The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Can anyone advise the standard height for front and rear based, I assume, on something like the distance from wheel centre to wheel arch at TDC?

thanks

Which model

Sprint, by previous posts. Copied straight out of the ROM, hope it's vaguely useful...

• Wheelbase: 2454mm
  Track Front: 1356mm
  Track Rear: 1290mm
  Wheel alignment (unladen) Front 0 - 1.59mm toe in
  Camber and castor
  Kerb Front Camber ¾° positive ± 1° Castor 2¼° ± 1° King pin inclination 6¼° ± 1°
  Ground clearance (4 up condition): 108mm
  Turning circle: 9400mm

"4 up" is not that useful, what if all your mates were a bit on the chunky side?! So here are the weights:

• Weights
  
  Shipping basic: 998kg
  Shipping - with options: 1003kg
  Basic kerb (includes tools, fuel, oil and water): 1041kg
  Kerb (includes options): 1046kg
  Gross vehicle weight: 1375kg
  Maximum axle load: Front 665kg Rear 725kg

Yes, for a Sprint please.

I have adjustable shocks I need to reset and it would be useful to have some default info to work from.

When people say "I lowered by an inch" - from what and how measured?

I remember when I did it before there was some info re the arch height above wheel centres or something like that

thanks

The figure was above unless I'm missing something? 108mm from the Triumph ROM, 115mm from the Haynes manual, and measured from the ground to the cill.

And that figure will all depend on if you have standard springs at 140 pound-force inch, and the need to take into account that the car will naturally need to settle after fitting new springs.

Previous forum posts might be helpful:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20725
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12036

So I just need to get four blokes and have them sit in the car so I can do the measurement. They'd better all weight the same. Thanks for that but that number is quite unusable don't you think !

I was really looking for those measurements from wheel centre to arch and those links to other threads are a big help thanks.

"the standard car is 340/325mm and the racecar 320/300mm". At the moment my rears are unchanged and about 320. The fronts are just a bit tightened and not set-up at all measuring about 31 on one side and 32 on the other.

Of course the other link says the ride height was 36 so that's a huge variation. I think I'll experiment and start off with 330 front 320 back and see how it looks.

Thanks for the help

mark

It's fair to say that 4 petite ladies, or 4 impossibly skinny hipster types isn't going to cut the mustard to achieve that 375kg the '4 up' figure that I think they are aiming for it's true to say!

It does seem to be a pretty daft measurement but I do see why, as the ride height is dependant on not just the length but also the resistance of the springs. I mentioned this to my garage mechanic mate, and to my surprise he says that they have sacks of sand to do just this kind of loading!

Anyway, good luck!

Edit: It really will settle down over time, so do set it a bit higher than you actually want!

on my 1300 dolly,,rear of sill is 125mm high (floor to sill) and 100mm at the front (floor to wing),all on standard suspension

Well it's done, at least for now.

For the record I left the rears at 325 and made the fronts 330 hopefully. I say hopefully because there is no direct correlation between seat height and the distance between wheel centre and wheel arch ie you can add 2cm to the seat height but you'll get less than 2cm change to the ride height. The last time I measured the fronts they were also 325 and I added 7mm to the seat height. I'll check it again in due course.

On the damper settings I went 23/34 on the fronts(ie from soft to firm approx 2/3) and 15/44 on the rears (ie softer). It's odd there were more available "clicks" on the rears but that's the way it was.

rgds

I set my sprint to 360mm arch to wheel centre which looks right on sprint wheels. I later dropped it by another 19-20mm for a slightly better look, but will touch the exhaust when 4 up on speed bumps .
If you set the fronts to this number and set the rears so the sills are level you wont be far wrong.

Tony

Hi Tony.

Aren't the fronts different from the rears though? 360 at the back would look like it was jacked up !

m

Read the last sentence again

Tony

Ah yep fair point there.

Mine are set at 325 front and rear and look ok. The front could stand being a bit higher but I'll wait for it to settle before I touch it again.

It's interesting you say 360 because that seems really high to me. There was another thread where it talked about 340/325 std or 320/300 race car. I only want mine lowered a little and the reality is the front is set to alleged standard height. Like I say, the fronts will get revisited anyway. I think 360 would look a bit jacked up. Certainly I'd be getting near the top of the Gaz adjusters and the springs would be quite compressed

rgds

I suppose im at 340 front now, but havnt checked for a while. If youre lower at the moment put a trolley jack under the crossmember and gently jack up to get to 340 and see how it looks. Obviously if you go too high with the jack it may not settle back down without bouncing it or driving back and forth. I'll see if i have a recent pic to post.

Tony

As it sits now

IMG_20150728_145516 by tg1mm, on Flickr