance to the parallel stories that Triumph either owned or had some management control
of Coventry Climax in the pre-war period.
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2.
The motor for this particular Morgan 4/4 is known as the Standard Special. It is a purposebuilt overhead valve motor (OHV) developed at the same time (around 1937) as the Standard
Motor Company developed a range of side valve motors for its new cars, described as Flying
Standards because of some elementary streamlining.
The motor was used almost exclusively in Morgans because it was only ever used in one
other car, the very first prototype Triumph Mayflower just after the war. They didn't proceed
with its use in Mayflowers after that first car.
According to allocated engine numbers, only 700 Standard Special engines were ever made.
The last, Q700E is fitted to Graeme Donaldsons car in Western Australia.
In May 1939 the Climax engine was replaced in the Series 1 4/4 by the 1,267cc Standard
Special engine. This engine was produced especially for Morgan and had the Morgan name
cast into the rocker cover. There were 525 cars manufactured with the Standard Special
engine and production restarted after WW2.
In 1947 the announcement by the Standard Motor Co. of their One Engine Policy meant that
no more 1,267 cc. units would be available after 1949 and Morgan found it necessary to
consider alternative power units. My own car left the factory on 8 May 1950 so it seems that
there were still a few motors left over at that time.
3.
The Standard Special motor is claimed variously to be descended from the Standard 9
(Morgan factory books), the Standard 10, to be an OHV conversion of the Standard 10 etc but
it is really none of these things.
The block and head castings are unique and they are very rough and shoddy indeed despite
which it is quite a strong little engine.
It has bearing sizes (big ends and mains) common to the 8, 9 and 10 hp engines plus the
same bore/stroke dimensions as the 10, i.e. 63.5 mm by 100 mm.
It uses the pistons and connecting rods from the 10, the crankshaft from the 8 and the higher
capacity oil pump from the 12/14 hp engines. In some respects it is quite modern, in others
archaic.
The camshaft runs direct in the block as did early Vanguard engines, the bores are desaxed
and there are springs at the bottom of the pushrods as well as the top.
Surprisingly perhaps, most replaceable parts i.e. bearings, thrusts, pistons, valves are readily
available new. New timing chain tensioners aren't hard to come by while the chain itself can
be modified from a Mazda chain.
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There are no detailed manuals on the motor but the notes of John Merton that this part of the
document is based on, have had a fairly wide circulation including a copy to George Proudfoot
(UK) many years ago. The notes tell some of the various tricks and pitfalls.
The equivalent Standard motors of the time were all side valves. The ones they provided to
the SS Jaguar were OHV but John does not know if there is any component interchangability
between these motors. This point may need further research.
The pulley may be Standard which is highly likely as they had the same oil thrower
arrangement. It is worth checking a pre-war Flying Standard vehicle but any pulleys lying
around are likely to have the same problem, i.e. they will be damaged.
The Standard 8, 10, 12 and 14 hp service manual for the years 1939-1946 has quite a deal of
information on fixing the side valve engines and a lot of it overlaps with what John Merton has
provided. The bore and tunnel dimensions therein are very slightly different to Johns details,
which he sourced from Repco bearing data. This manual was published by Scientific
Magazine of Rockdale and is worth getting.
Power output went from 38.8 bhp at 4,500 rpm pre-war with compression of 6.8 to 1 to 40 bhp
at 4,300 rpm post-war with a rise in compression to 7 to 1.
Torque quoted postwar is 61.6 lb ft at 2,500 rpm.
Spark Plugs are Champion N8, Points L10/GL10.
4.
Design Antecedents.
The Morgan Company claimed that the Standard Special engine was based on the earlier
Standard 9 side-valve unit. Given that engine's stroke of 100mm, this is more feasible than
tracing its origins to the earlier 10 hp engine, which had a stroke of 106mm. However others
have claimed it is an OHV version of the Standard Flying 10 engine or even an OHV
conversion of that engine.
None of these claims is strictly correct. Laban claims that this engine was first offered to
Morgan in 1937. If so its development appears to have paralleled the development by
Standard of its new range of side valve engines for its Flying series of cars. The offer also
appears to coincide with Coventry Climax's decision to exit the car engine trade. Why
Standard decided to develop this engine is unclear although they were producing OHV
engines in larger sizes for SS Jaguar. Incidentally although Weslake has a claimed
involvement in the development of the OHV cross flow cylinder heads for the Jaguar engines,
it seems unlikely he was so involved in the Standard Special arrangement.
As far as I can determine, the engine was never used in any production vehicle other than
Morgan. However apparently it did power the first Triumph Mayflower prototype after the War
and it is tempting on this basis that it may have been tested earlier also in some of the Flying
Standard prototypes. Perhaps we will never know.
The cylinder block casting is unique and is narrower than that used in either the Standard 8 or
10 hp engines. There are 10 head studs, each in two rows of five unlike the side valve
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engines which had three rows of studs. As well as using the oil pump from the 12/14 hp
engines, the Standard Special engine uses the crankshaft from the contemporary Standard 8
with its oil light spigot bush rather than that from the 10 hp cars which had a roller bush. The
reason for this is that both the 8 hp engine and the author is advised, the 10 hp engine had full
water jacketing around the cylinder bores, whereas the Standard Specials are siamised. This
means that the cylinder centres on the Standard Special engine are to the same spacings as
the 8 hp engine rather than the 10 hp one whose centre two cylinders are at different
spacings.
The 10 hp crankshaft can be fitted to the Standard Special engine but the two centre
connecting rods will require modification. Note that the flywheels for the 10 hp and 8 hp Flying
Standard engines are the same, except the clutch pressure plate and driven plate are smaller
in the 8 hp engine hence their attachment holes are at a smaller diameter.
FIG 1B:1 Sectional view of Standard Special engine (1939) showing manifold and Solex
carburettor. Top insert shows overhead rockers and pushrods. Bottom insert shows
combustion chamber and position of valve.
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5.
According to Laban's research, the price of the Standard Special engine in November 1937
was around 25 pounds compared with Climax engines which had risen to 36 pounds from 29
pounds. When compared further, HRG were paying 34 pounds for the Meadows 4ED engine
in 1935 (Dussek).
This makes the Standard Special engine seem a comparative bargain and even more so
when contemporary reports indicate it was available as an option for an extra 5 pounds but
there is no such thing as a free lunch.
While it is quite a strong little engine (main bearing journals of 2 in diameter compared with
the 1.75 in the Austin A40 for example which also had big end dimensions the same at 1.75)
it is a shoddy piece of work. The block, head and manifold castings in particular are rough
examples indeed of foundry practice. Expect to find left over casting ridges and dags in the
porting and jacketing also left over bits of core wire in the water jackets. The cylinder head
casting is so rough that I doubt whether Weslake would have wished association with it any
way.
We have found considerable weight variations between connecting rods and some
crankshafts have been well-nigh impossible to get in balance without the removal of
considerable amounts of metal. In the case of the connecting rods, balance has been
achieved several times by juggling big-end bolts and nuts with those from the Armstrong
Siddeley 16/18 hp engines, which are waisted and a much superior design each weighing
about 8 grams less than the Morgan ones.
The starter ring gear is cut into the circumference of the flywheel. The two centre studs on the
water exit manifold are drilled through into the two centre exhaust ports. All of the head studs
are tapped through into the water jacketing. The problem with rocker breakage when valve
clearances are tightened appears to be as much due to shoddy finishing of the head, as much
as anything else. The single row timing chain and the camshaft running direct in the block
have been mentioned earlier.
Mind you, many of these comments also apply to the small Standard engines. HFS may have
been a shrewd businessman but so was John Black, the head of Standard.
6.
Design Features.
The Standard Special engine is a reasonably conventional in-line 4 cylinder engine of 1,267
cc with a bore of 63.5mm and a stroke of 100mm. The crankshaft is De-Saxed, the offset
being to the left or camshaft side of the engine. Consequently there is a small cut-out at the
right-hand bottom of each bore to allow clearance for the connecting rods.
One, two, three and four cylinders are siamised (more later). The crankshaft runs in three
main bearings and together with the big-end bearings are of the shell type. The thrust is taken
by washers on each side of the rear main bearing. The big ends of the connecting rods will not
pass down through the bore and the pistons have to be inserted from underneath. There is a
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lead at the bottom of each bore to assist this. There are alloy sealing blocks and filling pieces
covering the two end main bearing caps to ensure a flat surface for the sump to bolt onto.
These are held to the block with two 5/16 BSF set-screws.
At the rear there are also two horizontal set-screws through this block into the rear oil retainer.
The bolts attaching the sump at these two points are Whitworth thread rather than the BSF
used for the other sump attachment bolts and the threads into the alloy blocks are all too easy
to strip if these are over tightened
The camshaft is on the left side of the motor and generally runs direct in the block (the author
has seen one engine with one-piece shell bearings).There are four journals that bear on the
block and these are 1 11/16, 1 15/32, 1 7/16 and 1 13/32 going from front to rear.
Supposedly the camshaft has been ground to a greater degree of overlap than those in either
the Flying 8 or 10 hp side-valve engines but on measurement the author has found no
discernable difference between the Morgan camshaft and that from an 8 hp engine.
There is a single row timing chain and a spring steel tensioner blade which is attached to the
inside of the timing cover, not to the block. Timing gear alignment is via shims under the
timing gear on the crankshaft. Distributor drive is via a vertical shaft from a cogwheel at the
centre of the camshaft, this shaft continuing downward to activate the oil pump. Camshaft
location and end float are via a steel plate (the camshaft locating plate) at the front which has
a half moon cut-out and is fastened to the block with two bolts.
The pistons can be of either the three or four ring variety although most replacement these
days seem to be the latter. The top ring has a tendency to break on the former. The pistons
and connecting rods are as for the Standard 10 hp engine. The connecting rods from the 8 hp
engine are similar but have a smaller gudgeon pin diameter.
There is a steel plate bolted to the front of the engine which incorporates the feet for the
engine mounts. At the rear there is another steel plate or engine cover, which provides the
mounting base for the bell housing and also the starter motor, which is at the bottom right
hand rear of the engine block.
The generator is attached to two brackets off the top left of the engine block.
7.
Motor Details
7.1
All the engine replacement parts are better sourced in Australia than from UK. The new
pistons for this engine are made by JP Engineering in South Australia and the valves are Ford
Laser/Mazda. These are also unleaded compatible.
Contact details for the JP Group are as follows: JP Pistons
25 Innes Rd Windsor Gardens, South Australia 5087
Phone (08) 8261 7222
Email [email protected]
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The bores are Siamese twinned, i.e. 1 to 2 and 3 to 4. This means that the bore centres are
the same as the Standard Flying 8 which, like the Flying 10, has fully water jacketed bores. It
also means the Flying 10 centres are a bit further apart than the Standard Special engine. The
10 crank can be fitted but the two centre conrods have to be modified to get the offsets
correct. The bore and stroke dimensions are 63.5 mm by 100 mm.
Pistons for the Standard Special are JP 0459
Pistons are occasionally available at auto jumbles or obsolete parts specialists, e.g.
Wellworthy (Ref231), Specialloid (M5), Repco (HX 1602). They are commonly marked for the
Flying Standard 10 engine, 1937-on.
These pistons are almost always of the 4-ringed variety with a plug in the bottom land to stop
the bottom ring rotating and potentially fouling on the hole tapped through into the cylinder for
the retaining bolts for the camshaft follower housings. The Repco (HX1602) piston does not
have this plug however and no damage would appear to ensue from its deletion.
The pistons came with either three or four rings. The three ring ones haven't been around for
a long time and were faulty in that the top rings were prone to breakage. With the four ring
pistons, fitting is a bit complicated as the big end will not pass down the bore. You can fit from
below if you are good but with the spring inherent in new rings it is sometimes very
problematical.
What it means is that the process takes a bit longer than usual, i.e. put the bottom ring on,
noting that some pistons have a plug in the middle of the land, push it in from below, up out of
the block - the bottom ring won't come out because the biog end will catch - fit the top three
rings and lower down.
The NOS pistons were generally extremely well made but care should be exercised in
selecting and using them now because of possible rust pitting on the rings and the gudgeon
pin. Mild rust on the rings can sometimes be removed by soaking in deoxidene (phosphoric
acid) followed by careful cleaning with steel wool but gudgeon pins should always be
discarded if pitted.
Gudgeon pins in these engines are held in place with wire clips which can usefully be
replaced with modern circlips. New JP pistons come with rings and gudgeon pins.
7.2
The pushrods have a spring at the bottom to provide a 15 thou clearance at the cam/tappet.
The valve clearance at the top end is 22 thou. The problem in reducing this is that the head
casting is so crappy that you may well exceed the compressibility of the top valve springs as a
result, leading to broken rockers and/or compacted pushrods.
Valves for the Standard Special are 2131 ST from the E3ES Mazda engine and require only
slight modification to fit.
Valve Seats were originally cut to a 30 degree angle. With the new Mazda and Ford Laser in
Australia for replacements, the angle is normally re-cut to 45 degrees.
Morgan Series 1 Standard Special Motor.doc
Page 8 of 22
Both inlet and exhaust valve clearances should be set to 0.022. A feature of this engine is
that an additional spring is fitted to the bottom of each pushrod to maintain 0.015 clearance
between the follower and the back of the cam. Never discard these springs or otherwise
reduce the valve clearances. This may well lead to compacting of the valve springs, i.e. the
movement is greater than their compressibility, resulting in broken rockers and/or impact
damage to the pushrods.
In cases where the valve gear is unduly noisy with correctly set clearances, the reason is
almost certainly that the oil ways in the valve rockers which commonly have a felt or wire wick
to provide a drip feed to the valve stems etc have become clogged.
7.3
Bearings.
The Main bearing is 3M 2212 which is a BMC B-series specification. For Morgan use, the
centre shells have to be machined to a width of 1.187 and the oil holes checked.
The Big End bearing is 4K/B 3071 which is for the Austin A40. Each top shell requires a new
offset oil hole drilled to match that in the connecting rod.
The Thrust bearing is Federal Mogul 2056BF which is the specification for the Nissan J13 and
J15 engines and is also listed for the Ford 100E engine.
Bearings are also sometimes available from obsolete parts suppliers or autojumbles including
mains (Repco 3k3064, Vandervell VP412, VP48272 etc), big-ends (3063, VP1369, VP411,
VP226 etc)
Standard Special bearings were as fitted to the Flying Standard 8/9/10hp cars from 1937 and
some NOS bearings will be marked thus. Big-end bearings fitted to the early post-war Austin
A40 are the same size and can be easily modified to suit. Once again, any NOS bearings
should be checked carefully for rust/moisture damage.
7.4
The timing chain is a Rolon SR901 but it does require removal of several links. If a competitor
product is purchased, ensure it has a removable link.
The timing chain tensioner is a T42425 which is a single row Triumph type.
7.5
Rocker Gear.
The rockers are worth a mention. They use a split bush, i.e. in two halve, the space between
forming an oil passage. Most likely the pad end has been soldered over. If this is unsoldered
you will find a small plug, about one eighth of an inch both in diameter and length which
covers the oil way drilled from the pad to the centre where it bears on the shaft.
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This oil way originally had either a felt wick or a piece of wire with another coiled around it like
a bass piano or guitar string to provide a drip to the valve top, both for lubrication and to
cushion the noise a bit given the very wide valve clearances.
All these passages will be clogged, so there are some happy hours ahead to clean them out.
John Merton has previously used a broken bass string from a guitar to do this. Cut the heads
off some flat head galvanised nails or similar as they are an exact replacement fit for the plugs
and then solder them over.
7.6
Crankshaft.
Shaft diameter
Tunnel bore
Wall section (bearing)
Length
1.9995 2.0000
2.1460 2.1465
0.0720 0.07225
1.375 (ends) and 1.187 (centre)
Big ends -
Shaft diameter
Tunnel bore
Length
1.7495-1.7500
1.8555 1.8560
0.934
These are specifications to match the original bearings and may be marginally different to
those listed in some workshop manuals for the Standard 8 - 10 range of engines.
Crankshaft End-float
8.
Lubrication.
The oil pump transmits oil to a horizontal gallery on the let hand side of the motor which feeds
the crankshaft and the tappets. The tappets (cam followers) are held in place by two blocks,
each fastened to the engine block by two bolts tapped right through into the bores themselves.
It is of course critical in reassembly to ensure these bolts do not intrude into the bores. There
is a small horizontal channel behind each block for oil transmission. A piece of copper wire
suitably half-mooned where the oil holes go through to the tappets, sits in these grooves to
control flow and there is a thin paper gasket between these assemblies and the engine block.
A side-mounted tappet cover plate with rounded ends covers this area of the engine. It is held
on by two domed brass bolts which also secure the two engine breather pipes.
The horizontal oil gallery has takeoffs for a pipe to the rear of the cylinder head to lubricate the
rocker gear, for the oil pressure gauge and for the feed to a by-pass oil filter. Each end of this
gallery is sealed by a half inch aluminium plug, which is screwed in then cut off flush. The
return from the oil filter is direct to the sump. These oil filter pipes were originally Bundy. There
has been a tendency to replace these pipes with copper ones, a huge mistake as they will
work harden and the one to the sump in particular will fracture just where it enters the sump.
Not a matter of if but when and the author has heard of several engines being ruined because
of this. The fittings are common BSP ones and it is best to have a hydraulic hose specialist
make up new flexible pipes.
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8.1
Oil Ways.
The aluminium plugs in the horizontal oil way on the L/H block side are (from memory) 1/2
BSF. Take these out to clean the oil ways and make new plugs out of an aluminium stick,
cutting it off flush when screwed home.
8.2
The original service recommendations were for oil changes at 2,500 mile intervals and the
sump removed and cleaned out every 10,000 miles. Some authorities have suggested that
with modern oils these oil change intervals can be extended. This is inadvisable.
The difficulty, especially in dusty conditions is the engine design itself. The oil return
arrangements at the front and rear of the crankshaft are via scroll threads machined on to the
pulley shaft at the front and the crankshaft at the rear. These are effective at returning the oil
but the front one especially is even more effective at drawing dust and other muck into the
engine.
Neither the by-pass filter normally fitted nor the full-flow modification which some owners have
carried out can cope adequately with this. British cars from around the 1950s period used in
Australia had a propensity for main bearing wear, particularly the front main for this reason.
It is recommended for this reason that the oil change intervals for this engine be reduced to
1,000 miles or 6 months, whichever the sooner.
9.
Manifold.
There is a one piece cast iron manifold for both inlet and exhaust. It has a hotspot. The
exhaust section runs over the top of the inlet, towards the front of the car, whence it curves
downward and joins an exhaust pipe that exits through a hole in the chassis rail. The manifold
is on the right hand side of the engine, unlike those on its side-valve Standard contemporaries
which are on the left.
Carburetion is via a single Solex downdraft model 30 FAI.
10. Cooling.
Water cooling on all engines was by the thermosyphon principle assisted by a two blade fan.
The triangular boss and shaft on which this fan and its associated pulley are mounted is
bolted with three 5/16 BSF bolts to the right-hand front of the block and covers a 3/4
diameter access hole to the water jacketing. These bolts will work loose over time leading to
coolant loss and should be checked for tightness periodically, say at 5,000 mile intervals
These engines were never fitted with a water pump. This is an error in a number of books and
articles which appears to have originated in an Autocar article of July 5 1946 which
incorrectly referred to a water impeller unit.
Page 12 of 22
11. Timing.
The engine is designed to fire at top dead centre at rest. There is a timing arrow on the
flywheel and another at the top of the rear engine cover plate. Timing is 1, 3, 4, 2 from the rear
cylinder. With the engine in the car it is easier to centre the timing arrow on the flywheel in the
bottom hole in the bell housing and to time off number 2 cylinder.
The distributor is of a type common to many British light cars of the time. A sleeve is pinned to
its shaft, this engaging with the end of the vertical driveshaft from the cam. This can have a
tendency to wear the base of the distributor over time causing the shaft to ride up and the
rotor button to grind into the distributor cap. The only spark advance provided is by bob
weights vacuum advance and retard was not fitted. For hawkeyed originality freaks, the flat
side of the distributor body will have month and year of manufacture stamped on it, e.g. 2 49.
An arrow will point to this.
Another issue to watch is that the driven cogwheel on the distributor driveshaft can sometimes
come loose on the shaft and ride up, e.g. if the engine backfires and jumps out of mesh with
the camshaft gear. This can be remedied with a snug-fitting thin wall brass tube over the
driveshaft to bridge the distance between the driven gear and the distributor's drive sleeve.
Page 13 of 22
and is not really critical anyway. Most of the other bolts came out easily but are badly rusted
and will need replacing. Interestingly the engine has been bored and sleeved at some stage
and the job was done properly.
Page 14 of 22
Page 15 of 22
To check the worm loading it is necessary to jack up the car and disconnect the Pittman arm
which is the heavy steel arm coming out from the bottom of the box, from the drag link which
is the cross bar connecting to the tie rod.
Carefully turn the steering wheel from lock to lock. There should be a very slight (12 in.
pounds) increase in the force required to move the steering wheel through centre. If there is
no increase, loosen the locking nut on the screw adjuster located at the top of the steering
box. Turn the adjusting screw slightly, tighten the locking nut and re-test. Once there is some
resistance felt, no further adjustment is required.
14.2 Steering Box Description.
Apart from a few early cars that had a reduction gear mounted halfway down the steering
column, all Series 1 cars were fitted with a Burman-Douglass worm and nut steering box.
Variations to this steering box were fitted to many different makes of contemporary British
cars.
The system involves a thread, usually a six start but sometimes five on mainly left-hand drive
cars, machined on the end of the inner column carrying the bronze nut. Right hand drive cars
have a left hand thread and vice versa. There is a hardened steel bush screwed into the top of
the nut using a special process.
A peg at the end of the L shaft at the top of the rocker arm transmits motion via the rocker
arm shaft to the steering drop arm at the bottom of the box, attached to the rocker arm via a
splined shaft and pinch bolt. It should be noted that some cars may have been subsequently
modified so a check is required before too much work is carried out. The shaft of the rocker
arm rides in two bronze bushes, the top of which has a diagonal cut for about three quarters of
its length to provide clearance for the nut.
The only provision for adjustment is for the end float in the column via two large thin nuts
under the steering wheel. The inner column is supported at the top by a ball race. At the
bottom it is free floating. The location is provided by the nut which is a sliding fit inside the box
casing. The system provides one and three quarter turns lock to lock.
This steering box also continued in use on early +4s with minor differences up to 1953/54. the
Burman box was then abandoned for Cam Gears, a cam and peg design used on the +4s
until replaced by the Gemmer and rack and pinion systems. The Cam Gears is quite a
different box to the Burman although externally there are superficial similarities.
The Burman box can only be tested properly for wear on the car, i.e. under load conditions
when it is connected up and the car has all wheels on the ground. The steps are as follows: 1. Make sure there is no end float and the box is securely fastened.
2. Remove the top and end covers and have an assistant jiggle the steering wheel while
you check for play between the worm and nut, i.e. wear in the thread, and between the
nut and the side of the box.
3. Check for wear in the bushes, i.e. movement in the shaft.
Page 16 of 22
It is unlikely there will be wear between the peg and the hardened steel bush in the top of the
nut. If you are desperately unlucky, the bush may be loose in which case you will need to look
for another nut as there is not an established method to make these stay permanently tight
again.
The drop arm must also be tight on the bottom of the rocker of course and note there is an oil
seal above this. The seal is usually rope or felt held in place with a washer with the box
housing peened over to hold it in place. This seal can be replaced with a modern neoprene
seal.
14.2 Repairing the Steering Box.
The wear in the thread can be addressed as follows: 1. Clean the nut thoroughly with Prepsol or similar then tin the inside of the nut lightly with
solder.
2. Grease the thread on the shaft with a good axle grease but not WD40 or similar is it
may flash then screw the nut on about half way along the thread.
3. Melt babbit metal, heat up the nut and pour the metal down the bush hole rotating the
shaft until the metal appears at the ends of the nut.
4. Keep rotating the shaft as it cools to prevent binding.
This will get rid of the play in the thread but the effectiveness of the repair may be limited if the
thread on the shaft has much hourglass wear in it.
Play between the nut and the side of the box is addressed similarly, ie by building up the nut
with babbit metal and machining it to a tight sliding fit in the box. Addressing other areas of
wear, eg in the bushes should be straight forward.
On reassembly work the bits together using a moly compound and clean up thoroughly by
removing all metal dags and filings. Assemble and disassemble several times to ensure
everything is scrupulously clean.
This procedure is effective in reducing play at the steering wheel from around 8 to around .
There are other measures to improve the steering but these are not included here.
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It also seems that the British journalists do not acknowledge that the invention was American
or that the Europeans ever got anything important from the Yanks.
18. References.
a.
John Merton, Australia has provided the bulk of technical information contained herein
including information already included on Gomog that has been further revised to only
include references to the Standard Special motor. John also provided the instructions
for rebuilding the steering box which I followed successfully in the early 2000s.
b.
MSSC website.
4/4 Series I Technical Advisor & Spares
George Proudfoot
34 Kiln Road, Fareham, Hants. PO16 7UW
Tel:01329 236217
Workshop & Fax: 01329 826246
c.
Gomog website. There is a lot of technical information here, mainly for later models. The
emog and NBC email discussion groups are also excellent sources of assistance and
information.
d.
Indian site for Standards as Triumph Herald (948cc motor) and later models with 2.0 litre
motors.
http://www.standardmotorclub.org/
e.
f.
Morgan Four Owners Workshop Manual OWM 796 published by Brooklands Books for
reproduction of the illustrations of the motor, gearbox and steering.
g.
Anthony Browne, Australia for collation of information provided and listing of Australian
sources for components. My car was originally fitted with a Standard Special motor
which was repurchased in 2007. The plan is to rebuild this motor and refit it to my car. A
radiator, bell housing, generator and starter motor, drive shaft, a manifold and few other
parts are already on hand for this. A gearbox is required to complete the assembly and
when this has been collected and fixed will be refitted to the car.
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