> 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.
It's certainly possible that some were deliberately built without the dowel
bolts, but I doubt that applies to my Stag. It's a very early car, the SPC I
have was clearly updated multiple times after my car was built and it still
lists the dowel pins. Of course there are lots of errors in it, so it's
possible this change was overlooked.
> 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.
The question would be whether any of these cars ever had a clutch job before you
saw them. Were there other bolts installed in the holes, or were they simply
empty ?
> 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.
That would work, I think, but it seems amazing to me that they wouldn't document
the procedure in the ROM or at least in a service note to dealers.
In any case, I believe the alignment is important and I've already made up some
dowel bolts for my Stag from drill rod. Don't know why it didn't occur to me to
bolt it up with dowels installed and then replace the dowels with ordinary
bolts, but now that I've got the dowel bolts made, I'm going to use them.
Having them in place eliminates any chance that it might slip later (as has
apparently happened to some TR3 owners who didn't have the dowels).
Thanks
Randall
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