Randall Young wrote:
> > I do appreciate the necessity for the bolts to be a good fit for
> > the location of the gearbox input shaft and have been known
> > to both, preach the necessity to always use the dowel
> > bolts, and to rant and rave about rank amateurs who have
> > charged others huge sums of money to change a clutch and
> > then ruined a gearbox by not using the dowels.
>
> I guess that would include the "professional" mechanic that I
> had to the job on my Stag a couple years ago. I intend to tell
> the shop owner about it next time I see him, as he's a "friend
> of a friend".
Randall, have you considered that the dowel bolts were never there in the
first place? While I did read that you had multiple bell housing bolts
missing, I have good reason to believe that the dowel bolts were never
present on a great many Triumphs.
This subject of the dowel pins / bolts piqued my interest some time ago when
the Buckeye TR site mentioned the use of dowels and also when Gunst first
introduced his bearing kit, with the inclusion of the dowels. It only
occured to me some time afterword, why they were including the dowels, as it
was obvious my 1972 TR6 had these two crucial bolts.
It seems that somewhere in between 1973 and early 1974, that the dowel pins
were deleted from TR6 production. My reasoning? My 1972 TR6 has the dowel
bolts, and through a recent discussion/visit with Richard Good, I know his
1970 car has the dowel bolts. I also have a TR250 drivetrain and a 1972 TR6
drivetrain in storage, and both had the dowel bolts. My former 1974 TR6
lacked dowel bolts, a one-owner 1974 TR6 I know of also lacks the dowel
bolts, a customer's 1976 TR6 that recently had a clutch job lacked the dowel
bolts (has them installed now though), and the three additional 74-76
engine/gearbox combinations I have sitting in storage all lack the dowel
bolts.
Now if we were to assume the simplist explanation, based on what I have
observed, the only reasonable assumption is that Triumph removed the dowel
bolts from TR6 production. I would bet that who ever assembled the engine
and gearboxes at the factory, still aligned the bell housing to the rear
engine plate using a master jig or two master dowel bolts. When one engine
and gearbox combo was bolted together, the alignment jig or the dowel
bolts/pins were removed and went to the next engine and gearbox pairing.
Kai
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Kai M. Radicke
Wishbone Classics
* British Car Parts *
www.wbclassics.com
Ph: 215.945.7250
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