The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The Number One Club for owners of Triumph's range of small saloons from the 1960s and 1970s.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:47 am 
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Two and a half years ago I started to get my SPRINT sorted for a big-ish trip my wife and I were planning to make to visit friends, down south of the border. I'm sure I annoyed the heck out of you folk at that time.

Some of you may remember I had to turn around and limp the Sprint home because of a $#@*&)+ Rolon timing chain tensioner issue. We ended up making the trip, but in our TDCI Focus instead.

Thanks to this forum and advice from you Gents, I've managed to get the car to a point where I have increased confidence in it, so, on Thursday, 19th April, the trips on again. Its about a 1,600kms round trip, but I expect there'll be an excursion or two while there, in company with our hosts Spitfire, MGB or S1 Landy.

I'll try to keep this thread going for a while in order to post photos of the trip which should include driving up to Mt. Buller Alpine Village in the Victorian Alps. Its only about 1,800 meters ASL, but the road is fantastic.

Tomorrow our "generic make" car club has its usual mid week coffee and cake run, so I'll tag along and use it as a shake down......any excuse for cake.

Cheers,
Rob

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"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:57 am 
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Looking forward to the progress report Rob :thumbsup:

Tony

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:34 am 
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Keep the faith :D

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:25 pm 
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Sounds great that Rob, best of luck and like above looking forward to some great pic's.

Tony.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:44 pm 
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Good luck Rob. It sounds like a fantastic trip and I look forward to reading about how you get on.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:55 am 
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So far so good.
The SPRINT went well today and the cake was good. When I got home the only adjustment I made was to the idle speed. After a run it would come back to about 800rpm and settle at about 500/600. I thought this was too slow, so out with the Unisyn and upped it to around 1,000 and 700/800rpm settled.
I have another shake down run planned for Saturday. A mate lives about 45 mins away and his good wife is an excellent cook....more cake?
Cheers,
Rob

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"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


Last edited by Sundowner on Thu Apr 05, 2018 12:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:14 am 
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If the mpg starts dropping dont worry its just the cake ballast :mrgreen:
Good start though Rob good luck :thumbsup:

Tony

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 5:09 am 
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I drove the SPRINT down the coast to visit friends in Narooma this morning.
No cake, but his wife did supply some Pumpkin Scones that we happily buttered up and ingested while looking over his MGB powered Morry Minor.
It's a 90 mins round trip, temperature was around 25C and the little Sprint behaved perfectly. However, as I arrived and was getting out of the car, I could smell hot/burning oil....gear oil. It was only slight, didn't last long and it wasn't there when I got home later. After a quick inspection, I cant find any leaks either.
My confidence in the car is slowly growing.
Cheers,
Rob

_________________
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:19 am 
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This morning I took the Sprint out for its final shake down before heading off on our trip. There are a few smallish things that are worrying me a little, and I'd like your opinion about them while I still have 3 days left to tinker, if necessary.

1) The car performs very nicely. Its smooth and responsive, but when its at hot/normal operating temp, it can get sort of lumpy. I need to rev it a little higher and slip the clutch sometimes.
2) But what is really on my mind is that at about 2,200-2,600RPM, I can clearly hear a tapping, possibly in the overhead gear. Its not there at other revs, so I am able to avoid it.
3) The other thing is that occasionally, after a run, I can smell hot/burnt gear oil. The smell never lasts long. And I cant find a leak. I'm about to put it up on stands now, to have yet another really good look.
4) I thought I heard slight pinging on some of the hills. The timing is set as per the book at 10 degrees BTDC, but I wonder if knocking it back to say 8 or 9 degrees BTDC would hurt anything other than performance?

EDIT; I've just been under the car again and cant find any gearbox or diff leak. Its sealed up really well. I'm glad I looked though, as I found a tiny seep from the clutch slave cylinder that needed my attention.

Any advice?

Thanks & Cheers,
Rob

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"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:46 pm 
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Re the tapping, it may be just in cruise mode so no tight side on the timing chain. If you get to 2k rpm then accelerate past 2600 will the noise appear?
The gear oil smell may just be the fumes coming out of the breather on the box. The breather is just a hole on the front of the remote casting. Very small to spot and only needs a small pop rivet shank to blank off when standing the box on its end (tail up). You may be getting a whiff of the fumes past the transmission tunnel?
Pinking, I would try back off timing a degree and see how it goes. Mine is on 8 deg at the moment for the same reason.

Tony

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:39 pm 
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Thanks Tony....Glad you answered.
Re; the tapping question.... No, there is no tapping noise as I accelerate through that rev range. Its only when its at constant revs and without weight on the engine. As you say, "in cruise mode".
Thanks again,
Rob

_________________
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 4:09 am 
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The later cars, circa ’78 onwards had 8 degree BTDC as the standard setting and mine has always been fine on that setting.

I suffered from that smell of hot gear oil for years before working out it was coming from leaking seals on the gearbox selector rods. It seemed to be able to drip onto the exhaust without being visible from the underside. Apart from that smell it didn’t do any harm, although I did replace the ‘O’ rings recently.

Geoff


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:53 am 
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Quote:
The later cars, circa ’78 onwards had 8 degree BTDC as the standard setting and mine has always been fine on that setting.

I suffered from that smell of hot gear oil for years before working out it was coming from leaking seals on the gearbox selector rods. It seemed to be able to drip onto the exhaust without being visible from the underside. Apart from that smell it didn’t do any harm, although I did replace the ‘O’ rings recently.

Geoff
Thanks Geoff,
That's good to know.
I reset the timing to 8° BTDC this morning, and I must say the thing is idling smoother as a result. I'm not all that concerned with the performance of the car, just as long as its running well.
Cheers,
Rob

_________________
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


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 Post subject: Planning "Take 3"
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:10 am 
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Well my trip down south of the border went well, but we didn't make it in the Sprint.

Most of you will know that when travelling inland from the east coast of Australia, first you have to cross the Great Dividing Range. There are many crossings on good roads and in a modern car its easy. In the Sprint its easy, usually, and I've made many, but this trip things didn't go as planned.

About a year ago I replaced the fan with an electric unit and somewhere between home and the Clyde Mountain, the thing failed.
I watched the temp rising as we were climbing and being in slow traffic, with nowhere to pull over (Sheer drop on the left) we just limped it to the top. Going down the other side I was surprised to see that the temp wasn't dropping back down, so we stopped and as soon as I stopped the engine, it started to boil. I noticed the fan wasn't working at all and despite my roadside investigations, and attempts at repair, it refused to work. So we waited for the car to cool down, topped up the coolant and limped it back down the mountain, back home. There are a few tell-tail streaks of dried coolant on the block, indicating some had escaped from the side of the head but there is no water in the oil.

We holidayed in a modern instead and absorbed several days of ribbing from my MGB owner fiend.....ooops, I meant friend.

Take 3 is already in the planning.

Cheers,
Rob

_________________
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it". HENRY FORD
1915 Ford "T" Speedster (Evangeline), 1921 Ford "T" Tourer (Anastasia), 1955 Zephyr 6 (Purdey), 1975 Dolomite SPRINT (Daisy), & a couple of moderns.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:20 am 
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How annoying to be let down by the one modern addition to the car! I think you may have been unlucky, electric fans are very reliable and with many a posting on here of the original fan failing and feasting on the radiator it may be wise to buy another electric fan.

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Current fleet: '75 Sprint, '73 1850, Daihatsu Fourtrak, Honda CG125, Yamaha Fazer 600, Shetland 570 (yes it's a boat!)

Past fleet: Triumph 2000, Lancia Beta Coupe, BL Mini Clubman, Austin Metro, Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 & MK2, Renault 18 D, Rover 216 GSI, Honda Accord (most expensive car purchase, hated, made out of magnetic metal as only car I've ever been crashed into...4 times), BMW 318, Golf GTi MK3 16v x 3


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