The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The car went to a local spray shop and is now ready for rebuild.

Looking fab, proper repairs too..lots of metal with very little filler..

Some nice repair work there! looking good.

wish mine was going as well as yours, keep up the good work and pictures coming.

My bad - this photo is apparently of the ONE head stud that stopped me removing the head from that lovely quiet 1850 engine.
I tried everything - the last resort was trying to drill it out (the engine was still in the car).

as you can see by some previous pictures the original engine was knackered. I sourced another early sprint engine from Mike in Kendal, he assured me it is a good engine which just required stripped and cleaned which i did. As you can can see the engine is fitted after alot of hunting around for mountings, bolts etc and now starts and runs. It sounds good.

I continued with the engine bay to allow me to let the engine run for longer. Unfortunately I found a leak from the water pump so removed it and ordered a repair kit.



I removed the water pump from the old engine and found that it has a 12 vane prop so machined the back of that (it was heavily scored) and rebuilt, adjusted and fitted the it. I still have a water leak from the pump so will need to examine it again. It's very annoying. I also have a rattle from the front of the engine and it's not the water pump. I will need to investigate that too.



A picture of the gearbox with the wiring figured out. The clutch doesn't clear but I'm not sure why. It is a new clutch and the pedal is high as you may be able to see.



When running the car to find the coolant leak it suddenly cut out. I didn't even have dash lights so went straight to the sqitch and found some jubious looking wiring. It's now fixed.

I'm not spending too much time on the car at the moment but don't really feel like I'm making much progress anyway. For every problem I fix I seem to uncover at least one more!

Mixing water pump covers is bad news. And the rattle from the front siggests timing chain...

I hate to say this but that needs serious investigation. Its critcail that the engine has no jack shaft bearing play, and having had a wrong pump cover I fear some
jack shaft overloading....

Also if your clutch wont free off then this suggests the dreaded sheared wedge lock disease. Does the lever on the clutch shaft touch the bell housing? Or is the weld on the lever splitting? I have had both....tee shirts all round.

But persevere. The body shell is superb and you will soon have one of the best in the country....

Other engines and clutch cross shafts can be found far cheaper than a shell that good.....and you can probably have engine and box back out in an hour with it at this state.

Jonners

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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.

Thanks for the reply Jon.

The water pump clearence has been checked and is OK so the jack shaft should have clearence.

the sheared wedge lock is a no because it's a new one but the clutch lever is hiting the bell housing so I removed the unit again. I found the clutch fork cross shaft hole & fork worn but the shaft is not in stock at Rimmers.

There is a web site somewhere with a detailed method of replaceing the cross shaft with an internal bellows type slave cylinder from I think a sierrra.

It may even be the minty lamb site. Hacve a look around. Its definitley been done and is in some ways a better solution, if you trust the slave cylinder not to leak.
I think they do 100k plus in Saabs and other stuff that uses them.

I would have the timing cover off and chain and move the jackshaft pulley sideways just to check....you wouldnt sadly be the first Sprint engine owner to suffer this issue...

Did you change the water pump spindle lower bush in the block?

Jonners

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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.

For the clutch fork Mick Dolphin says 'see 2000'
But I've checked the 2000 parts list on his site and I can't find a cross reference, he does mention a 'clutch release fork cap'
Definitely worth giving him a call 01530 271326

I think this is what Jonners is referring to...

http://www.sprintspeed.co.uk/pages/prod ... ct-clutch/







I may have a decent spare of both.

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Sprintless for the first time in 35+ years. ... Still Sprintless.

Engines, Gearboxes, Overdrives etc. rebuilt. PM me.


1997 TVR Chimaera 450

Thanks for the repies.

I managed to source a good cross shaft from a forum member and fitted it with the old fork. I stripped the water pump and rebuilt it again. I think the problem was the bearing a fraction off being fully into the housing causing it run at a slight angle resulting in a noise from driving gear. The engine is now re-fitted with a new timing chain. Also a picture of the new clutch.





Fed up of the mechanical stuff I decided to change the roof lining as it had a tear.

Fitted heater motor & screen washers, wired & working.