My new Dolomite - 1980 1500HL Auto

[Howard81]

Spotting a bit of a theme in the ex Adam car threads - Fixed this, mended that, straightened the other....

Still, at least it's only niggles.

Nah, just little things you'd expect from a 30-year-old car. Thanks to Adam it now runs beautifully, I'm just making it perfect

[Howard81]

Re Petrol smell; when I picked up my 1300 in Cornwall I brimmed the tank Dreadfull smell of Petol, pulled over. Boot awash with the damn stuff. Petrol spewing out around the sensor.
Had to take the sender out in a service station with a full tank, must have taken me 20 tries to seat the seal properly. Made sure I got a good turn on the retaining ring to get a good seal by bashing it with a screwdriver.
Check the sender retainer & seal closely Howard because if it's not seated properly the petrol leaks out as vapour. A tell tale sign that it's been leaking a while is powdery rust at the back edge of the tank behind the sender.

Also found out why my big ends blew, I ran out of oil because the crankcase seal was cracked & disintegrated. The oils in the bellhousing.

I should have the seals sometime this week, but to be honest the smell has mostly gone now.

Have you started to rebuild the 1300 block yet, Mike?

[Jod Clark]

3 things a 405 Dturbo estate is much better at

Welcome to the frugal world of the Pug diesel, nothing much to go wrong engine wise as long as you keep on top of the oil changes and make sure the cam belt never reaches its recommended replacement interval

[Howard81]

I have also heard from the owner of NGU who had the car from 2004-2007. He entered the car into the 2006 Round Britain Reliability Run and finished 3rd from last He also fitted the re-con engine after the original threw a rod on the A127. Head gasket was replaced in 2006, along with the steering rack, ball joints and radiator. Also fitted the chocolate brown interior as the original one was tatty.

He had bought it off eBay from someone who had bought it from "a little old lady" in Greenwich. I don't have any history with the car prior to 1999, but according to the receipts from then it had 30,000 on the clock. It now has 70,000-something.

Always nice to find a bit of history behind a car

Oh and I've been told it is named "Molly"

[Howard81]

One thing with the car is that the starter solenoid doesn't always catch. Sometimes you turn the key and get a rather hollow "vvvmmmmmm" sound as the gear doesn't quite catch. I have been told:

Amazingly I can tell you that it is not the solenoid. The starter ring gear is attached to a rather flimsy flexiplate that bolts to the torque converter. When I swapped the engine I took the converter to an Auto gearbox specialist for checking and he straightened it. When it all went back together it would not work in certain positions ! It is easily remedied as you just crank it again and it always catches

At least it saves me the job in taking the starter off

[Howard81]

The fuel tank was really leaky so I've now fitted a replacement, along with new flexible fuel lines. The petrol smell has now gone! The old tank had some pin holes on the side and would leak if I went round a sharp left bend. At the same time I fitted a new wiper washer motor and the bit of cardboard behind the rear seat, so I now have washers and a tidy looking boot Passenger side wiper nozzle is a bit pathetic so that needs taking off and cleaning. Swapped the clock with Ken too, so I now have one with a black/chrome trim ring to match the rest of the dials, and he has a chrome one to put in LD The oil light works now too as the bulb has been replaced and I've put on a new passenger-side wing mirror.

The rusty fueltank I removed:



I've also fitted decent badges to the boot, and even found an "Automatic" script to go under the 1500HL one! I don't think that's correct for an HL car but I don't care

The old badge...


...and the new


Much better!


I have also repainted the driver-side wheelarch, it was bubbling and filler was flaking off. Was a bit worried it was going to be full of holes, but the filler was over sound metal. All ground back, the few scabby bits of rust ground away and treated, skim of filler and some top coat, looks lovely. Passenger side left to do.

Photos this evening

[Purplebargeken]

Well done H.

[Howard81]

Well done H.

She'll be looking even better soon - I've ordered some of the Bilt-Hamber Auto Clay you showed me!

I've ordered some new gold coach stripes off eBay too

[Purplebargeken]

It is bloody good stuff.

[Garfin]

Sounds as though you've bonded with this car Howard.
What'll you do with it when KSF is back on the road??

[Howard81]

Sounds as though you've bonded with this car Howard.
What'll you do with it when KSF is back on the road??

I know, it's a brilliant car But a good question! To be honest, now KSF has been restored, it's a bit too nice to subject to general London driving, the roads around here are crazy and I am absolutely paranoid about getting hit again So I plan to keep KSF as my "nice" car for weekends, sunny days and long journeys, NGU can do all the riff-raff work like going to the shops and such

In London's stop-start traffic I get about 15mpg in my Sprint. On a run I get 30-35. NGU does 25 around London - I'm taking it on it's first motorway trip in my ownership on Friday, so we shall see what the MPG is then!

[triumphtoledo]

I'm a huge fan of my 1500HL auto; well, I would be if I hadn't allowed the MoT to expire! A 300 mile trip, of mainly motorway driving at 60-65mph resulted in 36mpg. Not bad for an auto.

R

[Howard81]

I had rather an adventure with this car yesterday

I've been in contact with one of the previous owners, Darren, who owned NGU from 2003-2006 (I think). He had it largely rebuilt to do the Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run. I'd promised that if I was passing I would drop round for a reunion - so yesterday, I did. Darren and his son were delighted to see "Molly" again and had a million stories to tell me about her (and believe me, there are a LOT of them ). Darren drove her and remarked that something didn't seem right... on closer inspection BOTH the engine mountings had snapped and the engine was at an alarming angle in the engine bay I had driven down a rather bumpy unmade road earlier in the day, which I think had finished the mountings off once and for all.

Luckily for me Darren disappeared off into his garage and came back out with a brand new pair of 1500 engine mounts The next couple of hours were spent fitting them and it has transformed the car. It no longer randomly revs high, it's lovely and smooth and doesn't shake at idle. Thanks, Darren I really owe you a few beers for that!

This also explains my knocking exhaust and manifold gasket problem I had last week...

It also turned out that NGU was fitted from new with a set of SE style (Spitfire) wheels. Darren didn't have the original ones, but he's given me a set of Spitfire wheels to put on her

[Jon Tilson]

Spit wheels come in a few widths...
You wuill prpbably have 4.5 j but 5 J was fitted from mid 79 on and 5.5 J were on GT6's

Ive never fitted spit wheesl to a dolly but I do know the offset is different and SE wheels are actually unique to SE's
despite looking like spit ones.

So be careful of contact with discs and wheel arches. and the front drag strut on lock. I expect you'll be okay though.

Jonners

[Howard81]

Spit wheels come in a few widths...
You wuill prpbably have 4.5 j but 5 J was fitted from mid 79 on and 5.5 J were on GT6's

Ive never fitted spit wheesl to a dolly but I do know the offset is different and SE wheels are actually unique to SE's
despite looking like spit ones.

So be careful of contact with discs and wheel arches. and the front drag strut on lock. I expect you'll be okay though.

Jonners

I have two 4.5J and two 5J. Was thinking to put the 5J on the back and the 4.5J on the front.

I'll check one on the front of the car before I get the tyres swapped over though!

What was the differences in offset between the Spitfire and SE wheels?

I've seen Spitfires with Sprint wheels, so I think it should be ok...