The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hmmm.... one of the fuel lines is badly corroded on one of the corners where the underseal had fallen off.

I'm just going to put new ones on whilst it's on the trailer and up high(ish), it's an easy job and at least I know the fuel system's completely clean.

that is the correct OE size for the 1850 just that in days gone by, 80 was the "standard" profile so if the tyre had an 80 profile it wasn't mentioned, as on you spare.

_________________
'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

Thanks Steve, would that spare (correctly inflated) be an MOT pass?

I pulled the old fuel hose out, to do that I had to pull the prop. Not too much of a worry as it's the only really scabby bit on the car and I wanted to clean it and paint it. Problem was, underseal! I had to scrape it all off of the centre bearing mounts. Inevitably it got all in the threads of one of them and I had a bit of a job getting it off on my own.



Got it off in then end, nice and scabby!



The sliding end had seized so I stripped it, re greased it and put it back together. On the advice of Bruce I just re greased the UJ's and left everything else alone.





A coat of stonechip later....



and it's ready to go back on the car.

I got the fuel hose out, good thing it did. As I was manoeuvring it out it fractured, the metal's really thin.



I have made up new ones this morning and they are ready to be fitted to the car as soon as the clips arrive from Bresco.



Whilst I was removing the fuel line I also removed the front to rear brake line, I'll make up the new sections then install them when the fuel line goes back in to save some time.

I managed to install the new fuel lines, reasonably simple with the prop out. I'm really pleased with them, they look a bit wonky in the photo but they are actually straight and follow the old fuel line path exactly, first win of the day!! Will leave them as they are for now so that the MOT man can see that they've been changed.



Reinstalled my rebuilt carbs



They stand out a bit against the rest of the engine bay so I'm wondering if I should give it a clean up.



I tried to start it but didn't realise the choke was only half on. The choke cable is binding so I'll just put a new one in, but as soon as she had full choke she fired straight up and ran really smooth, no misfires when revved. Tomorrow I will run her up to temperature and check the water pump slot/timing etc... Oh, I pulled the plugs (new) and turned over the engine to fill up the carbs and noticed that the rear two were in excellent condition but the front were very sooty, this probably explains the rough running the last time I started her. I suspect that the front carb wasn't functioning at all thus the front two cylinders were getting nothing.

Quick question... fuel hose size from the pump to the carbs is 1/4" right? How in earth do you get the hose onto the hose ends? I just couldn't do it so I just resorted to 5/16" to get it started. Also, the coil lock washers on the carbs, should these be renewed? I can move the carbs a bit on the inlet.

That does mark the completion of a completely rebuilt fuel system (apart from a bit of tuning) so I now need to go and finish my Dolly Mixture article for Steve!

Leave the engine bay!
Get it running, MOT'd, then do the engine bay.

Don't know if 1850s have a voltage regulator, if so might be worth swapping over, at least you'll have a correctish temp indication once warmed up.

_________________
NRW 581W Sprint


On the motorway no one can hear me sing!
Construed as a public service, self preservation in reality.

Pump to carbs is usually bigger than the bit from pipe to individual carb. I think its 5/16 on the full flow bits and 1/4 on t he individual carbs and overflow bits - well that's how it is on SU's anyway. While since I had a berger...

Jonners

_________________
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

Temp guage doesn't work so I'll have to look into that when I go through the electrical system, I had my handy laser thermometer to keep an eye on things though!

Thanks Jonners, it doesn't seem to make a difference and I didn't have Jeroen on here screaming at me so I'll say its fine!

I started it this morning and it just fired first time with choke, and it was cold early this morning as well, I think we may have had a bit of a frost. Not enough to test the heated rear window though!

I ran it up to temperature at 2000 rpm keeping an eye on proceedings with my laser thermometer, balanced the carbs a bit just to make the airflow right. I'll do a proper tune up when I go for the MOT. It revs well, no smoke at all. Jonners, there's a tiny dribble from the water pump but I think that may have already settled down with the first heat cycle. I have to change the hoses anyway so is it worth changing out the pump? What do you guys think?

Engine off, then had to do the school run so everything cooled down a bit so I just did a dry cold compression test, throttle open. The last compression's were down at 2-5bar across all cylinders. Remember this is the first time the engine's been run up to temperature in over 20 years!

1. 1 - 150psi

1. 2 - 160psi

1. 3 - 150psi

1. 4 - 150psi

James, your compressions seem to be fine. No 2 has less than a 10% difference so it should be fine. I'd leave the water pump well alone if it isn't leaking but watching it like a hawk would be a wise thing to do. It is running better than mine at the moment!

_________________
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

Depends on the mileage and the state of the coolant that came out.

If there was a lot of corrosion I suspect it may have not helped the seal much, but then if its not leaking now the temptation to see how
you go is always going to be there. They only last about 80k miles anyway, those graphite OE seals...

Jonners

_________________
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

This is a fab thread James..great work in such a short time and thanks for the updates.

As for cleaning the engine bay, I would leave it alone where possible..it looks lovely and honest.

You will have a perfect Sprint and an 1850 with lots of gorgeous aged patina..perfect!

Thanks Reg!! To be honest, I love the little car and I'm really enjoying working on her, it's almost as if she wants to get back on the road and is helping me all the way! Everything on NWL has to be absolutely perfect and this is a little less stressful to work on, if I put a bend in the wrong place on a brake hose it isn't the end of the world!

I'm going to fix the holes in the bodywork but then plan to lacquer the rusty areas to retain the patina, like the american hotrods. If i wanted to make it perfect all it would need is a respray.
Mileage at the last MOT was 32333 Jonners, however it' a bit of an unknown. The speedo was changed for a new one, I was told that the mileage was reset to reflect the correct mileage, however I have no evidence of this so I'm going to say that mileage is unknown. The coolant looks ok, I just topped it up to do the first start up on the basis that I'd have to replace the hoses anyway and that I'd be draining it. After the first run up I checked the level in the expansion tank and the level looks like it stayed constant.

I think i'll leave it for now, get it MOT'd then give it a longish run then check it.

I haven't moved on the the electrics yet but there is something that's bugging me, the rev counter isn't working. I put a 6v coil and new ballast resistor in to see if it was the unit and it still runs (actually better than on the 12v coil!!) so I don't think the unit's shot. Any ideas?

Sounds daft, but have you tried thumping it? These rev counters have a habit of sticking at the best of times, even when used regularly, they sometimes need a sharp tap on the glass to get them moving on the first start of the day! Add in a loooooong layup and it's almost bound to be stuck!

Steve

_________________
'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

Hmm, no, I'll give that a go when I start her up again.

I started forming the brake lines last night. As usual they are a little too long so I'll cut them down and redo the ends, well the one that runs down the transmission tunnel is a little too long, the union to the join one is about 1/2 meter too long! I'll let Automec know.





Tried to take the master cylinder off for Alun, it had welded itself to the servo so I took the servo off as well! Separated them on the bench so Alun I have it for you. Good thing I did, caught some bulkhead rust just in time...



By the way, the bulkhead pad is ok, just needs gluing back on.

I just gave everything a wire brush, some rust killer and paint and it will be fine.

Checking the steering the knuckle was knackered so I had a spare polybush kit for it from NWL when I accidentally ordered two! So I've stripped that down and will build it up tomorrow.



Whilst the knuckle was off I checked the bulkhead bush, not great so I may as well replace it at the same time.





This must be original so if there are any arguments as to which way rount they must be fitted.....



Right, back to forming brake lines!

Have you invested in a set of pipe straighteners James?

_________________
1978 Pageant Sprint - the rustomite, 1972 Spitfire IV - sprintfire project, 1968 Valencia GT6 II - little Blue, 1980 Vermillion 1500HL - resting. 1974 Sienna 1500TC, Mrs Weevils big brown.