September 2018 – MOGSouth

27 Sep

Sad News. MOGSouth Co-Founder Charlie King Passed Away 23 Sept 2018, Age 95

[Charlie was a wonderful man and a good friend. He will be dearly missed by many in MOGSouth. He was a founding member of MOGSouth and his documented history of MOGSouth can be read on the HISTORY pages of the MOGSouth Website.

As he aged, and sold his Morgans, his participation in the MOGSouth activities became a little less frequent but he was always there for us. And, always a cheer leader and point of inspiration. Frequently, he was asked his opinion and he always provided us with sound guidance and motivation.

He did attend the 40th Anniversary of the Club in 2015 and spoke about the club’s creation. He highlighted his role and the role of the other founding members ‘back in the day.’ Then he commended the current incarnation of the club and its operation some 40 years on.

We all have to be grateful for all his efforts and cherish his friendship. Mark]

Dr. Charles Joel King (1922 – 2018)

Obituary as Published in Charleston Post & Courier on Sept. 25, 2018

Dr. Charles Joel King, 95, of Charleston, South Carolina, husband of Caroline Oliveros King, died Sunday, September 23, 2018, at his home in Charleston, SC. His private graveside service will be at St. Philip’s Churchyard.

A reception for family and friends will be held Sunday, September 30, 2018, at 35 Gibbes Street, from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. Arrangements by J. HENRY STUHR, INC. DOWNTOWN CHAPEL.

Charlie was born November 15, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, the only child of Ruth and John J. King. He received his Doctorate of Dental Science degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland and his Master of Arts in teaching from The Citadel in Charleston. Dr. King is retired from the University of Detroit Dental School, where he served as Dean from 1983 through 1988. Previously, he was on the faculty of Baylor University’s Dental School and was a member of the original faculty at the Dental School of the Medical University of South Carolina.

Charlie took to retirement like a fish takes to water and never looked back. He was a man of many hobbies. He collected antiques, Morgan cars, Classic Thunderbirds and clocks. Charlie loved Great Dane dogs, travel and golf. He was active in car clubs, especially the Morgan Owners Group South. Charlie was a president of the Country Club of Charleston, where he made three holes in one. Although he was fortunate enough to play both August National and the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, his time spent golfing with his friends at the Country Club of Charleston was his favorite. Charlie was a kind, thoughtful, loving, gentle man. His goodness will be missed greatly.

Charlie is survived by his wife, Caroline; grandson, Brian King; and daughter-in-law, Jeannie King of Dallas, TX. He was predeceased by his son from a former marriage, Geoffrey King who passed away suddenly on September 5th of this year.

The family’s appreciation goes out to Kindred Hospice of Charleston and Home Instead Senior Care for their kind and compassionate service. Memorials may be made to the Salvation Army, P.O. Drawer 70579, N. Charleston, SC 29415. A memorial message may be sent to the family by visiting our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com. Visit our guestbook at www.legacy.com/obituaries/charleston

Published in Charleston Post & Courier on Sept. 25, 2018 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charleston/obituary.aspx?n=charles-joel-king&pid=190308835&fhid=6051

27 Sep

Analog adrenaline: taking the Morgan Plus 4 for a drive (https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/drive – 9/27/18)

Driving aids are overrated, so we take the vintage-inspired Morgan Plus 4 for an exciting drive, free of computer control.

[With all the fervor about the new ‘component’ cars being brought in by dealers it is hard not to loose sight of the other way to get a newer Morgan into the US legally, the 25 Year Old car law. We already have two Plus 8s (1990 and 1989) and one Plus 4 (1994) registered right here in Florida. I am being challenged by new power trains and new technologies every day. What is that they say about ‘old dogs and new tricks’?? Cheers, Mark]

Real driving excitement is endangered. Many modern vehicles prohibit reckless abandon with the help of safety systems like motor-driven power steering, traction control, stability control, and ABS. In sportier vehicles, features like launch control, corner brake control, and torque vectoring compensate for all the fun that’s been taken away by safety imperatives—though always under the watchful eyes of the on-board computer.

Yet, this illusion of control is no substitute for the connectedness and dash of unpredictability that old cars, bereft of modern safety systems, used to provide. Pure, unadulterated driving fun may be harder to find these days, but it’s far from extinct. One vehicle where it resides quite comfortably in is the Morgan Plus 4.

The Morgan Motor Company, Ltd. was founded by Henry Frederick Stanley “HFS” Morgan in 1909. The railway worker left his job and designed and built a car for his own use. That very company continues to operate to this day, closely adhering to the founder’s ideals. Far from typical automotive companies that produced vehicles to reach production targets, Morgan pursued craftsmanship and performance in creating his vehicles.

As a result, his first vehicle, a three-wheeler powered by a V-twin engine, offered little more than personal mobility and lower road tax, since it was classified as a motorcycle. In spite of competition from small cars like the Austin 7 and the original Morris Minor, the company soldiered on, eventually introducing the Plus 4, a four-cylinder, four-wheeled vehicle in 1952. Morgan took its time introducing variants and new models in the years that followed, launching the retro-futuristic Aero in 2000 and the reincarnation of the Three-Wheeler in 2011. Nevertheless, the low production numbers allowed the company to focus on quality, craftsmanship, and excitement that the vehicles continue to be known for today.

The beauty about Morgans is they’re built only after a customer has placed an order. This includes choosing from 40,000 possible colors and a dizzying array of upholstery and other options. Only then is the Morgan built, not by assembly line, but part by part. Wooden forms are stenciled, sawed, shaped, and joined to make parts of the car. Aluminum sheets are not stamped but hammered and molded over the wooden frames. Chassis are not moved by conveyor belt but rolled along on dollies. Vehicles are spray-painted by hand, not by a robot. Each component is fitted by hand, inspected and fixed if necessary. Finally, each vehicle is individually road tested to ensure they are worthy of being called a Morgan. In essence, Morgans are still constructed in the same way vehicles were built at the turn of the century.

That fully manual process manifests itself in several parts of the car: the way the leather belt over the hood is frayed along its length, the beautiful welding marks along the windshield frame that are flattened but not erased, the imperfection in the stitching of the seats, letting you know it passed through caring hands.

As for the drive, the Morgan is not perfect either, but it’s also uncensored. No traction control, ABS, or stability to save you from mistakes. This vehicle is not for the uninitiated. The throttle response is instant, with its precious burble resonated, not muted, by the muffler. The steering is slow, taking some turns to conquer a 90-degree turn. Yet it’s also this effort that helps you appreciate how hard cornering is. Or you can always let the back end come out and do more of the work for you. The transmission is short and crisp. After all, it’s sourced from a Mazda Miata. The ride is harsh, but nonetheless planted, giving better feedback on how slippery or sticky the road surface is. And, of course, there will be a lot of wind coming into the cabin, just to let you know how fast you’re going.

All told, the Morgan is uncomfortable, twitchy, and a little bit scary. It’s clearly not an everyday car. But the few days you take it out, preferably on a twisty mountain road, will be the most exhilarating drives of your life. Driving excitement may be endangered but, quite appropriately, it takes a dinosaur like the Morgan Plus 4 to remind us why this freedom has become such a rare and exclusive treasure.

04 Sep

Fettling with the 2005 Roadster Air Conditioner

It’s hot in Florida and most Morgan outings are top down. But when it rains, and it does that daily, you have to put the top up. Being in a Morgan with the top up, in Florida, is hot, very hot and humid. But, I have air conditioning in the Roadster. Yeah, right!

Well, the Roadster air conditioner is the subject of many jokes, and none of them are good. If Morgan didn’t provide air conditioning, we would have suffered on, as we had before, but since the car supposedly came with ‘Air Conditioning’ we thought we were saved. Not so. It doesn’t work and if it does, it doesn’t work very well.

Turning On the 2005 Roadster Air Conditioning

The actual air conditioner lines are high pressure lines and are metal.

They go into an air condition assembly box on the car’s firewall. This assembly box also houses the car’s heater core (sort of looks like a small radiator) and the heater / air conditioning fan. The assembly box is covered with some sort of temperature insulating material that is silver-ish.

There is a knob about the size of a nickel near the upper right corner of the air condition assembly box (labeled as Condenser Knob, above, and shown as a red dot.) This knob is supposed to be fully rotated clockwise. This insures the air conditioning ‘compressor’ is not turned OFF. It is rumored that some cars simply had this knob set somewhat counter-clockwise and the air conditioning didn’t work.

Also, inside the car, there is large rotating knob under the dash on the passenger side (LHD) that goes from Hot (Marked in RED) to Cold (Marked in BLUE). There is also a switch under the dash on the drivers’ side (LHD) labeled with a snow flake (for air conditioning). One side of the switch shows a vertical bar ‘|’ for ON and the other an ‘O’ for OFF.

Rotate the ‘compressor’ knob (the small knob on the outside of the air conditioner assembly box.) fully clockwise.
Rotate the large knob (inside the car, under the dash) to the BLUE side
Turn the air conditioning switch (inside the car, under the dash) to the ON position (e.g. with the vertical bar ‘|’ for ON).
Turn on the fan switch, which is inside the car, on the dash, to low or high. (It is a two position switch.)

When I do all this, I get semi-cool air blowing into the cockpit. Certainly, insufficient for the Florida heat and humidity. It is not new car cold air, more like really old car cool air (someone said tepid).

So What Now?

I tried starting the air conditioning a few times, hoping for a different outcome each time. Nope the same each time, nadda, still tepid air.

I studied the schematics and stared at the car. I found a few things I thought I could do. There are two coolant hoses taking hot coolant from the engine, running it through the heater core (little radiator) to provide the heat for the heater. (They are shown in purple in the schematic above.)

The fan (switch to turn the fan on and off is located on the dash) blows air through this hot heater core into the car’s cockpit. The air blown by the fan comes from the hot engine air leaving the forward bonnet louvers and then goes back into the engine bay via the rearward (near the windshield) louvers on the bonnet. This air then goes into the top of the air conditioning assembly box.

This is the air that is used by the heater / air conditioning systems. Hot air is fine for the heater but isn’t too good for the air conditioner.

Also, having these hot coolant lines and this hot heater core in the air condition assembly box cannot be good for getting cold air into the cockpit either.

Fixing the air flow looks to be somewhat arduous, at least in my simple mind, however eliminating the hot coolant hoses feeding the heater core looks doable. So that is what I did.

Tools Needed

All this is really just to loosen and tighten hose clamps. Your car may have different hose clamps and require different tools. Well, the pry bar gave me some leverage with sticky hoses.

1/4 inch drive ratchet
6 inch extension for 1/4 inch drive ratchet
7mm Socket (1/4 inch drive)
8mm Socket (1/4 inch drive)
Slotted Screw Driver
Philips Head Screw Driver
Pry Bar
90 degree ¾ inch (outside diameter) brass hose coupling (~$3 at Lowes)

Steps

The hardest part of this task is getting access to the heater core supply and return coolant hoses where they connect into the air conditioner assembly box. Once you have access it is simply the matter of removing the two hose clamps that hold the hoses on the air conditioning assembly box and then joining the two hoses together with a 3/4 inch coupling.

Remove the two small overflow tank hoses. Remove the hose clamps using slotted screwdriver. See picture of overflow tank with hoses removed, below.

Relocate electrical relays attached via an attached Velcro patch. Simply pull Velcro away. See picture of velcro on electrical relays and on air conditioner assembly box, below.

Remove the large Air Flow hose. Again, remove the hose clamps and pull. The hose is fairly pliable. See picture of the void left when the the large air flow hose is removed, below.

Now you can access the two hoses going into the air conditioning assembly box that carry the hot coolant water. Note: When you pull these away, you will have some spillage of coolant as the heater core is most likely full. It isn’t very much however.
Simply connect the two hoses together using the metal coupling (I tried it with a straight coupling and it was too difficult to get the hoses in the correct position, so I opted for a 90° angled coupler. This was much easier.) I found the coupling at the local home improvement store. I suspect they are everywhere. This removes the flow of hot coolant from the heater core and of course, disables the heater. Now just put everything back.
Put the large Air Flow hose back on. Again, use the hose clamps on each end and push and pull to get it set on each end. Then tighten the hose clamps.
Put the electrical relays back onto their Velcro patch.
Finally, reconnect the two overflow tank hoses.
Re inspect to make sure everything is reconnected and tightened up.
Take the car for a test drive.

The Result

I think this simple modification greatly improved the performance of my air conditioning. It is still not extremely cold, but it is quite a bit cooler than before. Now, I suspect everyone’s car is different (these are Morgans, of course) so your results may vary. I also think that reworking the air flow, as discussed above, will improve the air conditioning some more.

I believe a more elegant solution that addresses not only the hot coolant hoses, but also the hot air flow issues and a solution that doesn’t disable the heater, is in the works. I will probably opt for that solution when it is here and tested, however until then, this is about ‘as good as it gets’.

Cheers, Mark

01 Sep

New Orleans Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps (PCCP) Project & Patterson Pump facility in Toccoa GA

This message may be of interest to the club members that followed the story in the newsletter (Volume 6/14) highlighting the MOGSouth visit in June 2014 to the Patterson Pump facility in Toccoa GA where our huge New Orleans flood control pumps were manufactured.

This photo, from the MOGSouth newsletter, shows our tour group standing in half of the suction tube of one of the pumps.

I just received notification that the New Orleans Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps (PCCP) Project involving our monster pumps will be featured on the History Channel September 1st at noon (ET).

Briefly, the PCCP project is the last and largest of the post-Katrina flood protection improvement projects.

The 10 largest of the 17 pumps are the largest pumps in the U.S. hurricane protection system, capable of pushing 800,000 to 1.2 million gallons per minute EACH over the flood protection walls and into Lake Pontchartrain.

These pumps and the 7 “small” pumps that are capable of half these flow rates produce a combined flow rate equivalent to that of the Ohio River.

The pumps are 5 to 7 stories high.

It took 150 special flatbed tractor trailers to transport the 17 pumps to New Orleans. They were shipped in components (photo attached) and assembled on site while the pump stations were built around them.

Regards,

Jack Claxton