The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I have just replaced the top and bottom rubber bushes in the rear shock absorbers with superpro poly bushes.

On taking out the shock absorbers I made a careful note of which way round they were fitted as I was aware that between the top of the spring and the mounting plate there is a wedged shaped isolating rubber, part number UKC2765 for non sprint models and part number 157239 for sprints. See photograph. The ones I took out had the thickest part towards the rear of the car and that is how I have replaced them but is this the correct way round as I found it quite difficult to realign the front suspension arms so that I could get the mounting bolts in. All the workshop manuals I have looked at fail to cover this point.

The Haynes workshop manual also states “It is important that the rear wheel alignment is always checked every time the rear suspension has been dismantled. To do this accurately, measuring equipment is necessary and will usually be found at Leyland garages.” This is not stated in the official Triumph Operation Manual and I do not know what adjustment could be made. Am I correct to assume that there are no adjustments that can be made.

I'm not aware any adjustments can be made to camber or castor on the back end using the standard setup.

I can't quite recall how I got mine back together now but I seem to recall everything was pretty loose which made it a lot easier as I had plenty of movement to swing the whole assembly around to get everything to line up. Perhaps you should loosen off the tie bars if not done so and you'll get a lot more movement that way, might be enough to get them back in.

Having just received and had a quick look at my October - November copy of Dolly Mixture I realize that the bushes that I fitted were Super Flex NOT Superpro.

As suggested in the previous response by SprintNWU773V I did in the end resort to loosening off the tie bars to get the alignment that was required but I can not remember having to do this in the past.

When I've taken rears off the car I,ve noted that the top mounts tip downwards at the front as viewed from the sides. If the increase in tension in the top mounts rubbers being new, it may account for the struggle to get them to line up

Tony

Many thanks for the reply Tony g. I agree that having new top mounts would not have helped and I have very recently fitted new tie bar to axle mounts which again would not have much give. You may have read that in the end I loosened them off to get the training arms to align with their mount brackets.

However I am concerned that your comment that the top mounting tip downward at the front as viewed from the sides seems to indicate that the thickest part of the wedge shaped isolating rubber would be towards the front of the car. Mine was towards the rear of the car. When I looked at the isolating rubber it was very clear where the finishing tip of the top of the spring had been seated. Mine was as stated in the official workshop manual. This states. “When assembled to the car the spring upper finishing tip should face rearward and be at 90 degrees to the axis of the damper eye bush.”

One of my reasons for posting this message was that I was surprised to discover that the isolation rubber was wedge shaped and that this was not identified in any of the workshop handbooks. If nothing else this discussion should encourage fellow dolomite owners to make a careful note of which way round the mounting flange and hence the isolating rubber is fitted when they take their shock absorbers off the car.

if the thickest part of the rubber is at the rear wouldnt that tip the top mount downwards at the front? ie the way i viewed mine?

Cheers

Tony

If, over all these years, i've been judging it correctly, the shox lean forwards at the top, whereas the shell panel where they fit is effectively horizontal. So for my money, the thickest part of the "wedge" should be toward the front of the car to compensate for the angular differential.

This is how i've always fitted mine and not run into problems.

If this is not what the manual says, then AFAIC, the manual is WRONG! It wouldn't be the first time!

Someone else has recently mentioned on here that there is also a "correct" position for the spring tails, this was a new one on me (every day a school day) and i've never bothered to check this previously. Seeing as the top and bottom of the springs are flattened at a right angle to the spring centre line, I can't see that it matters! It's never caused me any hardship or ill effects!

Steve

The reason I started this discussion is because the workshop manuals do not cover the fact that the isolating rubber is wedge shaped. Currently we have two members stating they have found it with the thickest part at the rear and now Carledo (Steve) states he thinks it should be at the front. Could this turn into another item like the steering column bulkhead bush?

I also pointed out that the Official Triumph workshop manual includes a statement on the correct position of the spring tail as I do not think many people are aware of that fact.

Come on members lets have some more views as to what you have found.

There are, I believe, 2 different topmounts (the metal bit) 1 has an angle built into it, (early type) and the later one uses the wedge shaped rubber to make up the difference. I have seen both sorts on the same car before now!
I guess with so many bits fitting so many cars, it's inevitable really!

I'll recheck when I get my car on the ramp next (or Mahesh's, or the empty-ish shell in my yard, whichever comes first) but the angle the shock sits at to the vertical is the critical point, in MY mind it leans forward at the top and thus I am correct above - but i've been wrong before!

More soon!

Steve