Hi Walt, The last time we had a DeLorean get together in New Jersey Rob pointed out to me that I had my rods pointing up which was wrong. We changed them on the spot. Hope that helps. Dave Sontos vin 02573 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Walter Coe" <Whalt@xxxx> To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 11:24 PM Subject: [DML] door strut questions (up or down?) > We just had a cool New Years Day DeLorean party at my place. Three (and one > half) DeLoreans were there. (woo-hoo!) > > Questions: > What is the proper orientation of the door struts? Does the rod belong on > the top or the bottom or does it matter? > > I looked at photos of Rob Grady's green DeLorean, and his has the rods > pointing down. I suppose that if anyone knows then he would. > > My car has the rods pointing down too and are leaking oil. They have been > leaking ever since I had the car (almost 2 years). I assume that if my rods > were pointing up, then the oil would stay in the bottom and not leak out. > But then instead of leaking oil, I suppose they would loose their charge > faster. Oil is thicker than the nitrogen charge, so if it is a choice > between leaking one or the other then it would be better to leak the thick > oil because it would drain a lot slower than the thin nitrogen. > > My struts are also probably over-charged. We took one off today to see how > far the door would open without the strut. It didn't. Instead it rested on > the latches. Since I hear that there should be about 4" gap between the > bottom of the door and the door sill, then at least this tells me that my > torsion bar isn't over-torqued. But with the strut in place, I have to hold > on to the door or else goes up with such force that it will bounce at the > top of travel. I have already determined that I have 'cheap' struts that do > not slow down at the end of travel. Better struts have a dampening > mechanism to stop this. Mine are Lift-o-mat brand. By the way, the weath er > was cold -- definitely worthy of wearing a coat. In hot Florida weather the > door has a greater tendancy to pop open. > > The other two guys (Jim Sleeth & Randy Stribling)'s DeLoreans had their > struts mounted 'upside down' compared to mine such that the rods were > pointing up. Jim said that his struts are fairly new, but are not as strong > as they were when he first put them on. My theory is that his struts lost > some of their charge due to leaking nitrogen instead of oil. > > Does anyone have an official answer? > > Walt Tampa, FL > > > > To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: > moderator@xxxx > > To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > >