The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Its been quite a while but I finally got my backside back in gear and have restarted the work.

We have news

Front suspension is 100% done and im pleased to report that it no longer squeeks

Brakes are back together just need to be bled through.

Im looking at having the car back on the road by the end of the month.

Oh and other very suprising news

The car hadn't been started for 12weeks. So yesterday I thought I would rectify that. I thought it would at the very least have a flat battery in fact it didn't and after about 5s cranking the engine fired into life. No coughing no half starts as soon as the fuel was there it fired up like it hadn't even been left. Chuffed is not the word.

I was hoping that about now I would be posting a happy post saying that Bruce was finally back on the road. But it wasn't to be. No he did not fail his MOT worse than that he didn't even get there

I had 2 small jobs to do this morning before taking it down these where

Bleed Brakes
A touch of welding of the front wing that was leaving a sharp edge.

Easy I thought 2 or 3 hours no problem except the brakes would not bleed for the life of me. I tried the traditional two person method. No joy. Then I tried using a jar of brake fluid and pumping the pedal. Still nothing not even air coming out the bleed nipples. So I connected up the pressure bleeder the result of this was half a pint of brake fluid all over the engine bay when the master cap blew off.

So I set to investigate why this had happened. No fluid was getting past the 4 way connecter on the bulkhead. So I pulled the top pipe off it, the one from the master cylinder and dribbled a bit of fluid into the hole. I was pleased to see the fluid came out of all 3 ports. So the problem was not there. I then fitted a non return valve to the master cylinder with a bit of spare brake pipe and pumped the brake pedal. I had hoped to see fluid come out nothing at all. At this point I was pretty sure that the problem must lie inside the master cylinder and not elsewhere. So pulled the master, sure enough the push rod is floating freely inside the barrel and the piston is stuck fast at the bottom of it. Compressed air wont get it out so Ive decided the master is shot so a recon one is on its way from pastparts.

Now the interesting bit this master was resealed maybe 2 to 3 months back and the bore was unblemished, their is now visible rust on the bore. It does occur to me that as I haven't had all that much time to work on the car, the piston hasn't moved in quite a long time. Now I wasn't stupid enough to leave the master completly dry so I left the reservoir full of DOT 4 and the outlet terminal was blocked of but it does seem that just sitting for a few months has been enough to render a perfectly good cylinder scrap.
If I have to leave it a while again im going to get someone to move the brake pedal every so often so that the whole of the bore gets some fluid over it.

IT IS FIXED.

Couple of very minor issues encountered today but nothing I couldn't handle.

Master cylinder arrived at 11.00 this morning, but unfortunatly was without the pushrod and circlip. So I have swapped it over from the old one

Attached it up diconected the rear pipe feed and attached the easibleed. Result A good healthy stream of brake fluid straight in the face ;D

I then ran a new front to rear pipe which would have been much easier if I hadn't filled and bled the master cylinder. The result was brake fluid everywhere. All four wheels where then bled.

I then remembered that id forgotten to change the bushes on the nearside front tiebar. So changed them.

I now have a Triumph 1300 with a nice possitive brake pedal and good suspension. Now I here you ask what was the second minor issue well quite simply the easibleed flattened my tyres ;D

Paul, a trick for the next time you remove a hose. Put a plastic bag or similar over the reservoir before you screw the lid on, you'll lose a tiny bit of fluid that way but the rest in the reservoir should stay in there.
Worked for me anyway.
Glad to see you've got it sorted.

Grrr. Soon as I got it rolling I realised that the brake discs are not spinning true. Looks like the machine shop balls up skimming them.

Ive sent the car off for someone else to finish it before I lose the plot.

Isn't it amazing how a little green piece of paper can renew your enthusiasm and get you working on a car again. After a bit of a long wait and me getting so p155 off that I shipped this car off to a local garage with the instructions of do whatever it needs to pass an MOT.

It turns out it needed a new wheel bearing and discs. So I told him to change both sides as he had the hubs off anyway to fit some new discs.

Anyway got the car back and was very suprised to find a bill for half of what I was expecting. Apparently I get trade rates now!

Got home after driving around a bit god it was nice to drive him again and promptly started dismantling things and making him undrivable again
Throttle linkage is currently in peices whilst I source some new bushes.

Ive also got hold of a bottle of Autoglym Vinyl cleaner and a Vinyl Conditioner and have set about cleaning the interior. I had not realised just how white and shiny the seats could become. Im amazed at how dirty they where.

Ive also removed all the door caps and sent them off to be refurbished.

Current plans for the near future are.

Repair the 2 rear wheel arches (are repair panels available as Im not to sure about trying to make that shape myself)
Tidy up the rushed repair on the sill from two years back.
Repair the areas of rust in the front Valance.
Strip all brightwork and respray the whole car.

My aim is to have all bar the respray done by christmas so watch this space

Been doing a few miles recently and have encountered a few teething problems.

The boot seal seams to have dislocated and now makes shutting the boot difficult.
2nd gear is graunching when cold.
Ive had a flat battery but that was my fault the first problem caused the boot to not shut properly leaving the boot light on.

Yesterday I went to start the car and just got a whining noise and no starter. Push started no problem and when I got home the starter was working again. Any ideas?

Dirty or oil-contaminated Bendix gear? Clean with a suitable solvent, make sure the Bendix is dry then lubricate correctly; dry, with graphite powder or rub a soft pencil along its land.

Confirmed that problem was actually a duff battery.

Now have 2 new ones! Will it ever end.

Speedo cable snapped this morning and the reconditioned master cylinder that has only done 15miles since it was fitted has failed.

Will not pick up from the reservior and instead just sucks back through the lines.

Im losing the plot with this car now and if someone gave me scrap value for the car they could take it away. There are a lot of decent spares on the car as ive changed loads myself!!

Don't get rid!

When Brown broke down I didn't even consider getting rid especially with the time and money spent to get an MoT. Things weren't as bad as I thought (broken flex plate instead of the autobox) and through the kindness of others on this forum (namely Beefertoo & MikeyB) Brown will be up and running again without too much expense. Even when Becky II broke down as well Anita suggested that I scrap the whole lot of my cars. Once I found out that the cambelt on Becky II had snapped it was a fairly easy job to do and fortunately it didn't cost me anything because I had a new cambelt in the garage. I know that you're losing your "mojo" so just walk away and come back to it another day with a fresh persepctive. You'll regret it the moment you sell it.

Keep the faith.

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Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

The problem I have is this car really needs to be taken off the road and garaged. Then I could work through it with a fine tooth comb. At the moment because it parks outside on the road. As a result any breakdown is a major issue and needs to be sorted quickly. If I could just find a garage to rent id keep it but I just cant and at the moment its bankrupting me.

Paul, treat it as a learning thing.

The boot seal is just a case of repositioning with a bit of contact adhesive so nothing to learn there. Same with the speedo cable - they do break now and then, so it's down to tough luck that it's happened now.

The starter problem may have been the battery, although that's an unusual symptom if it is - generally a dud battery will give nothing (n whine, no nothing). Bad batteries are pretty rare as well (they're very simple technology) but they tend to be the first thing blamed for a multitude of faults elsewhere and someone's always happy to sell you a new one - which will usually seem to cure the fault for a few weeks / months simply because it has a bit more power in it! So if it recurs (likely) don't jump for yet another new one - look for the real cause. JPB is likely to be on the right track with his suggestion above. Out of interest, how was the dud battery "confirmed"?

For the brake master, look carefully at how the system works - it should be "sucking" from the lines and only "topping up" from the reservoir as the front pads wear. What it's more likely to be doing is blowing fluid back into the reservoir instead of putting pressure into the system. If it's the usual Girling cylinder then that means the valve at the end of the cylinder is leaking. There were, iirc, two slightly different assemblies for them over the life of the cylinders and you can't mix & match parts or seals from them.

Cars been behaving very well of late so well in fact that ive had time to do so fettling of niggles and improvements. Maybe there is something in this only running one car at a time lark

Anyway the battery issue was traced to a short in the alternator circuit. Found by touching the alternator and thinking that shouldn't be hot the car hasn't run today a quick rewire later and problem solved.

Next job on the line was the fitting of a new dash binnacle as the old one had been destroyed by yobs.This threw up a few strange electrical issues but all where down to the wiring on the voltage stabiliser getting accidently reversed. Giving a pulsing fan and gauges that worked for only a few seconds. The wiring was swapped back and whilst I was back there I tidied up someones previous bodgery resulting in all the dash warning lights coming back to life Ok with the execption of the choke light which I just cant get to work but I can live without it.

I then invested in an H4 Halogen headlamp kit which was a doddle to fit and was most definatly worthwhile the headlamps are at least twice as much brighter. I would advise anyone thinking about it to ditch the sealed beams and get a halogen kit. Ive even considered putting Xenon bulbs in them but dont think the bright white lights would look right.

Last couple of jobs done where to remove the door cappings and surriptiously leave them on the desk of the furniture restoration tutor 3 days later they had been stripped and stained and varnished and my word are they an improvement the interior now looks the part especially as I sourced a Vitesse choke cable which share the T knob and cut it down to size.
Radio head unit being fitted later in the week. Oh and the bodywork now looks dire its covered in mud as this car has earnt its keep this week and im also in the process of prepping for a full respray at the end of december.

After all the crap ive had with this car im really starting to see again why I bought it, its putting a smile on my face every time I drive it. I am so glad I listened to you lot and kept going because it does seem to have been worth while

May need to update your sig now Paul

_________________
1978 Sandglow Dolomite 1850HL The Lolomite - MOT pass! (broken again in 55 miles though...)
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it.