How to maintain your Delorean for less than $500 a year and put 10,000 miles on it

[stevedmc]

A few miles ago my alternator belt popped. Fortunately I carry spare belts.

It took me about 20 minutes to pull over, change the belt, and wash my hands.

Needless to say, I will be purchasing a new spare belt sometime today.

My odometer currently reads 54,783.

[Michael Babb]

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but yesterday someone pointed out to me that my AC belt was rubbing on one of my water pump hoses. There is a tiny nick on the driver side hose that isn't leaking but I am concerned about it.

Yesterday, before leaving Darren's house, I cleaned up the hose and tightly wrapped the hose with Gorilla tape. I also repositioned the hose mount so the hose if farther from the belt. My plan today is to pickup a spare driver side coolant hose to carry with me the rest of the trip just in-case.

That was me! I was actually reading through this to see how you were doing on your trip, and hoping I did not hear that you had additional hose problems.

Good luck with the rest of the drive, and thanks for helping me out with the flasher module.

[stevedmc]

That was me! I was actually reading through this to see how you were doing on your trip, and hoping I did not hear that you had additional hose problems.

Good luck with the rest of the drive, and thanks for helping me out with the flasher module.

No problem man. I'm glad I could help out.

Thanks for pointing out the coolant hose too. I stopped in Lexington, KY to purchase some cross referenced hoses yesterday and I also stocked up on connectors, hand cleaner, hose clamps, and I purchased an alternator belt to replace the one I used yesterday. So far the car is holding up pretty dang good.

I may not even change out the hose when I get home if it survives the trip. I've got 800 more miles and 12 hours to see what happens.

[tyb323]

It is a tad ironic that some of the more vocal critics of carburetion readily admit only driving their DeLoreans a couple hundred miles per year (some critics don't even have a running DeLorean, if they have a DeLorean at all). Empirical evidence and the historical record show that carbureted DeLoreans are regularly driven thousands of miles per year trouble free.

No one is saying that other forms of fuel delivery can't do the same -- only that carburetion has proven in the real world to be far better than some of its more vocal critics claim.

Now I don't want to say this too loudly, as my hideously unreliable Delorean is only 30 miles away from me and may decide to be tricky again BUT!

Hot start issue year one, Grady fixed it, gave kjet a once over, 5 years later and thousands of miles, no (kjet) problems to speak of! A well maintained kjet can run just as well as a carb without smelling like a go kart. But to all the carb haters,:don't even start, their carbs can get them places with less maintenance and trouble than a kjet would if things went south(like that homage there, Steve Rice?)

[stevedmc]

As a courtesy for K-Jetters who have never seen them but only felt them while groping around underneath their intake manifolds, this is what the distributor cap and slave cylinder look like (bleeder screw is facing the camera with a rubber tip on the end):

[stevedmc]

Bill Robertson reports that even though the sun has already dropped below the horizon he just replaced his cap & rotor for next weekend's 1,500 mile trip to/from New York, including replacing a distributor cap boot with a small split in it. Took about 15 minutes (boot was obstreperous to go on).

[stevedmc]

Steve Rice and his carburetor are indeed headed south, on interstate 55 that is.

[SamHill]

Steve Rice and his carburetor are indeed headed south, on interstate 55 that is.

Steve, did you note what mileage was on your odo before your trip?

[stevedmc]

I think it's documented somewhere on this thread. Odometer is currently at 55,316.

[stevedmc]

Sometimes, Steve Rice hates carburetors.