The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi everyone,
My sprint needs its front right chassis leg repaired or replaced. An old battery must 've leaked at one point and it is now in very poor condition.
I am wondering wether the engine needs to come out for this job to be done and at what kind of price?
Thanks
Tom

Tom

Yes engine out I'm afraid, its not part of the chassis leg, front support for subframe - get in touch with Alun has he has repair kits for this area. There are some pictures on the forum regarding this repair.


James sprint and Daves 1850 were suffering from the same problem viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27969&start=225#p279120

paul

The kit was actually designed to assist repairs to this area with the engine in place, you repair the section closest to the engine first from the inside of the wheel arch and work your way outwards. It is easier with the engine out though!

The kit is a little crude and needs some fettling in places, but it's a very good starting point...

Wow, there actually is repair kit for this particular area? That's great!
Alun do you have one of those left in stock?
If it can be done without engine out it might even not cost a fortune to have it done by a pro.

Thanks Paul i did have a look a the NWL topic today but did not find pics of the part after repair, maybe James hasnt got to it yet.

Tom

Some pictures of the said parts - bottom left hand corner third one in from the left the paper states subframe mount.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27969&start=285#p280706

Paul

Oh i see, thanks Paul.
Any idea of what that kind of job costs to be done? I'm not very good with arc welding and have never done any mig welding and i don't want to try it on such vital parts!

I have one kit left for the RHS of the car.

I would stress it is intended as a good 'starter' for the home repairer. A 'professional' welder may use the quality of the kit as an excuse for making a bad job of a perceived difficult repair. I would show the kit to a welder and let them know what it is, stress it will need a fettle, and let them decide whether they want to use it or work from scratch...

I'll try dig out some photos of when I did mine, engine in situ using Aluns kit.

Close up shot

The alternative is to use a section of inner wing from a scrap car. I had to have this done on my 1850 a couple of years back and Alun kndly supplied me with an inner wing which yielded a suitable donor section. It was a "subframe off" job but with the help of an engine support beam the engine/transmission assmbly could be left in situ which kept labour costs down.

So is it absolutley necessary to get the engine out if focusing on the subframe mount? As anyone managed this before?
I just got in touch with a welder i'll see what he thinks about the job and decide what to do next. If he needs the engine out then i might have a closer look at changing the inner wing as toledo man said.

Given the amount of rot you'll likely uncover during the work you'll find it far easier with the engine out and subframe off. I can pretty much guarantee you'll find more if you leave it in! It's a good opportunity to change the mounting bushes as well!

It is not absolutely necessary, no, but as Mark says above, it may prove to be the best solution as the rot will be more extensive than first apparent. Looking at your photo, it may also have spread into the inner front valance that the box section fixes to also, in which case engine out would certainly help with access. If you have space to do it, bite the bullet...

Well this was how I did it engine in situ, although my rot didn't look quite as bad as yours does initially.
I dropped the sub frame bolts out and slackened everything else off I thought might restrict things.
The reason I left it in was to aid alignment so I could keep trying it back in as I went, the gearbox chassis also needed replacing so this helped that alignment as well. Yes eventually the engine will come out, at present I'm short on storage.






Opening it up gave me a decision to make over the tube it was in good condition at the top be was weak towards the bottom. I cleaned it up and built up weld around the small area it was thin, once the bottom plate had been located to its final position.





Cutting out the inner leg and marking it up was easier once the bottom plate was in. All the bottom edge was holed.



Then once marked up cut out and weld in. I had to make some adjustments to how it curved down, nothing difficult.






Then seal it up in the arch with another piece in the kit. The end I left open as I want to get in plenty of rust protection.






It could be done in any order you just need to determine where to start to keep a reference for it as you go. From this stage you could then replace the top (I didn't need it) and put a new tube in, either once the bottom plate was in leaving the top to reference against also.

Well you get the idea!

You should do a write up for the magazine with those photo's Trevor...