Re: [DML] Driver's side torsion bar update

["jrc2905" <jrc2905@xxxxxxx>]

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Cameron, Peter" <cameron@...> wrote:
>
> don't do it!
>  
> cryogenic annealing is done to force all of the carbon in the 
stainless into a phase known as martensite. When your welder heats 
the metal the carbon will come back out (google for a phase diagram 
of stainless steel, you will see this), and tend to precipitate near 
the boundary of the weld zone, you will end up with a region with a 
fairly high concentration of austenite, which is brittle and tends to 
crack. Sooner or later the bar will break.
>  
> The torsion bar is a piece of sophisticated engineering. A lot of 
expertise, time and money was spent to get it right, for good reason. 
Some guy who calls himself a 'metals engineer' and thinks he is 
looking at a $40 chunk of stainless rod is in way over his head.
>  
> Pete Cameron
> vin 3579

First if you are just going to be critical about this guy you can 
visit his web site. Find me someone who does more sophisticated 
welding than this guy on the East coast and I will go there. He did 
an examination of the break and suspects bar may have broken due to 
an impurity in the bar material at that spot, but was just making a 
comment.

Second if you do not think the driver' side torsion bar is an issue, 
try to buy one. Not an issue for you because yours in not broken? 
That part is at least 27 years old. The forces of time and stress, 
not to mention your door hinge rubbing against it are working against 
the useful life of this bar. I have been contacted buy numerous 
people who would buy a bar just to have one in case theirs breaks, so 
their car does not became an expensive paper weight. There are some 
people who have come into possession of some bars but they holding on 
to them until they can get their asking price of $2500.00.

Do a search on the manufacture of torsion bars and you find that the 
Delorean bar is not unique. The exact shape of the heads used on the 
Delorean torsion bar is the same head used on all torsion bars made 
today. You could probably buy a torsion made for something else today 
that looks identical to the Delorean torsion bar and is very 
inexpensive.

I only came here to find useful information that may help me with my 
broken torsion bar. I now have a used one and hope to have a repaired 
one soon and maybe have one made.
I think people here are making way too much out of this bar because 
of the way it was made. No manufacturer makes bars this way today and 
they make hundreds of thousands of them for critical applications. 
Would a replacement bar be as good, maybe not, would it work, sure. 
If it lost strength over time who cares if there was a replacement at 
reasonable cost. It is not like it is a suspension part that would 
cause you to crash if it failed. 





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