Angle drive broke in half??

[Jonathan]

Anyone ever see one fail like this before?

Angle drive 2.jpg

I had my first drive of the year the other day and it made it about 4 miles to get gas and then another 1 mile and then quit. I got home later and took the wheel off and found that it had broken right in half. The other chunk is still in the hub nut, held in with that snap ring it comes with.

I figure I got 4+ seasons out of it and at least 8,000 miles. No idea why it failed like that. It was one of the ones that you could remove and replace the cable, but that's not going to matter now because the base is what got damaged.

What are people doing now for replacements? Same old same old? Some last a long time and some just don't?

Here is what it looked like when I put it in. One piece speedo cable went in at the time too.

IMG_1887.jpg

[dmcnc]

The repros are crimped on...terrible design. I'd go with an original rebuild. Mine hasn't failed since I got it 35k miles ago.

[David T]

It isn't "broke in half". It just popped apart. Clean the parts up, lubricate. and carefully reassemble. The cover should hammer into place. If you don't want to do that, all of the vendors sell angle drives. Some are better than others. The one PJ Grady sells claims to be "bulletproof". Do you have the bracket that supports the lower cable? If you don't, all of the weight of the cable and movement goes directly to the angle drive. It is a bent wire bracket that supports the lower cable. It is NOT shown in the parts manual 5-1-1 but it is available from the Delorean vendors.

[Jason]

I had one fail like that as I was installing it. The replacement lasted something like 10-20k miles and then came apart the same way. So I installed a Speedbox with a hall effect sensor mounted on the transmission. Hopefully that will last a lot longer.

[CFI]

SpeedBox is the way to go: http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?17...light=SpeedBox

[Delorean Industries]

We use the speedbox units on every car we build. They are solid reliable units and allow you to delete the angle drive completely from the spindle. This can be done by purchasing a replacement shaft and nut kit for the passenger side.

[Jonathan]

Do you think it is at all feasible to repair the one I have? Like David mentioned. I can’t imagine this poorly designed, crimped fitting is going to stay together for long if I figure out how to smush it back together. I’d just as soon not waste my time loosening up that hub nut just to install something that’s already broken. I don’t have a new replacement currently on hand.

[David T]

It's worth a try at least. Worst case, you have to throw it away which you are ready to do now. That crimp won't hold it together if you don't have the support bracket to take the strain off of the angle drive.

[dmcnc]

Do you think it is at all feasible to repair the one I have? Like David mentioned. I can’t imagine this poorly designed, crimped fitting is going to stay together for long if I figure out how to smush it back together. I’d just as soon not waste my time loosening up that hub nut just to install something that’s already broken. I don’t have a new replacement currently on hand.

This guy used two pins on the repro to keep it from falling apart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o6ifkxPNJc
(around minute 11)

[Jonathan]

Just an update to this... I ended up smooshing these two halves back together and reinstalling it that way. Well, whaddyaknow, it works. And pretty much the bang on accuracy it had before, which is to say no more than 1 or 2% different from what the GPS says.

I did go ahead and order a replacement from DeLoGO and the thing just would not cooperate. The needle bounced around a lot, like fluttered. Figured I just had something loose. Nope. Went back in there probably three or four times to redo or retighten the dust cap, lower speedo cable connection at the back of the angle drive or to try a different short cable inside the angle drive. None of it mattered. The fluttering seemed to get a little better once everything was retightened, but the accuracy was abysmal. Speedo was counting at 20% low compared to known distances or speeds or GPS measurements. Total garbage product and when I advised Aaran what was happening, he said it was just a poor product. No, that's not right. This one specifically is bad, and while yes, they are garbage overall, this one was more so wrong. Shit customer service unfortunately, which is why I put my broken/not broken old one back in.

Got about 200+ miles on it so far and it still seems fine. "New" speedo gets to go in the "brand new but doesn't fit/work" garbage box that's got more things in it than I wish it did.