'77 Dolly 1300

[captain_70s]

Well, it was 1st registered to the BL Drivetrain Division and then immediately onto the first owner who lived in Coventry, so being a staff car would make sense.

I used to have a contact at one of the London Universities who was very much involved with the CVT developments, is it O.K. if I ask him about your car as well ?
Cheers for now,
Tony.

No problem, sadly all the history from the first owner (prior 2001) has been lost.

I'll be pulling a Radiomobile LW MW radio out of my Dolly soon if you want it?

I'd certainly be interested, I plan on installing a decent sound system in the boot and installing a period fascia.

So far it's proved itself to be fun reliable transport for whenever the Yaris is too boring.

Today, after returning home from work I noticed the interior light no longer comes on with the doors opening, but works fine with the switch. Pondering this I set off to the chip show, after collecting my food the bloody car refused to start. After attempting to start it a few times I popped open the bonnet and tugged on the throttle a couple of times. At this moment the interior light flicked on! (the drivers door was open). I took this as a sign and hopped in and with a couple of pumps to the accelerator she spluttered into life.
I put on the choke for a second and had a look around the back, exhaust gasses were all the right colour, engine seemed fine. Took off the choke and she returned to a normal idle and drove home like nothing had happened.

Funny that she happily sat at 55-60mph on my commute for 20 miles both ways and then died after a short 25mph drive to the chip shop the other end of town!

[Jon Tilson]

Door courtesy lights are on the non ignition circuit. Check the fuse box contacts....

The non starting situation was unrelated to the lights not working. Pumping an SU accelerator or pulling the cable also has absolutely no effect, as there is no accelerator pump and fuel only gets sucked in when the engine is turning.....

This hot start issue will come back to haunt you and needs a bit of systematic diagnosis...

I suspect ignition faults and its a good idea to upgrade to the britpart style electronic ignition if you feel you have the skills...else clean the points and also invest in a multi meter asap.

Jonners

[sprint95m]

'Tis a Dolomite 1300 with a single SU,
does the carb have a heatshield fitted?

[captain_70s]

Turns out the interior light failing is just because the door switch sticks a bit.

Most of the ignition system was replaced by the previous owner early this year, I haven't had the problem since, even when the car is warm. There doesn't seem to be a heatshield on the carb of any sort, fuel evaporation perhaps...

Either way the car is off the road for now because:

A: The weather is horrible.
B: I discovered the front offside tyre has a nasty bulge on the inside edge (Tyres are all from 2005).
C: The socket wrench I was using to remove the spark plugs failed and cracked the ceramic.

Stocking up on spare parts now.

[captain_70s]

Ah bother, its dead. Sort of.

Was driving along just getting up to 60mph when it starts coughing, from then on it starts losing power and I crawl it the last mile or so home at 30mph, power delivery very jerky at anything much above stalling point. Noisy, regular "tap" coming from the engine, at 35mph it seemed to be once a second or so and increased with the revs.


No smoke/steam out the back and no change in the temp gauge. Could this be a fueling/air/spark issue or do I now have two 3 cylinder cars do you reckon?

[Tims Triumph]

same symptoms of my 1500HL, traced it to something sticking in the float chamber on one of may carbs.
Sounds similar to your problem....not sure about the "tap" your talking about.
- Probably something completly different, but symtoms like mine, incase that is any help.

[dogrich_0]

Nice car! Did you know your registration number is interesting as some of the development TR7 Sprints and TR7V8 coupes are in the same series? The ones I know of:

WAC 253S TR7 Sprint
WAC 271S TR7 Sprint
WAC 272S TR7V8 coupe
WAC 273S TR7 Sprint
WAC 274S TR7 Sprint
WAC 275S TR7V8 coupe




So your Dolly could very well have been an ex-BL staff car or something like that


Good luck with your car!

Good luck with your new purchase! My first car was am opel kadett from coventry wac 701s. Oops just read your other post......hope you sort it

[Dolly-Nut]

Ah bother, its dead. Sort of.

Was driving along just getting up to 60mph when it starts coughing, from then on it starts losing power and I crawl it the last mile or so home at 30mph, power delivery very jerky at anything much above stalling point. Noisy, regular "tap" coming from the engine, at 35mph it seemed to be once a second or so and increased with the revs.


No smoke/steam out the back and no change in the temp gauge. Could this be a fueling/air/spark issue or do I now have two 3 cylinder cars do you reckon?

Check your ignition leads, one might have come loose and the 'tapping' that you heard might be sparks arcing.

[captain_70s]

Check your ignition leads, one might have come loose and the 'tapping' that you heard might be sparks arcing.

I checked that on the night, re-checked just now and tried to start it to get a video of the sound it makes. Fitted a new battery, turned over a few times but nowhere near firing and then I noticed smoke coming out of the engine bay!

Seems like something in the distributor area has burnt out, possibly something underneath it. Where is the starter motor located in the engine bay?

[DoloWIGHTY]

Where is the starter motor located in the engine bay?

Down there;

[captain_70s]

AH, exactly where I thought it was then! I'd not be surprised if that was what burnt out, it's never been great at turning the engine over, has a tendency of cutting off or being too slow. The extra power from the new battery, the old one has one cell that holds no charge, might have finished it off.

By the time I got to the engine bay from the drivers seat the smoke had mostly cleared but it was certainly coming from below the distributor making the starter motor the prime candidate.

[DoloWIGHTY]

Did you get to the bottom of the problem?

[captain_70s]

I've found the source of the smoke is this:


Which is the starter solenoid I believe. I'm not sure if it's the wiring or the solenoid itself though, it is pretty new...

As for the bigger engine problem I still have no clue. At this point is is looking like I might end up stripping the car, rebuilding the engine and re-wiring (the current wiring is knackered) it and sending the shell away to have welding done... Although that'll cost a fortune...

[PeteH]

Could be a loose connection in the heavy current carrying section of the starter circuit, check for poor crimps or loose terminals on the heavy black cables going to the solenoid (two terminals) or the starter (one terminal), those old inertia starters are reliable enough from an electrical point of view, any problems I ever had were Bendix-related (i.e. not engaging the flywheel). The 1296cc engine is simple and reliable and starting problems are more than likely ignition related, as per previous posts I suggest ditching the points as well for a Britpart style electronic module, but at least make sure the points/condenser are serviceable and gapped properly, I drove my old Dolly 1300 in the early 90s on points with no problems at all. I always check the ignition first before moving to the fuel system as it is here where most problems occur. These engines can sound a bit tappety when cold, even with the valve clearances correctly set but make sure that none of the locknuts on the rocker arms have worked loose and that all the valve clearances are correct (it is late and I am too lazy to check but I think it is 10 thou for both inlet & exhaust valves when they are fully closed - there should be a sticker undeneath your bonnet showing the specs), I use the old "rule of 9" when checking valve clearances - i.e. when valve no. 2 is fully open, then valve no. 7 is fully closed, if valve no. 1 is fully open then valve no. 8 is fully closed, etc.

[captain_70s]

Right, I found that when turning the engine on the fan belt it wasn't smooth so I set about stripping it down to the head.

Under the rocker cover was full of gunk.



And I found a rocker had disintegrated.



The gasket was also pants.



Most of the rubber hoses had to be cut off because they were stuff and perished. Then when I got to the head I found...





One of the cam followers is jammed in place, presumably causing the pushrod to stick up and snap the rocker. No idea why it is stuck in place though, not sure where to go from here to be honest...