1977 Dolomite 1300 - getting it back on the road

[sprint95m]

Welcome to the forum.

That is a good story, maybe one to submit to Dolly Mixture…. ?





Ian.

[xvivalve]

Probably easier to source a replacement radio; it may seem a perverse way of rectifying a simple fault, but I have such a two button radio, but were I to let you have the knobs, then I'd be in a similar predicament to you!

Other than that you may find an old radio specialist who has a box full of assorted knobs...but then again you may not!!

[GTS290N]

Knobs!
http://www.retrocarstuff.com/classic_ca ... car_radio/
https://www.retrocarstuff.com/shop/inde ... ption=true

[Toledo Man]

Welcome to the forum.

Don't forget to join the Club. It is worth every penny of the membership fee. There's no such thing as a silly question so keep on asking. The biggest problem will be rust unless you're handy with the MIG or you know somebody who is. The 1300 engine is simple enough to work on.

[Carledo]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the wing is welded on so very hard to remove and the damaged section is almost unreachable from inside the arch. The door damage by comparison is simple to fix once the doorcard is removed.
Best thing is to find someone who has one of those line dent remover/pullers like Edd China uses on Wheeler Dealers.

Nice car though, lots of potential!

Steve

[Toledo Man]

I suspect that you might have to get the dent in the front wing filled in. Access to behind some of that area as a bit difficult. At least you know that it is solid metal underneath and if the job is done properly, it shouldn't be a problem. I've found a few small dents on my 1850 during the respray which can be filled with stopper. The dent in the door is accessible from behind so it can be pushed out and then it should only need a skim of filler. There was another paintless dent removal featured on Wheeler Dealers in the current series (the Chevrolet LUV pickup truck). It uses induction to take the dents out.

[Galileo]

An amusing tale, a nice car to get back on the road, and a bonus for the use of 'contretemps', which apart from being regularly used by my Geography teacher at Frizinghall Middle School is not a word I've come across since!

[Jon Tilson]

I suspect you have one of the cheap replacement slave cylinders with a very poor seal design.

You need the OE girling original I'm afraid, or at the least its piston and the Girling seal.

Jonners

[RobSun]

I recently had the same problem bleeding the clutch on my 1300 Dolly. I was loosing fluid with indications that both the master and slave were leaking and had obtained a new old stock Girling master at the NEC and a recon Girling slave. The master looked perfect but on checking it was found to have rusted in the bore between the inlet port and the seal. The rest was ok, red grease had protected it but had not got fully up the bore. This was scrapped and a new one that had been destined for a TR4 fitted. I was surprised when I was told this would fit but it did. All put back together it would not bleed and kept pulling in air. My local classic restorer tried a few times and failed and junked my reconditioned slave saying the seals were shot. He fitted a slave for an MG Midget 1500 that he had. This is the same as on ours but the bleed and inlet port are side by side when fitted rather than one above the other. Problem solved.

I tried to fit original parts and avoid the problems with modern Chinese "copies" but failed totally only for "modern" parts for other classics to come to my rescue.

[Lee1500]

Glad its sorted. I had similar trouble and ended up replacing both cylinders. One tip I did find though: I was finding it virtually impossible to bleed with the slave cylinder bolted in position. It was far easier to bleed it with the slave under the bonnet, above the master, then fitting it after bleeding.

[Carledo]

Well after a pretty exhaustive search for air getting into the clutch system I drew a blank. Which meant looking for other less obvious causes.

Finally concluded (and I say this somewhat red-faced ) that the carpet was rucking up underneath the clutch pedal. When I took the carpet up to look at the state of the floor in the driver footwell I don't think I secured it properly. One of the fixing studs proved rather obstinate. So it seems as if the carpet has been creeping down the footwell and as a result I've not been able to depress the clutch properly.

It does seem a little odd though that I was able to shift gears ok with the engine off.

So she's back on the road again (fingers crossed).

Even if the clutch was completely devoid of fluid, you would be able to shift with the engine stationary!

When the engine is running, 2/3 of the gearbox is turning, even in neutral. Depressing the clutch allows the box to stop turning over so gears can be selected. Any partial failure of the hydraulics (or too much carpet) will keep the box turning and make it difficult or impossible to select gears when the car is standing still with the engine running.

Steve

[MIG Wielder]

I think this might be 153780 from the parts book.

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID008556

Which gives the end joints as RS1054

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-RS1054.

Perhaps a 1300 owner could confirm that ( Mine is an 1850 which is a bit different. )

HTH,
Tony.

[Jon Tilson]

Similar things are found on V8 rovers and stags....
Try Winns or LD parts.

Jonnners

[Toledo Man]

Didn't the Club have these in stock?