The Triumph Dolomite Club - EzBoard Archive

Not a re-deisgn thread!! I'm currently replacing the exhaust on my 1500HL as it was getting a bit (!) noisy. Managed to split the sections and remove centre and rear, but...<br>
HOW THE HECK DO YOU GET THE FRONT SECTION OUT FROM THE CAR?? I've tried twisting it, pushing it, pulling it, and even fallen back on the great engineering solve all - used a bigger sledge hammer! Still can't get it to come out. Is there some sort of knack to it, or do I have to remove the carbs and bring it our forwards??<br>
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Cheers,<br>
Tim

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When I got it off my 1300 I had to drive my car back in to my garage (yes, loud!) and use my pit!

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Well, I'm up on ramps, don't have a pit, but the exhaust section is catching on the bodywork / engine / subframe rather than the ground! Dread to think how loud it'll be to try and drive it anywhere else!!!<br>
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Might jack and pack tomorrow if I still can't get anywhere!<br>
Cheers,<br>
Tim

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Mine deffinatly came out from the bottom. but there is a slight difference is the 1300 and 1500 front pipes, the 1300 is a single all the way through but the 1500 is a twin as it leaves the manifold so not totally sure about gettin it off a 1500

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I've not yet had the pleasure of removing my exhaust on my 1500 HL , but as you say Tim I'm pretty sure that removal of the carbs is required for easier access. You then remove the front pipe from engine bay outwards.<br>
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Many people have mentioned that this is a pig on the 1500's, whereas many other jobs are straightforward.<br>
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Good luck!

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As Matt suggests I always remove the carbs and take the front section of the exhaust out that way.<br>
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I have submitted yet another article for inclusion in Dolly Mixture and I will include below the part that covers 1500 exhausts as you may find it useful. Well I certainly would recommend that you check the flatness of the flanges.<br>
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On one of my trips back from central Bristol I noticed that the sound of the exhaust had changed. On investigating I found that the exhaust manifold / down pipe gasket had started to blow so I was forced to stop the yellow cars upgrade and sort this problem out. In the end I decided to fit a complete new stainless steel exhaust system, which I had already purchased, as on close inspection the fitted mid steel system was coming to its end of life. Blowing of the exhaust manifold / down pipe gasket is a common problem in 1500cc cars. As so often you start a job only to find you have more to do than you expected. It turned out to be the case with this job as when I came to disconnect the down pipe I discovered that one of the exhaust manifold studs had sheared off. It is an area that I had not previously worked on since I obtained the car so it may have been like it when I purchased the car. I do not know why but for some reason something made me check the flatness of the flanges on the new exhaust down pipe with a steel ruler. I was most surprised to find that the flange was bent. I suspect, this might have been caused by the heat of welding process when the flange was welded onto the down pipes. In my opinion this would certainly have resulted in any gasket failing after a short period of use. The only thing to do was to file the flange flat. As I had to take the exhaust manifold off the car to drill out the sheared stud and had in the end, drilled out the other two studs as well so that I could replace them with new studs this allowed me to also apply the steel ruler flatness check on this flange. It looked O.K. but to be certain I then temporally fitted the down pipe to the manifold without any gasket so that I could use my set of feeler gauges to check that the two surfaces where making good contact. It passed this test so I was confident that it should make a good seal when it was finally bolted up with the standard copper gasket. I shall return to writing about the task of drilling out the studs. This is not one of my favourite jobs as it is so easy to snap either the drill bit when drilling the stud out or to break the tap when you are re-tapping the tread. Some owners recommend going up to 3/8 studs for extra strength, as the holes in the flanges will take this larger size. However myself I like to stay with the original size until I am forced to go up a size because the thread has stripped. Other alternatives are to replace the studs with bolts or to fit where possible nuts and bolts.<br>
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Whenever I remove the down pipe section of an exhaust I always first remove the carbs from the inlet manifold, leaving them attached to the air filters, as I have found that in the long run this speeds up the process as it gives better access. Having done this it encouraged me to manufacture and fit from stainless steel, a replacement heat shield as the car was tending to run too hot for comfort in the hot weather. Once this modification is done it is there for life, where as the normal type tends to disintegrate over a number of years. I have also noted that the standard design is a flat plate of material which when fitted actually touches the exhaust pipe and so heats up and transmits heat to the carbs. The shields that I have made out of stainless steel once shaped as per the original are stretched and bent out away from the exhaust pipe. The aim being to achieve approx ¼ inch gap for air to flow between the exhaust pipe and the heat shield. I would like to report that the stainless steel heat shield has completely overcome the overheating problem but it has not. <br>
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While the carbs were out of the car for the exhaust gasket replacement I made a point of checking the intermediate steering shaft and lower steering coupling as I normally take the carbs out if I have to replace either of these items as again I have found that in the long run it saves time. Well I ended up by replacing the lower coupling with the improved Rally design unit as the rubber bits in the original design coupling were starting to give up to the extent that my MoT man would have failed the car as a result. From memory I think I have now fitted the Rally design coupling in all four of our cars. <br>
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I am hoping that the article or at least paert of the article has made it into the next edition of Dolly Mixture so I will make you wait for the rest of the article.

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Richard,<br>
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You are, as ever, the font of all knowledge on these OHV cars. Where would we be without you?<br>
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For what its worth, when I replaced the exhaust on the FWD earlier this year, I found exactly the same issues with the flanges, though in my case the manifold also was as undulating as Sophia Loren's chest.<br>
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Well worth checking and filing etc, as you rightly say.

<p>Martin<br>
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1968 Triumph 1300FWD<br>
2002 BMW 320d<br>
2002 Renault Scenic<br>
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You should have seen the state of my flanges (fnaar fnaar)...on the Jensen that was; bananas. Boy, that engine put out some heat!

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Ive manged to get the front pipe out on Kev's 1500 HL on a number of occasions by corkscrewing it out. I do think the carbs were off at the time though on one occasion. On another ISTR it being on a trolley jack and axle stands and wound out from underneath...<br>
Course on a Spit it just falls off....<br>
The 1850 downpipe to manifold seal is also no great strength over the ohv cars...I only recently discovered slightly better access to the botton stud/nut round the side of the starter.<br>
The Sprint though has the mother of all downpipe disasters...<br>
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Jonners

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Easy peasy on the sprint. Bin the bolts and use studs, stainless washers and brass nuts. It can be hard to find studs with a short enough unthreaded section but once you do shorten them to a couple of turns longer than the nut will occupy. After 8-9 years like that I needed the head off because the stabiliser had ripped a manifold bolt out. Couple of mins to remove the heater box and a couple of mins per nut. Took me a couple of days to get the bolts out 14 years ago <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :x --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... s/sick.gif ALT=":x"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br>
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Tinweevil

<p>1978 <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.triumphowners.com/704">Dolomite Sprint</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>
1972 <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.triumphowners.com/754">Spitfire IV</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>
1968 <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.triumphowners.com/705">GT6 II</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>
1973 <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.triumphowners.com/755">Dolomite Sprint</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>
39 anorak points on the Nicholas scale<br>
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Got the gasket sorted - it hadn't blown! When I took the manifold off last I fitted new studs after filing the face down to ensure it was flush. Did the same on the downpipe. Mid section of the exhaust could best be described as 'paper'... no wonder it was getting a bit noisy!! Now I'll have to see how good a fit Canley's mid section is (only £5 - still can't get over that!!). It does seem to have a larger silencer!<br>
Tim

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