The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

My 1300 Dolly has only 16,000 miles from new, yet 2nd gear is embarasingly noisy. It was owned by a lady on Jersey and may have spent a lot of time in 2nd gear which could account for it. Looking around for a replacement gear TKC3002 it is unobtainium, and secondhand 2nd gears command a premium price, one seller in Australia currently asking $300 . I found what is supposed to be a good one in the US and have bought it, though it has cost me £90 inc postage and duties. I am hoping that I can rescue the laygear cluster, but that could be worn too.
I was thinking of an exchange gearbox, or buying another box with hopefully better internals, but then if mine is bad at 16k what must one be like with 60k on it.
Am I just unlucky, or as would appear do all 13/1500 single rail (that also includes Spitfire and Midget gearboxes) suffer from 2nd gear wear to this extent.

Ralph

Following on from above, later spitfires and midget 1500s used the same single rail gearbox. I am assuming that they would fit the Dolomite. Am I correct?
Ralph

Midget box is different, not sure exactly how, except the input shaft is a little different and as Mr Papworth turned his nose up as "many of the iternals are of no use to him" Possibly gears? But the whole box should swap.

I have 2 rebuilt 1500 OD boxes here, the gearbox man said one was fabulous inside, just needing synchros swapping around and a clean/reseal. The other needed a layshaft pin, laygear and some bearings.

Layshaft pin is often worn, moreso on overdrive boxes for some reason. But I would be VERY surprised if your 2nd gear is actually worn. Broken teeth, a bearing or whatever are more likely. Just 2nd gear discounts many of the other possible issues though.

I would fix your own box, certainly strip it a see what the issue actually is. At 16k it should be almost perfect. Only change anything that is damaged/worn, the bearings, synchros etc will all be better than aything you would replace them with.

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Clive Senior
Brighton

Thanks for the reply Clive,
I too am a bit puzzled by it just being 2nd gear, though being an underpowered 1300 I find that 2nd gets most of the acceleration torque if one wants to make reasonable progress. First gear is fine, which kind of rules out the layshaft and bearings, though I have got a new set ready to put in. I was wondering if this was the original box because I know it had had a clutch change prior to me getting the car and it could have had the box changed at that time, though why it would have been necessary I don`t know. Might be able to tell from the gearbox number if it seems about right for 1979.

I have bought a cheap Spitfire 1500 single rail box, I might overhaul that and swap it for the Dolly one whilst I investigate, that way I can keep the car mobile.

Ralph

I was surprised to read that the layshaft pin can wear, am I correct to assume this is part DS1908, the pin that stops the layshaft from rotating. If I have a box stripped down again I will look more carefully at the pin.

by layshaft pin, I mean the shaft that runs through the laygear.

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Clive Senior
Brighton