The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Today I got rained off about 10am so got home and went straight to the garage.

The engine was stuck solid, I then took exhaust manifold off and then the starter, I then tried turning the engine and it still wouldn't budge on the pulley....

I tried connecting the starter to some jump leads to no avail, in the end I bit the bullet and went to see my mechanic mate, he connected his jump pack and away the starter went, he put a new nut on the left hand thread and the starter worked with and without the solenoid. Happy days

I then spoke to him regarding the engine being locked, he said try loosening the bolts/nuts on the gearbox housing and see if you can turn the engine then.

So now the engine turns by hand but I don't know what I have done wrong, I have fitted clutch kits and gearboxes to all our triumphs before and not had this problem, I had a lot of problems mating this engine and gearbox together when I first put it in the car. In the end I took The clutch housing and plate off, put plate on splines and matched the orientation of this back on the flywheel and she slipped straight on. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I may have done wrong.

Many thanks again

Darren

Edit: I'm using 1850 engine back plate, flywheel, clutch plate,housing and od single rail box

DazasDolly wrote:Today I got rained off about 10am so got home and went straight to the garage.

The engine was stuck solid, I then took exhaust manifold off and then the starter, I then tried turning the engine and it still wouldn't budge on the pulley....

I tried connecting the starter to some jump leads to no avail, in the end I bit the bullet and went to see my mechanic mate, he connected his jump pack and away the starter went, he put a new nut on the left hand thread and the starter worked with and without the solenoid. Happy days

I then spoke to him regarding the engine being locked, he said try loosening the bolts/nuts on the gearbox housing and see if you can turn the engine then.

So now the engine turns by hand but I don't know what I have done wrong, I have fitted clutch kits and gearboxes to all our triumphs before and not had this problem, I had a lot of problems mating this engine and gearbox together when I first put it in the car. In the end I took The clutch housing and plate off, put plate on splines and matched the orientation of this back on the flywheel and she slipped straight on. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I may have done wrong.

Many thanks again

Darren

Edit: I'm using 1850 engine back plate, flywheel, clutch plate,housing and od single rail box

I am at a bit of a loss too, I can't seem to visualise what has gone wrong! But a quick question, where did the gearbox come from?

I know people doing this have had engine locking problems by fitting bolts at the backplate to engine joint, rather than the countersunk screws the TR7 uses, or even by putting washers under the bolts in Sprint apps - but this scenario would not let you free the engine simply by loosening the bell housing bolts.

Steve

Hello Steve

The gearbox came from a friend of mine who is a Triumph fanatic, I'm wondering if by mistake I have fitted the tr7 flywheel instead of the dolly one by mistake or the 1850 box has a vitesse bell housing rather than the 1850. I'll take some pics tomorrow evening and see if I can put them on here otherwise I am at a total loss too.

Cheers

Darren

I'm inclined to favour a bellhousing mismatch rather than a flywheel one, I believe the Vit one IS slightly shorter than the 1850 one, which would give you your problem.

Steve

Carledo wrote:I'm inclined to favour a bellhousing mismatch rather than a flywheel one, I believe the Vit one IS slightly shorter than the 1850 one, which would give you your problem.

Steve

I've just thought, I have a vitesse bell housing in one of the sheds I can check against the one on the box, but I will also phone the guy I bought it off tomorrow and see if he can remember, I also know he has my old standard 4 speed 1850 box in his garage so could possibly take the bell housing from that if I can prize it from his grasp

Many thanks again Steve

Darren

Another point that may or may not be relevant, the Vit and 1850 release bearing carriers are different lengths too!

Steve

We have lift off

I slowly did up the gearbox equally after undoing all the nuts and bolts until they were more or less out. Every so often checking the engine would turn over.

The engine now turns over on the key, and it also has good oil pressure, not got her started yet as no spark possibly, I've not checked but I can smell fuel. Still don't understand fully what had happened but will keep my fingers crossed.

I have a few more jobs to do on Sunday but hopefully have her running then, can I use a coil from the 1500?

The only problem I have now is moving the prop on the splines

Thank you all for your help

Darren

It occurred to me later that a Vit bellhousing wouldn't match up to the engine anyway, the starter housing is on the wrong side for one thing.

Glad you've sorted it, even if you're not sure how!

Steve

You should use the 1500 coil since that will match the car's wiring, ballasted or not (think it is) the points etc won't mind, so long as the coil and loom matches.

Carledo wrote:It occurred to me later that a Vit bellhousing wouldn't match up to the engine anyway, the starter housing is on the wrong side for one thing.

Glad you've sorted it, even if you're not sure how!

Steve

You should use the 1500 coil since that will match the car's wiring, ballasted or not (think it is) the points etc won't mind, so long as the coil and loom matches.

Thanks Steve Just had me worried for a while I'll keep this thread going I think

Cheers

Darren

Now we have a runner, it wasn't easy, the pistons in the float chambers were stuck solid and now go up and down very smoothly. She was a pig to get started at first but she runs lovely on choke as I need to source another cable for the rev cable, or if I had a piece of meccano I could extend it.

The ignition light stays on when running, so need to do a few checks, the alternator looks brand new, but maybe looks could be deceiving

She has a lovely rasp from the stainless exhaust I got very cheap from ebay and it comes out on the side a 1500tc should still at the back.

So glad I'm doing this conversion now

Many thanks

Darren

Not been in the loop on this recently for obvious reasons but I was always under the impression that the vitesse gt6 and dolomite 3 rail boxes were identical. I have seen a GT6 bell housing and its the same as a dolly one.

The flywheel and backplate issues I will explain...The TR7 countersunk backplate and flywheel combination will work in a dollomite but you would need to cut off the slave mounting. The 1850 backplate is I think the same as a Sprint one and goes on with plain setscrews and NO washers and it will clear the 1850/Sprint flywheel. It will NOT clear the TR7 flywheel, so use the 1850 one or countersink drill the 1850 backplate and use the countersunk setscrews.

These are your options and I've done it both ways....

As to your locking up this is almost certainly due to slight misalignment on your input shaft and clutch splines which resulted in a slight bind. You dont need a lot of "effort" at the back end with this sort of misalignment to stop the engine turning. If the engine turns ok now and with the box released a bit then you clearly have no flywheel issues, especially as you now have it running. Persist and you will get there...

Jonners

So good to see you back Jon, I do hope all is going well, and I wish you and your family all the very very best.


It sounds so much better than that rattly old 1500 engine, I'm glad that I took the step to do this and it will benefit the car in the long run.

Any ideas what is the best way to move the prop on the splines, I've been soaking wd40 down it for the last two weeks.

Many thanks

Darren

Dunno what you've been smoking in there Jonners, but it's good to have you back! The slant engine carries it's starter on the n/s of the engine, as does the 1300/1500 OHV. but the six cylinder starter for the Vitesse/GT6 is on the o/s of the engine. The six's side mounted oil filter prohibits it being on the n/s. So a Vit/GT6 bellhousing will not mate to a slant.

Steve

Well when I say Ive seen a GT6 box and it was the same as a dolly one it wasn't actually attached to a six engine...
so it may well have been a dolly one that its owner had mis-identified.

So consider me standing corrected....

So does this mean vitesse and GT6 boxes are the same? What do GT6 owners with single rail boxes have to have done input shaft and bell housing wise?

Interesting.....

Jonners

From hazy memory drill a hole in the GT6 bellhousing and put a cap of some sort. Think that is about all....
But I can double check on Saturday