Second gear roll pin

[tgraham]

Look what I pulled out of my 5-speed gearbox over the weekend. Yikes! That looks ready-to-fail at any moment.

Believe it or not, it was shifting just fine when I last drove the car, I took it apart simply to investigate everything since it was already out of the car. Bear in mind that this car had ~42k on it when I bought it...

All better now, with a new reinforced roll pin!

Travis

[David T]

As long as you have it apart make sure you secure the nuts on the end of the shafts well. That is the other weak point that causes trouble in the 5-speeds. Clean the threads well, use Lock-Tite, torque while you have the transmission shifted into 2 gears at the same time to lock the transmission, and stake the nuts. I assume you are replacing the clutch? With 42K miles it doesn't pay to put the old clutch and bearings back in.
David Teitelbaum

[Grover]

Where did you stumble upon replacement internal parts for the transmission?

[David T]

You can pick up roll pins at any decent die-makers supply or large hardware supply or machinist's supply house, they are not that hard to find. You may have to grind them to the length required. To make it stronger you stick a smaller one inside the bigger one after you install the big one. The pins get bent from forcing shifts because the clutch is not fully disengaging. That happens because the plastic line from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder expands under pressure when hot, giving you less motion at the clutch slave. So, if you haven't already replaced the plastic hose with a braided steel line, what are you waiting for? The early Lotus's also have this problem. Lotus figured it out and the later (V-8's) came from the factory with the braided steel clutch line.
David Teitelbaum

[tgraham]

Where did you stumble upon replacement internal parts for the transmission

IMO, it's a lot easier/faster/cheaper to just buy everything all at once from a vendor. I bought this stuff from DMC Midwest. Dave also stocks the non-DeLorean-specific bits that are desirable (double roll pin and Speedi-Sleeves). I think the new pin was all of ~$1... and a LOT of labor to get to it :) The sleeves are definitely worthwhile just to further bulletproof the transmission.

I didn't mention it initially, but I replaced the plastic clutch line when I bought the car... that means it went over 42k on the plastic line (which probably explains the nearly-sheered roll pin). The shaft end nuts were fine on this one - on my (other) project car, they were starting to back off!

Travis

[ccurzio]

Can someone point to a link where I can find and buy the reinforced roll pin? Everything on the delorean.com store says "new old stock part".

Thankfully, I've already got the replacement steel clutch line.

[David T]

Look for McMaster or Grainger or any large machinist supply house. It will not make the minimum order so you are probably best off just going to one of the Delorean vendors.
David Teitelbaum

[Nicholas R]

Can someone point to a link where I can find and buy the reinforced roll pin? Everything on the delorean.com store says "new old stock part".

Thankfully, I've already got the replacement steel clutch line.

I'd just call DMCMW.

[jawn101]

Midwest, right! I mistakenly said DPNW in another thread... I buy far too many parts :-D

[ccurzio]

Yep, just got off the phone with DMCMW a few minutes ago and got set up with everything I need, including an O-ring and some gaskets.

Thanks, guys.

[outatym2001]

Shameless plug for DeLorean Motor Company Northwest in Bellevue, Washington.
That’s where I got my 5 speed manual transmission removed due to the 2nd gear roll pin being eaten alive by my driving my DeLorean nearly every day of the year plus it needed a new throw-out bearing since it was failing after 70,000 miles but the clutch disc still had a little life left in it.
They installed a new roll pin and reinforced it like tgraham explains above. And they cleaned and applied Loctite to the nuts just like David T explains above.
At the same time I purchased a K1016DP “bulletproof” transmission coupler for $199.95 from
http://www.delorean-parts.com/
Their transmission coupler has splines around the entire 360 degrees inside it. The stock originals don’t.

[Loach43]

Looks like the coupler is sold out :(

[jawn101]

I talked to Toby and Misty about this coupler not too long ago - less than a month, I'd say. Their opinion on it (and this is coming from the folks who make the $200 replacement part, remember) is that the original coupler is just fine unless you are putting WAY more HP through the stock transmission. If you're using the stock engine, even with light to medium performance modifications, the stock coupler will be just fine. If you've done an engine swap and are trying to mate a far more powerful engine to the stock transmission, it would be a good idea to add.

[David T]

If you are considering the coupler the weak point will still be the shafts with the holes in it for the roll pins. The better upgrade would be the one piece input shaft that does not require any coupler. Overkill with the PRV.
David Teitelbaum

[Loach43]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering if that would be one of those 'while I'm in there' parts to get. In my case, no.