1500 RWD Dolomite gearbox front oil seal.

[Richard the old one]

I believe that lip seals were fitted in the clutch bell housing in later build cars but I have never found one in any of the cars that I have worked on. Prior to this I believe the gearbox relied on the scroll seal to stop oil leaking out of the front end of the gearbox.

My question is can a lip seal part number 132292 which is shown in the Official Triumph dolomite parts catalogue 1976 onwards be fitted into all the bell housings or were the later ones modified to take it.

I suspect there may be a lot of cars out there without the lip seal as the majority of manuals fail to identify the need to fit one. The only reference I can find is in the Official triumph 1500hl repair manual, section 37.23.04 is titled “First Motion shaft oil seal” and states “ensure the splines of the first motion shaft are protected by tape to prevent damage to the seal lip when the clutch housing is fitted.”

I would not be surprised to find that if you parked engine down hill on a steep hill that some gearbox oil would leak through the scroll seal. What do the experts think?

[MIG Wielder]

Hi Richard, An interesting post as I'm still working on my 1850 gearbox, which has a lot of similarities with the 1500 RWD box.
First could you tell me the difference between a scroll seal and a lip seal please ?
I looked in my 1500 / 1850 parts books and it looks like the front seal on the 1850 has always been a 132292.
The 1300 / 1500 front seal is the same part 132292, from DR8862 and DN31479, so boxes previous to these numbers may have had the earlier seal.
Tony.

[xvivalve]

If the bell housing was modified to accept a different type of seal, then the part number of the bellhousing would change.

[Richard the old one]

If you look inside the drive hole in the bell housing from the gearbox side you will see a number of grooves which I believe is the scroll seal.







I think I could force a lip seal132292 into the bell housing but the outer hole does not have parallel sides which is what I would expect to find if it had been designed to take a lip seal.


I have also looked in an Aug 1975 official Triumph 1500RWD parts catalogue and that does not shown the lip seal that is shown in the later 1976 onwards catalogue so it makes me think the lip seal was introduced in about 1976 but I have not found any in the engines I have worked on.

[Richard the old one]

Last night at the local Triumph owners monthly meeting in Bristol I was told by Triumph 2000 owner that the 2000 has a similar scroll seal and that a lip seal was also added at a later stage.


In was also considered that the scroll seal would allow gearbox oil to leak if you parked face down on a steep hill.

[Jod Clark]

I've never seen a lip seal on a 1500 or 1300 RWD gearbox. not one. I have heard that they exist, but....