Water leak and "lurching".

[123exner]

Can somebody please assist?
1. Whenever it rains or I wash my Sprint I get water in the passenger footwell. How to cure?
2. In first gear I can't go too slow before the car wants to "lurch" and I have to play around with the clutch. Universal?
Otherwise love my Sprint.
123exner

[trackerjack]

Water ingress damned difficult to pinpoint, look at just under windscreen where front wing joins, holes in guttering and of course screen rubber or even wiper bushes gone.

second fault could be oil on clutch or basic carb tuning.

Your faults are err rather common and have lots of possible reasons.

[Jon Tilson]

As TJ says my money would also be on the screen cill in the corners but difficult to track down.
You have to sort it though as the water will soak into the seam sealer and then the floor will start to rot out. A new screen rubber may be the best option. While it wont seem cheap its a lot less than a new floorpan!...

Judder at low revs...could be anything but rear axle tie bar bushes are suspect if the car also judders when moving off..

Jonners

[tinweevil]

2. In first gear I can't go too slow before the car wants to "lurch" and I have to play around with the clutch. Universal?

I'm not sure Mr 123 is describing a problem here, just the normal point at which the car will no longer smoothly pull along at low revs. Typically this happens as you slow in traffic and try to let it idle along. What engine speed does this happen? A sprint should have the torque to pull all the way down to idle (up a slight incline) in 1st and 2nd for sure, 3rd too IIRC. Others with more recent sprint driving experience can answer for higher gears. If it won't, it goes lurchy on the flat in low gears, then check the mixture as it may be too weak. Always check all ignition components and settings before adjusting carbs.

[DavePoth]

If the OP is coming to a Sprint straight from a modern, 1st gear is a bit taller than it would be on a normal car, so it will need a bit of clutch slippage to drive around at slow speed. It's often made worse by a high idle speed (it should only be about 700rpm)

[scoobyh123]

Just a suggestion - worn CV joints in the propshaft?

[123exner]

Thank you Trackerjack, Jon, tinweevil, Dave & scoobyh.
"Judder" is the right word. Can't say at what revs it happens. Car is boxed in at moment. You could say it has to be "normal" when at very low revs but annoying nonetheless. Car is not my daily driver so I will just live with it.
I will print out your posts and next time car is up on the car club hoist for annual inspection I will ask our mechanic to check your views out.
As regards the water ingress. This can be like a flood into the passenger footwell if say going through a car wash. So do hand washes only. Water leaks on to parcel shelf and passenger's feet. Water accumulates in the well just below the vents in the bonnet against the firewall. Have to immerse chamois, extract and squeeze out several times to get the water out. It can't be normal for water to lie there but where is it supposed to go? There is a new windscreen rubber listed on your e-bay. Tempted to bid.
Dave, I note you are the Events Co-ordinator. I will be in Manchester (from Australia) from 21 to 28 June. Anything happening at that time in that area?
Thank you all again for your replies to my first post.
John Exner

[scoobyh123]

John, your water ingres sounds like a blocked scuttle drain to me! Not sure where the scuttle drains are on the dolly or what they look like. The ones i've seen in the past look like a small black rubber elephants trunk type hose coming out of the bottom of the scuttle. Maybe someone else can suggest a different cause or point both of us in the direction of the scuttle drain?

Cheers,
Dave

[DavePoth]

Dave, I note you are the Events Co-ordinator. I will be in Manchester (from Australia) from 21 to 28 June. Anything happening at that time in that area?
Thank you all again for your replies to my first post.
John Exner

Nothing Dolomite Club-related that I know of as yet. A lot of the events tend to get announced in the next 6 weeks or so, so hopefully there'll be something reasonably local around then.

[tinweevil]

Hi John,

The water will be simply running in through the eyeball vent tube when the scuttle fills, Dave is spot on. This will be an easy, if fiddly fix. There are 6 drain points for the scuttle.

When the car is dry start by vacuuming all the leaves and muck you can. Dry bottle and tooth brushes should help dislodge some of the dried on crud. Once you are rid of all the bulky detritus pour some water into the area closest to the passenger side and continue with the brushes to clean the bottom of the scuttle where the inner & outer bulkheads meet. You should find that the dirty water starts to drain down into the engine bay under the washer bottle. If it doesn't drain remove the washer bottle and pull the corner of the soundproofing away from the bulkhead slightly. You may need to prod about in the extreme corner of the scuttle, use something stiff but non scratching. I find a tywrap ideal.

The procedure is the same for the other 5 drain points. No 2 is in the raised scoop a foot or so inboard, this one is really tiny, you'll start to doubt it's even there. Numbering across the car no 5 is in the similar raised scoop drivers side but is obscured by the tube that the brake actuating rod lives inside*. No 6 is under the wiper motor, a total arse to get to. This leaves the two closest to the centre of the car, no 4 drains directly above the brake union / brake warning switch on the bulkhead. No 3 is in the same location passenger side and is hard to clear because usually the bulkhead soundproofing has been glued on without regard for this drain. Peel the bottom of the pad off and feed a plastic ruler up behind it to create a clear channel for the water to drain.

Good luck, this is an important job to do every autumn after the leaves have fallen.

Tinweevil

*Corrected. Not the heater blower tube as previously stated.

[Toledo Man]

I wonder if this was why Brown had water in the passenger footwell. Brown is now in the garage so I don't have to worry about water ingress at the moment.

[123exner]

Tinweevil, you refer to the scuttle. Is that the narrow compartment running the width of the car under the vent in the bonnet and in which are the two windscreen washer jets, bonnet latch and wiper motor?
That is where on the passenger side water accumulates in my experience. Are you saying that there are six drain holes in this scuttle on the engine side to let water out? My scuttle is clean as a whistle but I can't see any holes. Could have been painted over. How big should the holes that I am looking for be? What is tywrap in Australian?
I think that we are on the right track.

[scoobyh123]

Hi John,
that's the scuttle alright, the "compartment" between the engine bulkhead/firewall and the passenger compartment bulkhead/firewall where things like the wiper motor etc live. A tywrap/tiewrap/zip-tie is also known as a cable tie, a thin plastic strip with a small loop one end through which the other end can be fed and will grip the flat end. For the purposes of translation, these animals :- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/100-BLACK-CABLE-T ... 2555dc9259
Another alternative to a tiewrap would be strimmer line, thick nylon line used in a high speed rotary grass trimmer aka weed whacker. One of these :- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gtech-ST04_W0QQit ... 3efc38ada2 or similar and it would be the line you would use to poke the drainholes with.

I've had some cars in the past where the scuttle seemed clean and dry but had blocked drains causing a swimming pool inside the car. Got to be worth a go, nothing to lose by making sure the scuttle drains are clear and possibly/probably everything to gain!
Hope my "pictorial" translations help! I was going to say a lot of strimmers in the UK are made by B&D but i understand that has lurid connotations down under!!

Cheers,
Dave

[tinweevil]

Yup, 6 holes all draining into the engine bay. Thanks Dave for the clarifications, I'll try to get some photos this weekend.

[tinweevil]

Well my memory fails me again, I'd forgotten just how much of a bugger these drain points are to find. This, hopefully, will help. The photos below are all from a 1980 car, I checked Mrs Weevils 1973 1500TC and all the holes are present. Starting from the passenger side on a right hand drive car;

No 1 is obscured both in the engine bay and in the scuttle by sound proofing. The pad in the scuttle should be glued at the top only so you can pull the bottom away from the metal and root about. This is peering down into the scuttle right into the corner, the engine bay is below the picture and the passenger compartment above. The two captive nuts in the picture are for the washer bottle bracket. It's not a round hole, it's a slot which is why a flat cable tie like this one is ideal for clearing them. I've turned up the corner of the engine bay bulkhead pad so that the drain is less obscured. I can't get a good picture of that but see no 6.


No 2 is easier to spot. The dirty great hole in this pic is the inlet to the heater blower, just below is the little drain hole with a cable tie pointing at it, bigger than I remembered. Engine bay is above the picture. There's some bits of leaves in there so it's vacuum time again for me. There's no chance of a shot from inside the engine bay for this one, it's behind the blower motor.


No 3 can't be seen form either side, how useful. Here's a general pic with a cable tie pointing the way:

Looking towards the front of the car (engine bay above in the next picture) you will see this obvious hole a bit more than an inch in diameter. That is not the drain but on later shells the drain is directly below it, again pointed out by a handy cable tie. The hole is useful though, you can stick a finger through it to push the engine bay soundproofing away from the bulkhead. On late cars the drain is almost an inch wide and centred directly below the hole whereas on early shells it's only 1/3 inch wide and below the right edge of the hole, roughly where the lump of dirt is.

The next bit is easy in an OHV and an utter pig in a slant as the engine is in the way. X roughly marks spot for where the drain is. From that point down you need to make sure the soundproofing is loose from the bulkhead. This is the plastic ruler job I was on about earlier. If ever I get to restore this car then while the soundproofing is off I'll remove an inch wide strip of the foam layer from the drain down which will leave a nice invisible void behind the solid layer.


No 4 is easy. Fairly wide on a late shell and centred smack between the pipes. On an early shell the drain is half as wide and just like no 3 slightly closer to the centre of the car, almost behind the right hand pipe.

Although you'd not know it looking in the scuttle without......

... a you-know-what to show you the way. Engine bay above, heater pipe on the left and choke cable on the right.


No 5 is just impossible. Looking down into the scuttle it's underneath the tube behind the brake servo roughly where the arrow is pointing.

See that gusset on the left in the above photo? Poke and peer through the gap below it and you'll catch a glimpse maybe. This is the one that you'll doubt is even there but I assure you it is. The drain is lost in the gloom in this photo but it shows you the gap to look through. Engine bay on the right, wiper motor at the bottom. Absolutely no chance of seeing it from the engine bay, the servo is in the way.


No 6 cannot be seen from above, its totally hidden by the wiper motor. But if you peel back the sound proofing in this area:

You'll see this. You can poke and prod upwards through the slot to clear it.

I don't push the corner of the sound proofing back down as I said with no 1, it sits like this which keeps things clear.


So there you have it, no excuses for scuttle rot now. Stash a cable tie or two in your toolbox (with your ubiquitous lucozade bottle ). And Gentlemen, start your vacuums.

Tinweevil