Location: Taylors SC
Posts: 5,326
My VIN: (former)05429
Club(s): (DMWC) (DCUK)
The o-ring sits in a groove in the stub axle. Like most O-rings, it's not squished, the flange actually slides over the o-ring to make the seal. If you put in a second one you will probably not be able to get the flange in without beating it, and in the process you will tear one or both of the o-rings making the leak worse. Use the correct O-ring, just one per side.
Dave S
DMC Midwest - retired but helping
Greenville SC
Alex Abdalla
6575
Late 1981, Grey 5-speed, 75k miles. Built 11/11/81
A stock-look with modern, reliable technology.
A full restoration with step-by-step "what I did" is in progress at www.delorean6575revisited.blogspot.com
Alex Abdalla
6575
Late 1981, Grey 5-speed, 75k miles. Built 11/11/81
A stock-look with modern, reliable technology.
A full restoration with step-by-step "what I did" is in progress at www.delorean6575revisited.blogspot.com
OK. Did the job yesterday and here's what I discovered:
-Pulled out the O-ring at the end of the stub axle and I was expecting to find an issue there but everything looked just fine. No noticeable damage to the O-ring but I replaced it with a new one anyways.
-As I'm putting the axle flange back on, as it goes on I notice that there's really no squish resistance as it goes all the way in.
-I take my pin punch to make sure all of the holes are lined up and ready to reinsert the split pin, but I'm not lined up. I have to back the axle flange out just a bit in order to get the holes to line up. There's no question the distance that I had to back the flange out was at a bare minimum the width of the O-ring, if it was even up against it to begin with.
-Thinking I'm going to run into the same issue as before, I took some RTV and really loaded it up on the end of the flange hoping to help close the gap between the flange and the o-ring. Time will tell but after driving 15 miles since completing the job, there are no leaks as of yet and that is an improvement so far. Just to try the fit, I did double up the o-ring and like Dave said, zero chance of that working. Impossible to get it to fit right.
I'm anticipating having another problem sooner than later so in the meantime I'm going to track down a fatter o-ring. I'm wondering if this is another case of our cars being as identical as a snowflake and maybe for some reason the tolerance on my car in this one area is simply different. Doesn't make sense, but???? I do know there had been a history of the same on my car on the driver's side because the first time I did this there was a lot of RTV in place. Zero issues on the passenger's side and I can't remember if I had to do the whole "back off the flange just a bit to get the holes to line up" routine back when I did it.
I'll report back for better or worse.
Alex Abdalla
6575
Late 1981, Grey 5-speed, 75k miles. Built 11/11/81
A stock-look with modern, reliable technology.
A full restoration with step-by-step "what I did" is in progress at www.delorean6575revisited.blogspot.com
Alex Abdalla
6575
Late 1981, Grey 5-speed, 75k miles. Built 11/11/81
A stock-look with modern, reliable technology.
A full restoration with step-by-step "what I did" is in progress at www.delorean6575revisited.blogspot.com