The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hello all!

Yesterday myself and Tony successfully removed the engine from my 1850. Everything looks in very good condition which we are very pleased about, but one thing we were wondering about was the flywheel - the mark when the engine is TDC is at around 2 o'clock? Any ideas on what might have happened and why it's different? Also, Anything worth looking at to replace? The clutch looks great!

I don't know if the flywheel will only go on in one position (I know ford look as if they will go on any orientation, but the boltholes are not quite evenly spaced so have to go on in the correct position) but I doubt it. In which case, if there was no vibration beforehand I would replace in the same position.

Also, are all dolly 1850 flywheels marked with TDC? I could understand if the flywheel had been balanced in conjunction with the crank and front pulley, but that would not have happened in a 1970's BL factory!

I suspect the flywheel has been off before and is out by one bolt spacing.

The marks aren't obvious to an amateur and don't line up dead accurate with the scribe line on the backplate anyway. Most are about 5 degrees or more out. The one you want to be right is the crank pully and timing chain. They should be within a degree.

Are you going to get the head off next?

Jonners

I'm confussed (normal situation for me). Why would it matter which position the flywheel is bolted on?
If it's balanced, then no issue?
If it's unbalanced, are you trying to match the unbalance with the engine stroke cycle? Yes I know, not my strongest point.

Thanks very much for the advice everyone as always!

To be honest I wasn't sure how much of a difference it could make, but if the overall running & balance would be improved just by moving the flywheel back to TDC, heck, who am I to argue?! :') but glad to hear it isn't a greater issue. I guess it boils down to me being quite the perfectionist too!! :')

Now that the engine is out it will be palleted to Arbinger Hammer motors and hopefully head removed. 1st stud out, 2 & 4 broken, 3 & 5 rounded off. great garage work! Hopefully they will have more luck!!

Googling Arbinger Hammer brought up this nugget:

http://www.stag.org.uk/members-area/soc ... s-and-more Very interesting....

If the engine is being stripped then it might be worth whipping the crank out and balancing the bottom end anyway. I mean whilst the engine's out it would be mad not to whip off the main caps and big ends and check the bearings. Even if you're trying to keep costs down the faff of getting the engine in and out means that it'll be worth checking at this point.

When you balance you do so with the crank, front pulley, flywheel and clutch cover on. Again if the engine's out maybe check the condition of the clutch components. Balancing is not an expensive process though not every engine shop does it.

look closely at the flywheel clutch face, look for signs of cracking caused by heat, sometimes known as 'shelling' , a light skim will solve this.

Malcolm

If you see evidence of small drill indentations on the fywheel rim this will mean it has been balanced before. If not...it hasn't.

I agree about the value of balancing - on a Sprint its well worth it. On an 1850 that probably rarely sees more than 4000 rpm? I would say there are better ways to spend the money, like sourcing decent bearing shells.

My 2 cents

Jonners

Many thanks for all the advice!

Once the head is off, I will get some quotes to see how much everything will cost, and try and get the main bearings etc checked. The clutch face looks in very good condition, I'm pretty confident its been replaced fairly recently, but I've no receipts to support this which surprises me! I wonder what else has been done!

A few other thoughts we've had, will we need to use Loctite threadloc on flywheel bolts? & does anyone know if we can use this clutch alignment tool , or have a different one we need to use? Many thanks!

Yes that alignment tool will be fine. Plenty of that type for sale. Its used by centring the friction plate to the pressure plate OFF the engine. So in your hand. The actual alignment is by eye actually using the outside diameter of the plate to centre up to the cover. Tighten the big threaded piece to stop it moving the fit to engine
Tony