Delorean Rear Shock Dimensions

[Stanislav]

Hi everyone, I am currently in the process of slowly upgrading(restoring) my Delorean and would like to know if someone has the rear shock dimensions already measured. I am currently driving the car, and don't want to remove the rear shocks until I am ready to replace them with new ones. I swear by bilstein shocks from my experience with them over the years, and I need the compressed and fully extended length, as well as shock body length and rod length and diameter. I should be able to measure the rest by just reaching under the car. Thanks in advance.


Stan

[Rich]

If you get no measurements here then ask one of the vendors to send you a blown Girling from their scrap heap. Measure that.

You do know that you can buy replacement NOS rears from DMC for $75/pair? The back end will then ride like new. And they are guaranteed to fit. But they will not be Bilsteins, which is what you say you want.

Your inquiry suggests that you know how to get a Bilstein drop-in replacement pair - that somehow has correct shock valving for this car - after you get the dimensions of the OEM shocks? Or you can get an adjustable-valve Bilstein that fits? Let us know if there is success. I have not pulled up any shock crossover threads from the forum and am guessing that Bilstein is not already on any D shock availability list. If anybody has such info please correct me and inform Stan of same.

[Blackie]

If you get no measurements here then ask one of the vendors to send you a blown Girling from their scrap heap. Measure that.

You do know that you can buy replacement NOS rears from DMC for $75/pair? The back end will then ride like new. And they are guaranteed to fit. But they will not be Bilsteins, which is what you say you want.

Your inquiry suggests that you know how to get a Bilstein drop-in replacement pair - that somehow has correct shock valving for this car - after you get the dimensions of the OEM shocks? Or you can get an adjustable-valve Bilstein that fits? Let us know if there is success. I have not pulled up any shock crossover threads from the forum and am guessing that Bilstein is not already on any D shock availability list. If anybody has such info please correct me and inform Stan of same.

My car has yellow bilstien shocks which were fitted in 84, havent had any success sourcing a replacement set so going with DMC's shortly.

[Josh]

I have the NOS Girlings. Awesome price and decent quality for a budget shock. I strongly discourage using the locking collars on generic shocks.

[Stanislav]

My car has yellow bilstien shocks which were fitted in 84, havent had any success sourcing a replacement set so going with DMC's shortly.

Do you have part numbers for those?

[Stanislav]

If you get no measurements here then ask one of the vendors to send you a blown Girling from their scrap heap. Measure that.

You do know that you can buy replacement NOS rears from DMC for $75/pair? The back end will then ride like new. And they are guaranteed to fit. But they will not be Bilsteins, which is what you say you want.

Your inquiry suggests that you know how to get a Bilstein drop-in replacement pair - that somehow has correct shock valving for this car - after you get the dimensions of the OEM shocks? Or you can get an adjustable-valve Bilstein that fits? Let us know if there is success. I have not pulled up any shock crossover threads from the forum and am guessing that Bilstein is not already on any D shock availability list. If anybody has such info please correct me and inform Stan of same.

Thanks for the reply Rich. The NOS might be a good option for the price as they are monotubes(protech and spax are gas filled but because of adjustability the pistons are different). I love the way the bilsteins ride on my other cars though, very refined when valved properly. My OEM girlings have only 13k miles (what the car currently has) but are seizing and riding horrible. A fellow member has Bilstein on all four corners that he put a while ago and his part #'s are b46-1328 (front) and be5-6418 ho ( rear ). The fronts he has are for a ford F series truck and the rears are for a 90's-2004 ford mustang. Definitely need to be revalved to our specs. Bilstein charges $75 to revalve a shock to a custom spec (weight, spring rate, etc.) The rears for the mustang don't have a place for a collar so I assumed that they were modified to fit, which I definitely don't want to have to do.

I also found some bilsteins from the Lotus forums that a member there cross referenced for a Lotus esprit, but they are actually for a Nissan Xterra. I wonder if the lotus front shocks are the same as our cars? Bilstein Part # is 24-187824. Another option I am thinking about is rears from and early 90's porsche 911, The rear weight is very, very similar to ours and their spring rate is just a bit firmer, but the mounting collar is a few inches higher on the shock than ours. Bilstein Part Number: B46-1735-H2 or 24-017350. Once I have stock dimensions I will call bilstein, and they should be able to match up a shock perfectly, then revalve if necessary. That way i will know it will be perfect for my car and spring rate.
Thanks again.

[Bitsyncmaster]

OEM Girling:

Bottom bolt hole = 0.502"
Top shaft ridge to washer and rubber bushing is o.75"
Extended lenght CL (bolt) to CL (bushing) is 20.8"
Compressed (as far as my 170 lb weight would compress it) CL to CL is 16"
shaft dia = 0.425"
shock dia (lower case) = 1.575"
bottom plate ring CL to top of ring = 5.75"

So I'm not sure if the shock would compress further than what I mesured. It did pretty much stay put when I compressed it but I did not feel it bottom out like I could feel when it extended.

[Stanislav]

OEM Girling:

Bottom bolt hole = 0.502"
Top shaft ridge to washer and rubber bushing is o.75"
Extended lenght CL (bolt) to CL (bushing) is 20.8"
Compressed (as far as my 170 lb weight would compress it) CL to CL is 16"
shaft dia = 0.425"
shock dia (lower case) = 1.575"
bottom plate ring CL to top of ring = 5.75"

So I'm not sure if the shock would compress further than what I mesured. It did pretty much stay put when I compressed it but I did not feel it bottom out like I could feel when it extended.

That's perfect. Thanks Dave, and by the way, I'm loving your RPM relay ;-)

[Blackie]

Do you have part numbers for those?

I dont sorry. Once i pull them out i will see if there is anything stamped on them that could assist in tracking them down.

Cheers

[Stanislav]

Just wanted to keep everyone posted. I talked with Bilstein USA and they were very unknowledgeable, then I called Bilstein Germany, and on the german website I was able to find something called the Bilstein Klassik Catalogue and actually found shocks that they make specifically for the Delorean. Here is a link to it:

http://www.bilstein.de/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/kataloge/2013/de/BILSTEIN_KlassikProgramm_2013.pdf

They are special order only with a 14 week waiting period. The cheapest I could source them through was NEUSPEED here in the US for $860 for all 4. I found a german distributor but they wanted 1100 Euros for all 4. The problem is that Bilstein doesn't sell directly to customers, only distributors. The shock part numbers are 24-634038 for the front and 24-634045 for the rear.

[Rich]

...I was able to find something called the Bilstein Klassik Catalogue and actually found shocks that they make specifically for the Delorean.

That's quite a discovery. We can't have too many aftermarket parts options for our cars so this is a decent addition.

Thanks for the link.

An interesting note in the Bilstein catalog callout for the DMC-12 fitment says that those shocks will fit all DeLoreans, no matter whether or not they have a "flux compensator".

Who says Germans are lacking in their sense of humor?

[vwdmc16]

Nice, I have connection to order from distributors at cost so I might be able to get these. Ive been looking for a set of rear Bllies.

[Rich]

Do we know whether the Bilstein rears are made with the fixed spring collar perch (same as Girling OEMs) or whether they have the adjustable spring collar on them (same as nearly all others) that provides for rear ride height variation? At those prices I'd expect the latter.

[DMCMW Dave]

I've seen them on one car in here. Fixed height.


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