Bolts

DeLorean Suspension

Rear suspension schematic. The trailing arm bolt is furthest to the left.

Trailing Arm Bolt (25 in schematic)

On a DeLorean there is one bolt on the rear suspension assembly that keeps the tire (or tyre) pointed in the right direction. If it fails I am told that the steering wheel has little affect upon keeping the car going where you point it. This would be bad.

When I had my car on a lift back in April at the tech session near Portland we found evidence that my trailing arm bolts were not in good shape and I thought about doing the replacement myself, but since I do not have a car lift, sliding around on the garage floor on my back trying to do this work seemed like it would be more than a little difficult. On the other hand, driving the car to Bellevue, Washington on a six hour journey while worrying about breaking my suspension had its drawback too. I have not often gone wrong by hiring an expert to perform specialty work, so I decided to have DMC Northwest do the work and I am glad that I did, although if the bolt had broken during the trip I am sure that my outlook would be different while I typed this with a pencil in my mouth from a hospital bed.

As you can see from the photo above one of the bolts was severly bent and near breaking. If I had known how close to breaking this bolt had been I doubt that I would have ever left my driveway, but would have found some way to get it on a lift nearer home.

The other suspension parts that were warped and bent (reinforcing plate & bushing) just went in the trash can at DMCNW, but these bent bolts will probably find a home somewhere on my garage wall as a reminder to check the new ones once in a while, and so that I don't forget that these machines are now about thirty years old and in need of significant care.

As sort of a side note, when I was decelerating on an off ramp in Portland, on my way to Bellevue, I heard a noise which I correctly diagnosed as a failing alternator bearing. I called ahead to make sure they had a new one at my destination and proceeded on the next day. The work went so quickly at DMCNW that I was able to have time for them to do other work and still get back to Portland on the same, long day.

The car now feels almost new to me, since the wiggle in the back from the bent bolt and worn out bushing is now gone and it runs much more smoothly after a little tuning. I was also able to see how many new parts are in stock nearby and buy a few items for those rainy days to come. Most of the deterioration that I am finding is coming from the hardening and breaking of rubber parts, but these are all available from DMC so it is just a matter of detecting the next probable failure and getting to it in advance. That is so easy to say. Right.