The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Checked the valve clearances today and they are all over the place, also there is a lot of lateral play in some of the rockers, so need to remove the rocker shaft and camshaft.

First question:

Checked the R.O.M. and the first step is to disconnect the battery (fair enough) and drain the coolant - including the engine block. Is this necessary? can't see any reason to, you don't have to on a Stag engine.

Second question:

Is it possible to "shim" the rockers to remove the play (assuming I don't find anything else wrong when I remove them)? TO be clear this is side to side play along the shaft, not twisting on the shaft.

Thanks

Roger

Had more time to "play" today, so managed to answer my own questions!.

Firstly draining the coolant, As soon as I started I realised that to remove the rockers and the camshaft you have to remove the head nuts, thus releasing pressure on the head gasket - this is why the R.O.M. say drain the coolant including the block. I wanted to drain and flush it anyway as there appeared to be little or no antifreeze in it.

The lateral play in the rockers can be evened out/ reduced by centralising the intermediate supports before tightening them up.

Managed to get acceptable clearances by swapping shims around and using a couple of spares I had from when I did my Stag.

Found the cam buckets (followers) on no.4 were rocking a lot in the bores. First thought is not printable but after removing them they appeared really worn. I dug out the best ones from a set left over from when I rebuilt the Stag heads, and hey presto minimal rocking. Not perfect but so much better than what was in there.

Got it all back together, fitted the club spark plug tubes as the originals were pretty misshapen, covered in sealant and full of oil, coolant flushed (including draining the block), refilled with antifreeze. Started up and it is much, much quieter - not sure if the clattering it was the worn followers, dodgy valve clearances or the lateral play in some of the rockers - probably a bit of each. Still clatters a bit but I didn't run up to temperature. Will have another tweek of the carbs and see if I can get a smoother idle.

Front suspension bushes next!

Roger