The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Tilly the red Daf went to a new home on Wednesday, and has been replaced (as a straight swap) by George.

He's not a Daf, he's not aircooled, and hes got this strange thing called a "clutch" (as I forgot heading in to the first services on the way to Devon. He gently reminded me with a kangaroo impression :-[ )

But he's big enough to carry clock & watch stuff, he's reasonably economic despite his missing (for now) 5th gear, and he's actually a rather pleasant place to be stuck for hours getting through roadworks followed by several accidents on the M5 from Bristol northwards!

He's also F%£#ch

Still, despite being by far the newest car I've had for several years, he doesn't quite look like "just-another-modern" (although probably did in his day!):















I'm afraid the rather fetching greyhound stickers will be coming off because he'll be getting Anglesey Watches and Clocks markings in their place.

There are a few snags to deal with which, on a daf, would be an hours work or so but access on George is, frankly, abysmal, so they'll probably take a lot longer!

Speedo cable is disconnected behind the dash. It appears to be an engine-out job to reconnect it but I'm sure there's a way!

Tachometer doesn't work. Most likely to be the TDC sensor mounted about half-way down the back of the engine. That's going to mean turbo intercooler out as a bare minimum for access, and probably battery + battery shelf.

Driver's window is currently held up by a block of wood. That one's quite straightforward, just need to order a regulator of EBay and fit - what could possibly go wrong?

There's a mystery leak creating a puddle under one half of the back seat. Isn't there always?

The headlining material isn't exactly secure, although the gentle wave effect in your rear view mirror is quite soothing as it ripples in the breeze ;D

There's an untraced water leak (used about a litre in 300 miles) which is likely again to be down the back of the engine. This car needs a removeable bulkhead! However, he has a "coolant low" light that comes on well before there's any overheating risk (as well as a temp gauge AND an "overheat" light - Daf take note!!!) , so that one's not as much of a problem as it might be!

5th gear is currently for coasting downhill only - as soon as you come off the over-run he pops out into neutral. But he came with a spare box, and 5th gear can be changed with the whole thing still in the car by removing an end cover. Nice

Need to get him a towbar cos he'll probably be rather good at that!


Jobs that have already been done are:

Injector pump boost compensator pipe is now reconnected - boy does he go better with that!

Glow plug light on dash now works (swapped the bulb with the airbag warning one because he also has an airbag light on the bag itself and MOT only needs one)

One of the remote keys now works reliably without having to crush the button into dust with your fingernail. Just need to do Sian's now.




So, I still get to play mechanics, while Boris is relieved of the heavy lifting he's been doing for the past 10 months or so - all good in Anglesey

The rev counter pickup is on the top of the bellhousing right at the joint with the block and normally quite easy to change.
The water leak into the car is probably the sunroof drain tubes perished. This is a nightmare, the whole headlining has to come down just to look, I once replaced a sunroof cable in a 405, it took a day each way! Never again!
Oh and the speedo cable, IIRC you can't actually access this, it is held in place, supposedly, in the body and the clock set just pushes home into it, no clip or screw or anything, very French! I may be wrong about this but I used to do a lot of 405s around here, they were very popular as taxis and I'm sure it was the 405 that had this arrangement (or lack of one!)

Steve

There's a mystery leak creating a puddle under one half of the back seat. Isn't there always?

Could be a stray greyhound!

guy in work with me just had someone rear end him in his he's had it from new and covered 240,000 mls on the original mechanicals never had any engine work and original clutch
sadly now in breakers as a total loss

Carledo wrote:The rev counter pickup is on the top of the bellhousing right at the joint with the block and normally quite easy to change.
The water leak into the car is probably the sunroof drain tubes perished. This is a nightmare, the whole headlining has to come down just to look, I once replaced a sunroof cable in a 405, it took a day each way! Never again!
Oh and the speedo cable, IIRC you can't actually access this, it is held in place, supposedly, in the body and the clock set just pushes home into it, no clip or screw or anything, very French! I may be wrong about this but I used to do a lot of 405s around here, they were very popular as taxis and I'm sure it was the 405 that had this arrangement (or lack of one!)

Steve

Found the pickup today - for some reason on this version it's about 3/4 of the way down the back of the engine. Think I can get to it from underneath but didnt have time to look today.

No sunroof on this one, but did notice that the seat back on that side is slightly damp so must be somewhere round the window or door on that side I guess. The headlining has to come out sometime anyway though because the fabrics sagging badly, so that'll be fun!

You're spot on with the speedo set-up. The cable's located by a ball on the outer that clips into a socket on the bulkhead and there's a guide pipe inside that leads up to the speedo. Haynes says to fit it by pushing in from the engine compartment till it clips home. But there's no access to even touch the cable, let alone push on it! Think I can just about get clearance to guide it into the clock if I make up a wire fork, will be trying tomorrow

As for the greyhounds, they've started to be rehomed (in the bin) today Will be getting vinyl business stickers made for the sides and don't think they'd look right with the dogs on there as well!

Not surprised that they can go over 300k - apart from the access problems and quirks he seems to be very well put together indeed, the engine never feels like it's getting stressed, and (thanks to the lack of an engine management system) doesn't have the potential for electrical gremlins that seem to kill newer stuff.

A friend of mine has one of these...currently on 450k...same engine. No smoke, oil change every 5k. Great vehicles. He even ran it on cooking oil for a while.

Made progress today.

Found a local(-ish) scrappy with a G reg estate in for the window regulator. Then found that the earlier ones use a different plug. Still, it fits and it works after a quick wiring change, just without the "auto" function - which I seriously dislike anyway.

Then turned my attention to that speedo cable. It wouldnt pull through the dash to guve extra slack - at least not pulling as hard as I dared so I had to get creative.

Here's the easy way to reconnect a 405 speedo cable:

Make a forked tool. I made mine out of about an inch wide strip of 1mm steel sheet, but anything similar sould work. Note that the fork part is bent as a slight angle to the handle:




With the instrument cluster out of the way, fit the fork around the speedo cable:



Push the panel slowly back into place, using the tool to guide the cable into the socket on the back of the speedo. Its a bit awkward to see, but easy enough to do. You now have the panel almost fully home with the fork trapped at the bottom. Thats why I made it from something thin and flexible:



Pull the fork out and push the cluster the last little bit into place. Cable connected first try!


Then it was on to the water leak. It appears to be from the back end of the bottom radiator hose, just in behind the r/h end of the engine. Not much I could do about it today, but the hose seems to be in reasonable condition so Ill be picking up some proper hose clips to replace the horrible peugeot crimp-on ones tomorrow. Hopefully that'll be a cure!

He's also got his first 5 litres of veg oil in the tank (on top of about 1/4 tank of diesel) and seems to be very happy with the stuff, so will be upping the mix slowly over the next few weeks.

Heres a little tip! Before you go mad with all the little faults, make sure the timing belt is good. Unless you have history on it, change it soonest!
I have much experience with this engine and generally consider it (in this non HDI form) the finest small diesel available. I like it so much that i've recently bought a 2000 Pug Expert van with the same 1905cc Td lump. I got it stupidly cheap cos the belt had let go at 70mph on the M1, despite the bill in the van for a new timing belt kit fitted (at considerable expense) only 18000 miles previously. Dismantling showed what had happened, the muppet (can't write what I'd really like to call him) who fitted it left 2 of the 3 bolts securing the front idler bearing slightly loose! Over time, 1 must have fallen out without causing a problem but when the second came out it not only let the tension off the belt but fell into the crank pulley and ended up wrapped in shreds of belt around the water pump! Secondary results of this included a camshaft in 4 pieces, 2 of 3 camshaft bearers smashed (these are line bored with the head and are not easily replaced) and 4 pistons damaged, probably beyond saving. Fortunately I have picked up another (306TD) engine for £150 and fitted that along with a new clutch and cable, timing belt kit, water pump, throttle cable and some other bits and it is now in service and purring happily!
So PLEASE check your belt and save yourself some grief, in all the instances i've had (or heard of) of belt failures on this engine, and thats quite a few, i've only had 1 survive undamaged and that was a massive fluke!
Glad you solved the speedo problem BTW!

Steve

Timing and aux belts are on order - found a window regulator locally but could I get a belt???

The one that's on there was a full kit just over 18k miles ago but they refitted the old aux, which is starting to look a little tired. That was just over 5 years ago, so due on time - figure I should be safe enough with belt only depending on how the tensioners & idlers are when it comes off

You don't see many now. They certainly have good mechanical reliability though I think the actual quality of components and fit in many areas leaves a lot to be desired i.e. typical French fragility when it comes to interiors and electrical components.

Always quite liked the 406 too which came afterwards, very comfy and refined. The XUD in that though is a bit of a struggle though, pretty low down on power for such a big and heavy car.

SprintMWU773V wrote:You don't see many now. They certainly have good mechanical reliability though I think the actual quality of components and fit in many areas leaves a lot to be desired i.e. typical French fragility when it comes to interiors and electrical components.

Always quite liked the 406 too which came afterwards, very comfy and refined. The XUD in that though is a bit of a struggle though, pretty low down on power for such a big and heavy car.

Sure the XUD is not the quickest thing on Gods earth, but it signifacantly lacks the fragility of more modern (and powerful) diesels.
My van has done 168k and was let down by bad maintainance not bad design. Several on my books have exceeded 300k and one or two have managed over 400k and still going strong.
And yes I do agree with you, French electrics..... Sacre bleu, c'est merde!

Steve

So far it seems that the only way it's really lacking in performance is that the turbo kicks in a little late in the rev range for "normal" gear changes - if you dont rev it to the limit in each gear you're off boost as soon as you change up.

2x Gates belts came in today for fitting tomorrow, once they're done and his oil changed, may have to have a little play with the fuel system and see what can be done about that

Carledo wrote:Heres a little tip! Before you go mad with all the little faults, make sure the timing belt is good. Unless you have history on it, change it soonest!
I have much experience with this engine and generally consider it (in this non HDI form) the finest small diesel available. I like it so much that i've recently bought a 2000 Pug Expert van with the same 1905cc Td lump. I got it stupidly cheap cos the belt had let go at 70mph on the M1, despite the bill in the van for a new timing belt kit fitted (at considerable expense) only 18000 miles previously. Dismantling showed what had happened, the muppet (can't write what I'd really like to call him) who fitted it left 2 of the 3 bolts securing the front idler bearing slightly loose! Over time, 1 must have fallen out without causing a problem but when the second came out it not only let the tension off the belt but fell into the crank pulley and ended up wrapped in shreds of belt around the water pump! Secondary results of this included a camshaft in 4 pieces, 2 of 3 camshaft bearers smashed (these are line bored with the head and are not easily replaced) and 4 pistons damaged, probably beyond saving. Fortunately I have picked up another (306TD) engine for £150 and fitted that along with a new clutch and cable, timing belt kit, water pump, throttle cable and some other bits and it is now in service and purring happily!
So PLEASE check your belt and save yourself some grief, in all the instances i've had (or heard of) of belt failures on this engine, and thats quite a few, i've only had 1 survive undamaged and that was a massive fluke!
Glad you solved the speedo problem BTW!

Steve

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14837&p=146377&hili ... lt#p146377

I would add that veg oil is not a great idea if your XUDT has a Lucas injection pump, veg oil will bust it...

Carledo wrote:

SprintMWU773V wrote:You don't see many now. They certainly have good mechanical reliability though I think the actual quality of components and fit in many areas leaves a lot to be desired i.e. typical French fragility when it comes to interiors and electrical components.

Always quite liked the 406 too which came afterwards, very comfy and refined. The XUD in that though is a bit of a struggle though, pretty low down on power for such a big and heavy car.

Sure the XUD is not the quickest thing on Gods earth, but it signifacantly lacks the fragility of more modern (and powerful) diesels.
My van has done 168k and was let down by bad maintainance not bad design. Several on my books have exceeded 300k and one or two have managed over 400k and still going strong.
And yes I do agree with you, French electrics..... Sacre bleu, c'est merde!

Steve

If I believed everything about modern diesels then my own car must be on it's last legs at 30k. Everyone seems concerned about them yet I have come across countless examples which rack up huge mileage without fault.