The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

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.

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

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.

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 .

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