What have you done to your DeLorean today?

[vps3922]

Thanks for the pic. The size of the puddle was way bigger and your oil looks greenish. Mine was clear, slightly golden. I guess that it would not look that clear after 30 years as I have the feeling that they are the original shocks.

[Farrar]

covered it.

[Mark D]

I installed a new set of door struts the other day. It was in the mid 30's so the passenger door would still not completely open all the way without a little help. The driver's door would open to about 90% quickly and then slowly creep up to fully open in about 5 seconds. Hopefully with the warm weather coming that problem will solve itself. Otherwise I'm thinking I might have to kick up the torsion bar settings a notch. The old struts were definitely blown and wouldn't hold the door up more than 3/4 of the way even in 70 deg weather.

Does anyone know how the doors should sit with the struts completely removed? Both doors felt really heavy and after removing the strut I could lower them by hand about 95 percent of the way down before the torsion bar finally had enough spring tension to stop the door from closing completely. I'd say I was maybe an inch or so off the latch. If I let go of the door even a few inches from the closed position it would slam shut. The torsion bar is providing some counterbalance but it seems like the strut is doing most of the work.

I don't want to over spring the torsion bars either and have the doors bouncing when they fully open...but I think the soft lift struts that have that little bit of damper at the end of the stroke that would help eliminate that issue.

It's 60 degrees out today so I'll have to try the doors again and see how how much the temperature change has helped the new struts.

[Jonathan]

Mark,

The way I understood it, the doors will hang like you have, only an inch or two from closed with the struts removed. Same goes for releasing it from a distance and seeing it slam shut. What you have described is normal to me. Also the 70 deg F rule of thumb for gauging how well the struts and torsion bars are working as a pair. My experience points to a considerable difference in door droop when the temperature drops. That being said, it is only about 10 deg C here today and with my car on the driveway this afternoon with the sun shining brightly, the doors are staying up pretty well. Somewhat similar to how your tire air pressure can go up a fair bit when sitting in the sun. Test your car indoors when the temp is 70 deg F (ideally).

[Mark D]

Thanks for the feedback Jonathan, it's good to know that my doors were acting normally when I had the struts removed.

I'm guessing that it was just was too cold for me to expect the struts to be able to lift the door fully without a little help. We've got some warm weather coming (finally) so it'll only get better from here.

[Kenny_Z]

I set up the final payment for next month. She'll be paid off 2 years and 1 month early.



After I buy a needed dishwasher and not needed but really wanted new tv (47 inch died, watching a crappy 35 inch picture tube in the meanwhile) I'll start saving up for a real garage. A real garage with a concrete floor and walls and a roof and lights. No more laying in the dirt. ...maybe I'll keep watching that crappy tv for a few more years.

[vwdmc16]

After many years I fianlly got my Delorean back onto a chassis Dyno, Kinda disapointing what the WHP is, this is a different brand dyno and yeah alot has happened in the 4 years since I dynoed before. This is a Dynocom 5000 dyno, Just compared a BMW I built at work on this dyno vs a known accurate Dynojet that it ran the day before. This dyno was about 7% lower than the DynoJet readings.

The Mustang Dyno that I ran my D on years ago gave a best of 114hp/ 145tq
The Dynocom gave a best of 105hp/ 156 tq
With the 7% correction a dyno jet "should" put out 112hp/ 167 tq

No idea where all this extra torque came from.

[papanoel]

Went to take the car out for a drive today and noticed the battery was dead after just 5 days. Noticed right away because the Door lights were off.

Hooked up the battery booster i have and immediately the cooling fans started running. The car has Herveys cooling fans installed. My dad and i disconnected the fan from the battery and then had to use my dads car to jump start.

we then reconnected the fan to the battery. fans would stay on. we looked at the fan control unit and fuses and everything seemed in order. shook the unit around and still fans were still going. so since we were in hurry my dad decied to give the unit a good whack. on the second whack fans turned off. we waited to see if the would come back on and they did. fans are now operating normally. clearly i need to get the unit replaced... lets see what hervey says...

[Tillsy]

clearly i need to get the unit replaced... lets see what hervey says...

We all know exactly what he'll say, word for word

[NightFlyer]

We all know exactly what he'll say, word for word

You can say that again