Rear Shock Tops - Help, Which Way Round ?

[Dolly racer 33]

By October 1975 I would think that many more than 5000 Dolomites had been produced. This is a Leyland Service bulletin that I have had alomg with many others since I worked in a Leyland dealership in the 70's. There is absolutely no reason to disbelieve it. How can you possibly know that your dolomite Chassis number WF 50** has never had rear dampers fitted unless you have owned it from new? It is very likely to have had dampers fitted. This was a Leyland service bulletin & therefore it is very likely that if any car needed dampers whilst it was being maintained by a Leyland franchised dealer that complete rear units were fitted, including the angled top mount. IIRC at one time Jamie @ Sprintspares & Rimmers were offering complete rear damper/spring units for sale. BL would have only had these as a service item to replace the original non angled units. I had a Dolly years ago that had the damper units on wrong, ( bought like it) & the handing at the rear left a lot to be desired, immense oversteer part way through a corner as the damper was trying to bend & locked up. No matter what your chassis number is, it is obviously more desireable to have the angled mounts fitted as the engineers at BL did this for a reason, there were no chassis/body suspension mounting point changes at the rear so the upgraded units can fit all vehicles.

Who is Dave???????

Reghards,

KEN.

[Jon Tilson]

Appologies Ken
I'm confusing you with David Myers...

While what you say is quite true and 50xx could well have had new shocks fitted I have most of the history form new and have never seen anything in the paperwork that suggests they were replaced. It came to me with a genuine 78k miles up and a fat folder too. Quite long enough to have needed new shocks I agree...but then again I cant see a dealer painting the sealant pimento!
Its going to have to stay one of those mysteries...
I would be surprised if such a glaring fault and one so easilly rectified would have taken until 50,000 to put right...5000 is a good bit more likely...

Never mind...not something to fall out over and at least we all know now how to fit them.

Jonners

[Dolly racer 33]

FYI the sealant on the top mounts to body should be grey, not body colour. So if yours is body colour it suggests that someone has been there before!!!

Regards.

[sprint95m]

I remember being told to watch which way round the tops went. At the time I thought it was a wind-up because they were symmetrical ('73 Sprint). The shocks I fitted were as new but didn't have tops as the scrapman who gave me them undid the nuts from the rod, so I had nothing to compare the tops to. A few years later I broke a W reg 1300 Dolomite and it had angled tops so, along with new shocks, these went on the Sprint. At the time I asked Jamie at Sprintspares in Essex about this and he thought the use of flat or angled tops seemed random.
My current Dolomite is a '72 1850. It came with angled tops which had never been removed until I got the car, although one shock had been replaced. (This car had had several kilos of underseal applied when new which greatly helped dismantling as well as giving a guide as to what was original.) Given my experience with the Sprint and thinking about what Jamie had said, I took the tops off to ensure they were angled . Very pleased to discover they are .

[triple tango]

when fitted with lowest point facing front, the tag is at the rear