John Hervey Strikes again

[dn010]

Otherwise, after years of dicking around at parts counters and the like to see what part will fit my vehicle (not just for the DeLorean, but ALL of the cars I've owned), I'm more comfortable with approved parts built to spec rather than ones that just cross over. Especially if I, or the vendor who sold them to me, have to file something to make them fit.

The thing is, there are cross referenced parts which essentially are the same exact part. Take the blower motor resistor. I can cross reference it, go to the parts store and get essentially the same exact part as the one that would ship from DMCH. Same with an accumulator, tie rod end, and many other parts. Hoses I can go to the parts store and buy, belts, etc. Those don't need to be DMCH or vendor purchased. In my case, because I work on so many different vehicles, I just buy heater hose and fuel line in bulk.

Then you have parts like John is selling such as the shocks. These are not cross referenced parts. He goes out, finds a way to make parts fit the car and then calls it good, marks it up 50% and off we go. I highly doubt there is any real testing going into these shocks. You install them, say hey what a difference over my OEM shocks which are over 30 years old and blown since that's why you're shopping for new ones anyway and you're happy. What will happen when something fails causing damage? Will he tell you you're on your own? Fuel sender - yours is broken and a new one is only $99 from DAP - cheaper than the $150 one from DMCH! Maybe you don't realize your low fuel light no longer functions or you just don't care since you went so long with no gauge at all, so you're satisfied because now you can see your fuel level and it's nice and shiny stainless.

I understand some people cannot afford to get the correct part and that's a great thing about DAP is he can supply parts cheaply to get your car rolling, but at what cost in the end?

I've learned the hard way just how much cheap parts really end up costing...

[DMCVegas]

I may have a D160 if that was even a thing back then - it was whatever the highest amp alternator he offered was.

D150 was the highest. The big complaint I heard from lots of people was they didn't like the screeching it made. Now I can only speak for myself, all I ever heard was the whine, and had that problem with the water. But maybe I got lucky and never had it as bad as everyone else.

Again, John stopped selling that unit. I've no idea why, he just said something that only the D140 was all that anyone would ever need. I did speak with him once to comment on how well the thing worked. My truck had a battery, and I used my DeLorean to jump start it by running the cables into the battery compartment. Kept the RPMs up @ 2,500 to charge and then crank the truck, and my lights didn't hardly dim at all. John got kind of defensive suddenly telling me never to do that with the D150. It wasn't a big deal since the battery is what was providing the amps for the jump, but I never understood his response to all of that.

Has anybody ever seen a car that seems to eat alternators like a DeLorean?

One of the most popular modifications is to remove the hot air stove and piping. I believe that a side effect of this mod is that you remove a radiant heat shield from the exhaust manifold and subject the regulator assembly to additional heat. The cast iron manifold is less than 2" from the alternator body.

My OEM Motorola was melting after 6000 miles post stove removal. I replaced the alternator and fabbed an aluminum heat shield for the manifold. Time will tell!

My alternator was perfectly fine. I only swapped it out because I had planned on installing some additional accessories like fog lights, and at the time was using the car for wardriving at night. So I wanted to ensure I had plenty of power for the years to come. My original Motorola alternator went to Chris Spratt, and far as I know is still running perfectly fine on 16327 over in Wales where I believe it is now.

I don't know about heat problems though, as Volvo used the same setup and didn't have any problems. Let alone the aftermarket headers we now see from vendors that wrap around and place the right catalytic converter near the alternator. Maybe I'm just not following the correct groups, but I don't see all that many problems. Now I will say that despite upgrading to a 150 amp alternator, I never saw and increased brightness from my lights until I actually started cleaning ground connections, and all the light bulb and fuse sockets. Despite running in the desert heat, I also never had a problem with a melted fuse box either. But I did go through and clean all the electrical connections everywhere I could. And I also only use 800+ CCA batteries in my cars & trucks. That way I have quick starting, and a far less depleted battery for the alternator to recharge. But that's just my experiences.

[DMCVegas]

The thing is, there are cross referenced parts which essentially are the same exact part. Take the blower motor resistor. I can cross reference it, go to the parts store and get essentially the same exact part as the one that would ship from DMCH. Same with an accumulator, tie rod end, and many other parts. Hoses I can go to the parts store and buy, belts, etc. Those don't need to be DMCH or vendor purchased. In my case, because I work on so many different vehicles, I just buy heater hose and fuel line in bulk.

You are absolutely correct, and I agree with you. That should absolutely be clarified.

Certain off the shelf replacement parts I am totally fine with buying when I do in fact know that they are the same thing. Especially things you can buy in bulk like hoses. Take my A/C hoses for when I rebuild the system and switch to R-134a for instance: I'd rather just buy the crimping tools and the bulk barrier hose, and then just clean and re-use the adapters, fittings, & whatnot myself rather than sit around waiting on shipping and/or core-charges to be refunded. Plus the installation will be easier, AND I get a set of tools I can keep. Coolant hoses for the water pump that have to be formed? I'm hitting up a vendor. Generic hoses for the rest of the system? Unless it's a kit with unlisted parts I might not be aware of needing, I'll buy bulk.

And hoses are a fantastic example. The best example being that hose that connects the Clutch M/C to the Reservoir. I always advocate to buy from our vendors as often as possible. But I'm also not going to be a hypocrite either. x10 the price for a simple OEM rubber hose versus what NAPA had in stock, plus shipping, plus the delay in shipping as well for what was at the time my only car. I couldn't do it.

But that leads us to this:

Then you have parts like John is selling such as the shocks. These are not cross referenced parts. He goes out, finds a way to make parts fit the car and then calls it good, marks it up 50% and off we go. I highly doubt there is any real testing going into these shocks. You install them, say hey what a difference over my OEM shocks which are over 30 years old and blown since that's why you're shopping for new ones anyway and you're happy. What will happen when something fails causing damage? Will he tell you you're on your own? Fuel sender - yours is broken and a new one is only $99 from DAP - cheaper than the $150 one from DMCH! Maybe you don't realize your low fuel light no longer functions or you just don't care since you went so long with no gauge at all, so you're satisfied because now you can see your fuel level and it's nice and shiny stainless.

I understand some people cannot afford to get the correct part and that's a great thing about DAP is he can supply parts cheaply to get your car rolling, but at what cost in the end?

I've learned the hard way just how much cheap parts really end up costing...

Total 100% agreement. Both about the quality, and the noticeable improvement that "justifies" the cheaper parts where they done work as well as OEM, but merely better than broken OEM. I had the same experience as well with a Brake M/C. Long story short, the seals on top for the reservoir were leaking on mine. Brakes were fine however. DMCH at the time said they had no rebuild kits, nor seals for what I needed. So hearing that John had the "cross over" part available, I purchased it from him.

Now the cross-over part installed with no issues, and stopped the car no problem. I had no qualms there. BUT my brakes didn't feel the same. Something just wasn't right with the way the car would slow down after that. I just felt like it handled differently when slowing down or stopping. Rest of the car was fine, but not that, and I just couldn't ever put my finger on it. Not long after I got another car, drove the DeLorean less, and then put it into storage. Come to find out later on the Brake Master Cylinders are NOT the same! DMC-specific parts were build differently internally to have a totally different bias for braking from the weight distribution of the car. So cross-over parts might fit, but they definitely do not perform the same. That is why I always recommend to buy from our vendors whenever possible.

I myself don't want to seem like I'm just dumping on solely John here. I once spent almost an hour at AutoZone going through their books to find matching brake pads so I could get them cheaper and quicker than a vendor. Yes they fit, but they squealed worse than a city bus! I then just bought a kit from P.J Grady and was done with it. Not only was it a waste of time going cheap with the 45 minutes of pouring through books and inspecting parts when I could have been done in minutes with a few mouse clicks. But I then had to do two brake jobs to get rid of the squealers, AND ended up spending twice as much. Most of all was that Grady's kit sent me the shims and springs I wasn't able to get in the store. So buying OEM from a Vendor first would have saved me cash and lots of time. But that's the thing: For those specialized parts, buy OEM instead of cross-reference.

[Lwanmtr]

I've only bought a couple little things from him (radio connector and fir trees) and didnt have any real issues with the service...My only real issue was that when I called him to talk about the order he wouldnt stop telling me how I need to buy suspension and brake stuff I need for my car from him and not DMC...and wouldnt stop.

I decided when I first got mine that I wouldn't go cheap on any parts, specially ones that are related to reliability and safety.

[FABombjoy]

I don't know about heat problems though, as Volvo used the same setup and didn't have any problems.

Not exactly the same setup. The Greenbook shows a few differences:

DMC:
-Alternator mounted on RH side of engine
-Alternator faces rear of car (integrated fan pushes against airflow while driving)
-Iron manifold behind alternator, stainless muffler in front of alternator

Volvo:
-Alternator on LH side of engine (would be driver side on DMC)
-Alternator faces front (integrate fan pulls along with airflow)
-Iron manifold behind, radiator in front

Fitting a reverse-direction fan might help. Lots of googleable info on mounting alternators backwards against normal airflow.

[dn010]

Not exactly the same setup. The Greenbook shows a few differences:

DMC:
-Alternator mounted on RH side of engine
-Alternator faces rear of car (integrated fan pushes against airflow while driving)
-Iron manifold behind alternator, stainless muffler in front of alternator

Volvo:
-Alternator on LH side of engine (would be driver side on DMC)
-Alternator faces front (integrate fan pulls along with airflow)
-Iron manifold behind, radiator in front

Fitting a reverse-direction fan might help. Lots of googleable info on mounting alternators backwards against normal airflow.

Also, if my memory is fine, Volvo alternators were mounted lower, down towards the lower crankcase, not as close to the cast iron manifold. At least, this is how it was on my 780.

[SS Spoiler]

Still haven't heard anything from Josh at DPI about my
$2500.00 deposit on the core block I sent to him 6 mo. ago.


sorry about the highjack, just somebody gettn' pissed.....

[DMCVegas]

I'm still not 100% sold on this. Different iterations of the PRV that came out have mounted the alternator in various places, depending upon the needs of the application. Save for little things like the cross over pipe, everything else for the DMC-12 installation was off the shelf parts already available, including the bracket and it's existing location with proximity to the manifolds. The installation we have being shared as well with other cars, including Alpine with a rear-facing engine. Although unlike Alpine, not to mention Volvos, Renaults, and Peugeots, we have engine covers with vents instead of sealed hoods. So the engine compartment temperatures don't get as hot.

However, unlike those other cars, not many of us use our DeLoreans as Daily Drivers. Even with Hervey's D150 and the problems with it getting wet, the thing still ran fine. Granted though I also put it into service as a daily driver. So with the exception of two, month-long business trips in 5 years of DD use, I rarely failed to drive the car every single day. That is in comparison to most other people who have comparatively insanely long gaps of time between starting their engines. Meaning that the batteries drain more, and those alternators as a result always have a much heavier load placed on them every single time because they're always having to recharge a depleted battery. By contrast I would just turn the key for a quick crank to get going, and the alternator barely had anything to recharge. That also doesn't take into consideration the power surges from jump starts either that could have damaged the units.

If the exhaust system were such a threat to the alternator, I would concede that a more important problem would be the additional radiant heat coming off of the muffler. That would be twice the heat surrounding the unit. But even with that kind of consideration is the fact that I still would daily my car in triple-digit Vegas heat, including getting stuck in traffic on a regular basis. If heat was the problem, then I should have seen these problems.

[DMCMW Dave]

Still haven't heard anything from Josh at DPI about my
$2500.00 deposit on the core block I sent to him 6 mo. ago.


sorry about the highjack, just somebody gettn' pissed.....

Makes that [new] engine seem pretty expensive. . . .

[81dmc]

4 years ago, I bought Hervey's full carpet set and shocks due to their fair price. Awful quality.


So, anyone know where I can buy a fair-priced shock set?