Re: [doc] Cautionary tales

[Martin Gutkowski - DMC Ltd <martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chris

I'd be happy to sort out an article on the subject, although Rich H 
would be just as capable and I know he's done his. Interestingly if 
you've seen the old TAB's on our website (parts page), they actually 
came out of the car previously owned by our former technical 
advisor..... nuff said.

My "Lex" had only 2353 miles on it when I bought it, although it is an 
early car to my knowledge, the bolts were all the same throughout 
production. I nearly crashed mine soon after I started driving it and 
the cause was half a turn on one TAB. If the back suspension is loose in 
any way, the arse end becomes really "snappy". If you pile into a corner 
a bit enthusiastically, the car will tend towards understeer, but as the 
weight shifts on the rear wheels, the back end will suddenly snap into 
oversteer and you really feel the weight of the "pendulum".

A lot of people don't drive their Deloreans as hard as Dan or I do, but 
even on a fairly gentle jaunt down to the MOT station has yielded some 
alarming handling on some cars. I have yet to see a car with original 
TABs that didn't need them at the very least re-torqueing. Most are 
bent, some are rusted solid in the arm, and I know of one recently 
snapped on a car going over a speed bump (slowly!)

With properly set up suspension, the D is very easy to control and very 
hard to un-stick.

Martin

Chris Parnham wrote:

>I'm sure you're right about the trailing arm bolts Martin.
>
> The main reason I have kept quite about them is I have no personal
>experience. I bought two "Toby Bolts" years ago for my first car, but as
>I write, they are still sat on the shelf in my study. I guess I will
>have to seriously check them out on Herman, as it has done about 45K
>miles.
>
>I can't think that Lefty's will need touching, it's only done less than
>2,000 miles now and was a 83 car, put together properly and spent all
>its life in museums etc. 
>
>Its only laziness on my part, just another job to be addressed. 
>
>Perhaps you would like to do an article on the subject for Phil's first
>mag?
>
>Go on you folk, take Matins advice, get under your cars and check out
>those trailing arm bolts! 
>
> Regards
> 
>Chris P  DOC 2. 
>




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