The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I have now sourced a replacement bearing/ bush for where the column passes through the bukhead but as mine was completely absent I am not 100% sure which way it goes and despite searching through loads of diagrams I can't find confirmation either way. It makes sense for it to be fitted from inside the car but can anyone confirm this either way?

Big bit sits inside the car, chamfered part engine side.

Galileo wrote:Big bit sits inside the car, chamfered part engine side.

As I thought, thanks for the confirmation.

Did you get the Super Flex one? It is fit and forget.

I can't remember, Dave!

There seems toe some debate, but I always fit them from the inside, that way it CAN'T fall out!

Steve

I get fed up with telling people that the correct way is from the engine side, as per the workshop manual. It stops the ingress of dirt. Many Sprints have passed through my hands in the last 35+ years and I can only think of one that had it fitted the wrong way around, from inside. At the end of the day it doesn't make that much difference and if it falls out, Steve, you haven't fitted it properly. They are quite hard to push in.

Lol! Originally when I answered above I'd typed "I'll get my popcorn out with this one", but thought better of it, and I was wrong!

As far as I'm concerned this argument was put to rest by the post 76 parts book that clearly shows the direction the bush should be fitted in, obviously to avoid just this confusion.

I know this because when I replaced mine I did some digging around to check which way around it went in, and there's many a post on this forum alone. My old one was fitted large bit in, so I replaced it as per the newer parts book, and my old one.

Mad Mart wrote:I get fed up with telling people that the correct way is from the engine side, as per the workshop manual. It stops the ingress of dirt. Many Sprints have passed through my hands in the last 35+ years and I can only think of one that had it fitted the wrong way around, from inside. At the end of the day it doesn't make that much difference and if it falls out, Steve, you haven't fitted it properly. They are quite hard to push in.

Maybe Sprint owners are fussier, i've come across many Dollies in 40+ years that don't have a bush in there at all! Probably because it's worn away and fallen out! When I bought the Carledo, it had a "bush" made out of body filler! I kid you not! I couldn't get it all off satisfactorily and had to junk the plate, which in any case was badly ovaled.
This is the problem, some manuals say one way, some another, others don't say at all and even the parts list is unreliable. To me, common sense says put it in from inside since it's on a downhill slope and the big washer on the bottom of the column holds it in rather than pushing it out, for the same reason as vertical bolts and nuts are always fitted bolt head up, if the nut comes loose, the bolt will not fall out immediately! It's just an engineering principal.

Steve

Does beg the question which is the correct why to fit the bush

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17826&start=120#p243692

I'm with Steve's.

Paul

95% of the dollies I did see or had or repaired had it fitted from the engine side. When I did see one the fitted the wrong way I always thought in myself here's a lazy mechanics repair again.

Jeroen

Think Ive said this before....
ERO is a K plater and Ive had it long enough for it to have come to me with the bush it got in the factory.
It was fitted from inside the car...fat bit inside, big washer bearing against it - exactly as Steve said...
Have had NBH for a very long time indeed....fitted the same...
LCO was another insider too....on an R plate

Sorry Mart and Jeroen - in this case I dont agree with you...

Jonners

I've just replaced mine.
I have no reason to doubt that the one that came out was the original, so I put the new (poly) one in the exact same way.......big bit on the inside, with the washer bearing on it.
October '75 car.
Cheers,
Rob

Not this old chestnut again! I suspect that it depends upon who was fitting the bushes when the cars were originally built. Quality Control and consistency weren't excatly BL's long suit and most of the assembly workers would strike on a whim so I don't think they really gave a monkey's which way the bushes were fitted. We know that what's in the parts catalogues isn't set in stone and has been known to be wrong.

What would be interesting would be to find out which way the bushes are fitted on VA1 (the first production Sprint that's in the Coventry Transport Museum) and Danny & Jannette's 1500SE (FVG 95T) which have the bushes that were fitted on the production line at Canley and haven't been touched since.

Jon Tilson wrote:Think Ive said this before....
ERO is a K plater and Ive had it long enough for it to have come to me with the bush it got in the factory.
It was fitted from inside the car...fat bit inside, big washer bearing against it - exactly as Steve said...
Have had NBH for a very long time indeed....fitted the same...
LCO was another insider too....on an R plate

Sorry Mart and Jeroen - in this case I dont agree with you...

Jonners

Maybe the export market did get more tlc in the factory.

Jeroen