Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in PKZIP's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, August 30th, 2008
12:08 pm	Back on the road Lot of work and a lot of pics (which I hope to get around to posting at some point), but D is finally back on the road! The official finish date was Wednesday, August 20th. Here's a quick rundown of work that was done: VOD (valley of death) repair/preventative maintenance which includes: 1) cleaned out 27 years of dirt, dust and grime from the valley and sealed it with por15. 2) replaced all interior coolant hoses (y-pipe, heater return, water pump lines) 3) replaced heater control valve and lines 4) metal clamp to tighten down heat shield on crossover pipe to fix a rattle 5) new distributor cap and rotor 6) new ignition coil 7) new spark plugs gaped correctly (0.024 vs the existing ones of 0.034") 8) new spark plug lines 9) new o-rings for, intake, y-pipe, cold start valve, oil filler, etc 10) new gaskets for timing covers, air horn, air fuel mixture housing 11) Cleaned and detailed a wide variety of engine components, such as timing covers, warm up regulator, air fuel mixture housing, air intake, throttle spool bracket and linkage and a ton of others. 12) discovered the frequency valve was not functioning therefore rendering the lambda (emission) system useless. Bad connector was cleaned activating the valve. This required adjusting the air-fuel mixture to get proper idle (along with tightening down the air idle speed brass screws cause they are supposed to be tight!) 13) used a dwell meter to correctly set the air fuel mixture. Idle now at 800RPM and the engine purs. Car has more pickup and doesn't seem to have to be nursed up to 60 MPH anymore. 14) replaced all vacuum lines with Hervey's blue silicon lines With the VOD work done, we turned our attention to some other bits: 15) Replaced Front and rear speakers. Front: Eclipse SE-8235, Rear: Eclipse SE-8405. Very nice sound now. Looking into a better head unit and eventual subwoofer with amp. 16) replaced lights in headlight switch and hazard switch to blue and red LEDs respectively. VERY NICE cosmetic upgrade. 17) Finally installed a dead pedal! Creature comfort requirement! Now I can rest my left foot somewhere while driving. I'm sure there's a few other things in there that I forgot. There was quite a lot done. Took the car down to a get-together for my friend's daughter's 1st b-day. Performed flawless. Drive up was another matter. Had trouble getting started at one point, but after priming the pump several times it seemed to fix the problem. Probably means I have a slight pressure leak at the accumulator. Will check in on this. It was the first time I drove the car AS a car and not a contraption for which I had to keep an eye on the gauges. (though I still checked often) Temp held steady below fan activation temperature at highway speeds and AC worked ok. Think I need to add more R134A Taking a break from working on the D before doing the last of the intended work: installation of Toby TABs and replacement of trailing arm hardware. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 26th, 2008
10:14 am	Rights of Passage It seems as though every used DeLorean owner will, at some point, end up being towed for one reason or another. It's a rights of passage that one must go through in their DeLorean owning experience. Well, yesterday was that day for me. Myself and a friend had decided to take the DeLorean to a mutual friend's graduation party. We made it 30 miles outside town before I started to notice the sound of a belt squealing. At first, I wasn't too alarmed, it was not continous and happened in a short quick burst. Perhaps, I thought, the belt was showing its age and it was time to be replaced. Just to be safe, I kept a close eye on the volt meter and temperature gauge, ready to pull off the road should either of them fluctuate. At around 38 miles the belt squealing was coming in rapid bursts and suddenly my friend noticed there was a lot of steam coming from the rear. I glanced at my temp gauge and saw it jump to nearly 3/4 the max. I immediately pulled off the road and shut the engine down. I noted, thankfully, that the temperature gauge had not pinned itself at the max before turning the engine off and it only existed in a temperature range greater than 220 for maybe 5 - 10 seconds before cutting the engine. At this point a very nice gentleman named Larry pulled up behind us. He had slowed a bit to let us pass him to confirm his suspicion that it was indeed a DeLorean he had seen riding on the road. He had owned a variety of classic cars over the year and was very understanding and sympathetic to our plight. I'm thankful he stopped because it seems not too many people these days do. Larry told us that the closest exit, the Mifflintown exit, was just over the rise, maybe half a mile up the road and suggested we try to make it there before calling AAA, just so we could get off the main highway. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge and make sure that you kill the engine before it runs hot was the name of the game. While the engine was cooling down before attempting this, we looked in the engine compartment to see perhaps where the leak was coming from. Steam billowed out from the the intake area, but no liquid leak could be seen. Coolant was dripping from the main coolant lines and had splattered over the rear engine compartment and I also saw some liquid coolant on the lower portion of the intake manifold. My immediate thought was of coolant collecting in the valley of death and how it might start corroding down there. Once the engine cooled we fired the D up and she started like a champ. Got her rolling along the side of the road with no protests whatsoever. Engine sounded find and ran like it always had. Made the top of the hill before the temperature started past the 220 mark and had to cut the engine. At the crest of the hill we again looked in the engine compartment but could not see the source of the steam. Once the engine had cooled again, she fired right up and without protest. Put it in drive to get some momentum and then threw it in neutral to coast to the bottom of the hill and to the end of the exit ramp. Once there, we noticed the state police station was a tenth of a mile from the ramp. Larry offered us a ride to the front door where we asked if it would be possible to bring the car to their lot for tow so that we could get it off the road. Also, the security of the lot would be nice in case we had to wait a long time for a tow. Being a Sunday, there was only one man at the service desk and I'm sorry to say I have forgotten his name. Larry seemed to know several of the normal guys that work there and was very friendly with the man. The man at the service desk told us that a tow company called "Geedy's" existed 2 miles up the road and that he was a AAA provider. He suggested we call him first before bringing the car down just in case they would interpret the car being in a safe location as a lack of needing immediate road side assistance. I voiced my concern that other DeLorean owners always said to make sure the two company used a flatbed to tow the D, since many trucks can accidentally damage the front crumple zone when towing in a traditional fashion. Larry suggested they may have a rollback, a type of flatbed that lowers to let the vehicle drive up on it. When I called, Geedy's did have a rollback and said they could be at to me in half an hour. GREAT NEWS! We spent the next half hour talking with Larry and catching some sun during the sunny day. Larry was on his way to Harrisburg, but with not particular goal in mind. He had nowhere specific he needed to be. (And I'm thankful he was out and about. God works in some interesting ways.) He was thinking of heading to the Boalsburg car show with one of his classics, but mentioned he may not since he was getting too old to be doing the car shows anymore, though he loved to work with the old cars. To pass the time, I offered to give him a tour of the D and let him sit in it. He said "Sure why not? Didn't have any specific plans for the day. This way if someone asks me what I did I can tell them I sat in a DeLorean!" By the time the tour was done, Geedy's tow truck had shown up. He lowered the ramp and we drove the DeLorean right up it and locked it in position. We said goodbye to Larry and got into the tow truck cab for the ride back to the State College. (AAA Gold membership is the bomb) On the way back, I began thinking. I had replaced the main coolant lines throughout most of the car, but had not replaced the 4 smaller ones on the water pump itself. These would require entering the valley of death, something I was not ready for at the time. The steam did seem to bellow from below the intake manifold so I'm fairly certain the problem lays within. The ironic thing about the whole situation is I have been budgeting to do the Valley of Death repair this summer, starting next month. But it seems I will have to move the time table up. D on the rollback: Once back in state college we got the DeLorean down off the rollback in the main lot of an apartment complex that exists behind my friend's house where I keep the DeLorean and do all the work. We thanked the two man and then drove D under her own power and engine still sounding fine the final block to my friend's house and stowed her in the garage. I'll be doing my own repair work on her and thus maintaining I service 33.3% of the DeLoreans in State College. My friend and I then grabbed a quick lunch, grabbed the 92 Buick Century, and an additional friend before heading down to the graduation party. It was an absolute blast at the party and I was very thankful to see my graduating friend again. A number of the other guests were excited at the prospect of seeing the DeLorean and there was a fair amount of teasing about the car breaking down and general sarcasm that I owned an "invisible DeLorean" that no one had ever seen. To those who where there who HAD seen the car, I pointed out they had seen it and the response that came back was "they wouldn't know a car from a boat, let alone a DeLorean." So it seems when D is back on the road I'm making a second visit =) It would also seem I am now about to embark upon another of the great miles stones and Right of Passage of DeLorean ownership: the repair/recover of the Valley of Death. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
11:14 am	Armrest recovery Like other DeLorean owners out there, my driver's side rear armrest had broken off at some point in the past. I'd set it inside its housing, but whenever the door was closed it would pop out and it would rattle whenever I was driving. Succinctly, it was screaming for repair. In order to do this repair it is necessary to remove the rear driver side interior panel so that the arm rest may be reconnected to it. Removing this panel is a task in and of itself. Fortunately (or unfortunately would be a more accurate term) the driver side panel was already cracked open, presumably to access the rear speaker, but in such as way as to break the think plastic along its edge that holds it to the frame. How I'm going to fix this I'm still puzzling over. At any rate, the current condition of the panel made its removal quite easy. A couple of seatbelt bolts and 3 screws and it was extricated (with some gentle bending). As can be seen in this picture, some of the plastic trim of the arm rest was still attached to the panel. Each of these pieces was being held on via one of those pesky rivet-nuts. After some pounding with some small flat heads and twisting with pliers, each of the rivet-nuts was out and all the pieces were freed from the panel. In order to reconnect these, I would need some type of glue. I was thinking along the lines of a 2-part epoxy since they work so much better than super glue. After perusing my local Advance Auto Parts store I came across the "Permatex Epoxy: PermaPoxy™ 5 Minute Plastic Weld, syringe" 2-part epoxy for almost all plastics aside the polystyrene model kit kind. Realizing this stuff could be somewhat messy, I decided I would have to remove the upholstery from the arm rest in order to glue the plastic parts well. This of course means I would need an upholstery glue as well to secure the removed vinyl to the armrest. So I picked up a can of heavy duty 3M headliner adhesive (says it work on upholstery too.) The manner in which the armrest is secured to the side panel is 2-fold. First, there is the plastic trim that was riveted to the panel, and second there are two, 90-degree elbow brackets that are riveted to the armrest and then secured to the side panel by screws from the backside of the panel. One of these 90-degree elbow brackets had popped off its rivet nuts. Not having a rivet gun, and not being a fan of them in the first place, I decided I would reattach the bracket to the armrest via small bolts. In the process I would remove the rivet nuts holding the second elbow bracket to the armrest and replace them with small bolts as well. This of course also requires removal of the armrest vinyl, so it's good thing all around I bought that 3M adhesive. Working from the back of the armrest forward, I began to undo the vinyl. It came off easily enough to reveal the padded foam beneath. The foam still looked good, but it too would have to be removed to allow gluing of the plastic pieces and replacement of the elbow brackets. The foam tore a little around the edges leaving a little residue behind on the arm rest plastic, but fortunately it was only glued around the edges and once freed around the edge it was easily pulled back. You can see in the picture here how the foam is only attached around the edges. working my way gently forward, I was able to reveal the rivet nuts used for the elbow brackets. After much coaxing as with the side panel, the rivet nuts came out and I was able to replace them with small bolts. Here's a shot of the backside of the armrest with the elbow brackets reattached. I love the bolts so much more than the rivet nuts. I tightened them real good and the elbow joints were actually tighter than the rivet nuts. (at least, after 25 year of being attached to them). Next up I could turn my attention to the plastic bits that needed to be glued. Here's a picture of all the mess: All of that jigsaw had to be glued together and in the proper place. Wasn't too difficult to figure out their placement, but how to glue each piece securely was a little tricky. The 2-part epoxy was quite pliable at first, but quickly thickens making it a time-sensitive operation. After the first round of gluing pieces (edge to edge) I placed a second coat of the epoxy glue on the surfaces of all the cracks just to make doubly sure everything was secure. Here is the result: Next up was to glue the vinyl back on the armrest. The 3M adhesive has several different nozzle spray widths and the most narrow was good enough to be used in this small area. Coating first the armrest plastic edge and then the foam (and waiting for the glue to become tacky) I glued the foam down first, or at least held it in place enough so that it would not easily come free. My plan was to glue the vinyl quickly over top and use that to hold the foam in the proper place so that the vinyl would still be nice and puffy from the foam. This worked out rather well. I sprayed the vinyl flap edges and plastic armrest areas and pulled and smoothed the vinyl as best I could, holding the flaps in place with clothes pins. (Trust me, the more of these you have for this the better. I was actually short a few) Had to keep these on a while. The glue dries slowly and becomes rubbery so the vinyl will slowly pull away from where you have it held with the clothespins if you aren't careful. The end result was a nice piece of work: Next on the agenda was reconnecting the armrest to the side panel. All the rivet nuts I pulled out to free the plastic pieces were replaced with the same bolts used to hold the armrest elbow brackets on. The armrest elbow brackets themselves are secured to the side panel from behind via screws. The problem is one of the screw holes was busted wide open from when the armrest was first broken off. I realized I would need a washer larger than the hole to hold the screw and elbow bracket to the side panel, but I didn't want to use just any old washer for fear of having he hold become bigger then next time someone used the rest to get out of the car. The answer once again revealed itself in the form of my now very trusty friend, the computer expansion slot bracket. With two holes in one of these it would serve as a washer for both screws and also anchor one screw to the other reinforcing the entire armrest. Check out my friend: With the screws in place and the bolts as well the armrest was firmly reattached to the side panel. It's a very tight and nice fit with no play in it, better than the passenger side, which I now realize is also breaking loose and will need to be refit. That side's panel is still intact though, and will require much effort to remove. In the mean time, I'll ponder how to fix the edge of the driver side panel so it too is firmly attached to the car's body and result in a full restoration of the driver side panel/armrest area. Here's a final shot: On a side note, I noticed the speaker behind this panel was in a very dilapidated state. Probably the original speakers. The cones were failing and disconnected from the frame. I also noticed a single white wire laying inside connected to nothing. This has me worried. It's coming from the engine compartment, but I can't figure out what it's for. And as promised, a shot of the headlight bypass relay installed on the right driver side knee pad (behind it anyway) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 3rd, 2007
4:37 pm	Bleeder hose kit Quick update on stuff that was done half a month ago. One of the kits purchased from Toby is the coolant system bleeder kit, which comprises both a bleeding system for the radiator and for the water pump. The radiator bleeding system involved cutting in half the return line running from the top of the radiator to the coolant pipe on the passenger side and installing a T-tap screw valve. I thought I had a picture of this, but I've seem to have lost it. The other kit involved running a bleeding line from the water pump to the heater control valve line on the upper portion of the coolant bottle. The line is spliced into the heater control valve line via a T-tap and a handled valve is placed on the line to turn the bleeding portion of the system on and off. I'm told this was done because certain engine trouble can only be diagnosed properly when the coolant system is not self bleeding. Here's a pic of the handled valve running alongside the coolant bottle. You can see the t-tap on the line in the upper left of the image. I've also fixed the Driver's side armrest and will have pics of that on the next update. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
10:09 am	The front-end recall Apparently it was quickly made evident during the initial shipments of DeLoreans that hitting a really bad pot-hole or inadvertently jumping onto a curb could cause some damage and/or weakening of the chassis front "tuning-fork" crumple tube area. To remedy this a number of different recalls were made. Judging by the reinforced u-shaped brackets already on the car, D had seen about 2/3 of the updates. The final update, consisting of large metal plates and redesigned u-shaped brackets for the stabilizer bar, had not been installed. Fortunately this kit can be purchased through DMCH and installed by the end-user. Before getting started, let's take a look at the initial situation under the front-end: This is sort of an upside-down, cross side view of D's underside. Towards the top of the image you can see the new fans I installed... in an update that I am only now realizing I never got around to posting about. I'll have to post pics of that at some point. Long story short: 2 fans bought from Sherco Automotive here: http://www.sherco-auto.com/fan.htm Someone on DMC talk has suggested these fans as possible replacements and the 1 or 2 individuals who tried them said they worked ok, not great, but ok. Together, they draw ~30A upon start-up and ~14A Steady State. This is half of what the stock fans drew while moving nearly the same amount of CFM of air. Bought the 12" size. They fit the height of the radiator perfectly, but the plastic mounting clips that came with the fan were too short, so I had to cut, drill and shape some computer expansion port brackets to act as extenders. Lock nuts and washers hold it all together and it is performing well at the moment. Keeps the engine cool at idle in 85-90F weather. (haven't tried it in hotter yet since the AC isn't working) Anyway, back to the task at hand. At the top are the new cooling fans easing the load on the 25 year old wiring. Across the center of the image you can see the stabilizer bar that runs from one lower control arm to the other. If we take a close look at where this bar mounts to the crumple tube we see this: Here you can see how the stabilizer bar runs through a rubber bushing, which is mounted underneath a metal u-shaped bracket. This picture also shows how one of the bolts (towards the top of the image) has already been removed by yours, truely. When the bolts are removed, this is what they look like: Each bolt had a lock washer and square, reinforcement washer which fit snugly inside the edges of the u-shaped brackets, which can be seen here: In the right of the image you can see 2 metal, u-shaped brackets. One fits on top of the other and then the bolts with square washers ride on top of the assembly. This seems to be part of the first recall that was done. To the left hand side you can see a flat metal spacer. This goes between the crumple tube and the stabilizer bar bushing. To install the new front-end recall kit, the bolts on the sides of the radiator mounting brackets must be removed and the new flat crumple tube plates placed between the crumple tube and the radiator mounting bracket. Then, the redesigned/stronger u-shaped bracket and bolts, along with the original lock washers and metal spacer are installed, pretty much in the same configuration as before. Here's a shot of all the new hardware installed: You can see the big, black metal plates that act to reinforce the crumple tube area. The stabilizer bar is mounted to them with new u-shaped brackets and new, shiny gold bolts. That sounded really straight forward and easy didn't it? Too bad it wasn't. Sure the theory is simple and the end result nice, but there's a number of demons in this kit I haven't heard anyone talk about. In my opinion, this kit needs some tweaking to be fully suitable for the average end-user. First, They ask that you mount the new metal plates between the crumple tube and radiator mounting brackets. The radiator mounting brackets are already form-fitted to the crumple tube without the brackets in place. This requires a copious amount of prying on the bracket to get the metal plate to fit. In fact, I had to remove the bracket at one point and use a vice to the correct bend I needed. I admit this is to be expected, though, since this is an update designed to be installed AFTER the car left the factory. Secondly, however (and this I can't accept), All the holes in the black metal plates were drilled just slightly off. It seemed whenever I got the plate lined up right, one of the mounting holes did not line up with the existing bolts holes and there was no sweet spot. I had to take both plates into the Aerospace machine shop and drills the holes larger (about 0.5" diameter) just to guarantee clearance enough for the bolts. Even then, I had to use a rounded file to file the side radiator mounting bracket bolt hold oblong so those bolts could clear. Thirdly, no one ever mentions the fact that the passenger side radiator mounting bracket bolt is blocked by the lower coolant pipe coming from the radiator. As such, the "best" way (and I mean the way that risks damage to the frame and radiator the least) is to drain your coolant from this area, remove the coolant pipe, gain access to the bold and remove it, then install the front-end recall plate. However, I didn't want to drain coolant again and since I have the original plastic radiator I didn't want to risk cracking it removing the coolant pipe. So I used a thin wrench to start unscrewing the bolt. As the bolt moved out, a little bit of play in the mounting bracket resulted. I removed the upper radiator mounting brackets as well as the horns and bolts to the lower mounting brackets and THEN had enough play all around to get the bolt out and install the front-end recall plate. Putting it all back together now that the plate was installed was even more difficult because everything was so tight to begin with. It involved a lot of angling the lower radiator mounting bracket bolt just right to get it started, then screw it in a little, adjust the radiator and other mounting brackets, tighten the bolt a little further and then repeat the process. Even then, the front-end recall plate put such a tight fit on the lower radiator mounting brackets that I had to push, pry and pull the brackets into place, quickly screw in one of the top-side lower radiator mounting bracket bolts (WITHOUT the horn present) to keep in in place. I could then concentrate on screwing in the other top-side bolt with the horn mounting bracket in place, but swiveled out to the side for space. Once that bolt was in place and holding the radiator mounting bracket and horn mounting bracket, I could then remove the first screw, swing the horn mounting bracket around and use the bolt to hold both the horn and radiator mounting brackets in place. I probably should also mention I had to completely disassemble the horn mounting bracket (both parts and remove the horn) to have enough space to get everything (and then rebuild the horn mount piece by piece) Undoubtedly, that paragraph sounds very confusing and is largely there for my reference when I need to remember how I did this. Succinctly, it was like one giant puzzle where one bolt had to be put into place without all the stuff it's supposed to hold together just so certain pieces would remain fixed allowing a second bolt to be put into place that WOULD hold everything together. Then the first bolt could be removed and the remaining pieces it's supposed to hold in place could be installed. So, has anyone else had this issue with the front-end recall or do they simply have someone else install it? Did I miss something on the installation that is supposed to make this easier? I seriously think the kit is not machined correctly and also needs to come with more complete instructions. Suffice to say, the kit is installed, the front end "feels" a little tighter and now I feel safer driving around. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 16th, 2007
1:09 pm	Kits Bought a number of kits to install and shore up the mechanical end of things with the DeLorean. First up is the engine coolant air bleeder kits from DeLorean Parts Northwest. This is really two kits in one. It has a selection of T-Taps and clamps to perform two major functions. The first is it allows you to splice a coolant line onto the Bleed screw of the water pump and run it to the heater valve line coming off the top of the coolant bottle. This will allow air trapped in the system that reaches the water pump to be safely diverted out of the system. In addition, the spliced line has a handle valve that can be used to shut off the flow of air to the coolant bottle. Apparently diagnosis of engine trouble can be made more problematic if the spliced line is in place and allowing air to be bled. Therefore, the valve was included in this kit. When you change your coolant, open the valve and bleed the air out of the system. Then Close the valve for any possible future trouble shooting. The second function is to allow air to be bled out of the radiator. The DeLorean radiator is located in the front of the car and does not have a cap on it. (and if it did it would be terribly difficult to reach) There is, however, a smaller coolant return line at the top right of the radiator that feeds into the main return line at the bottom right. This smaller line can be used to vent trapped radiator air. A t-tap with a handle is included, which is spliced into the smaller return line. When the car is running, the handle on the t-tap is opened and air is bled out of the system. When coolant starts to leak through, close the valve and you are assured of no air in the radiator. The second kit is the front end recall kit: This was actually an official recall done while the car was still being manufactured. The metal plates are placed between the front stabilizer bar and the chassis crumple tubes shoring up the front and make it tougher. Somehow, this particular DeLorean missed the recall and now it's going to be fixed. The third kit is the headlight switch bypass kit: The headlight switch operates by allowing the full current flow of the front lighting harness to run through it. This can cause the switch to overheat, melt and potentially start an electrical fire. Even worse, your headlight switch gets ruined. From what I understand, the switch has been successfully remanufactured by DMC Houston, but why buy a new one when you can save the old one? The kit essentially splices a relay into the circuit. Now, instead of the headlight switch turning the lights on, it turns the relay on, which then takes the full brunt of the current; something a relay is designed to do. Thus, the headlight switch is saved. The last and final kit is the Toby TAB (Trailing Arm Bolt) upgrade kit: Ah yes, the Toby Tab. Made out of aerospace quality inconel, a metal well suited to extreme operating environments like jet turbine engines, combustion chambers and DeLorean suspensions. These guys will replace the existing TABs and ensure I won't have to worry about the stresses on the trailing arms. The original bolts have long been known to be under engineered and can have a tendency to bend or even break. The bending can cause your alignment to go out of spec and result in bad tire wear and difficult driving. A break can cause your tire to lean inward and go up under the car. Upgraded replacement bolts have been available for a number of years, but the history and superb engineering of the Toby TAB make it my choice for the upgrade. These babies have a 12 point head and even have "Toby TAB" etched into the head. Which would be easier to see if my camera didn't insist on focusing at a distance. Oh well, you get the idea. So the next couple weeks will be spent installing these kits. (Comment on this)
Friday, June 15th, 2007
10:48 am	Reparing High note horn Some time ago I noticed that the horn wasn't sounding "full." In fact, I noticed the horn sound was only coming from one side of the car. Very odd when you consider there are two horns. So I pulled both horns off and swapped them to test and see if maybe the wiring to the horns was bad. and, However, only one horn continued to sound and it was the same one as before. The horn that was bad was the high note horn located on the drivers side. The low note horn is thusly located on the passenger side. I removed the horn and found a wealth of corrosion on it. I decided to open it up and dissect it; after all it was already broken so how could I break it some more? What you see here is the disassembled horn resting on aluminum foil to catch all the rust falling out. The top center piece is the plastic horn portion. There's nothing mechanically sophisticated to it; it's merely a shaped plastic piece designed to resonate. To the lower right is what I call the diaphragm. It's a thin piece of flexible metal with a metal bar bolted to it via a long metal post. To the lower left is the main housing with the electrical wiring and some form of central lever. After messing around with it, I figure out how it works and it's actually quite amusing/novel/deceptively simple. Inside the main housing you will find two wire spools: These are tightly wound coils of wire wrapped around metal posts set into a green plastic support. When the horn is assembled, the diaphragm sits beneath the main housing with the metal bar oriented to rest just above both of these wire coils. This plastic molded horn section sits beneath the diaphragm. When the horn switch is pressed, current flows through the wire spools generating a magnetic field, which pulls the metal bar upwards. Because the metal diaphragm is flexible, it quite easily bends upward as the magnetic field pulls on the metal bar. When the diaphragm flexes far enough, the post securing the metal bar to the diagram will make contact with a central plastic lever breaking the path to ground and thus allowing the diaphragm to fall back into its resting position. Once the diaphragm falls back, though, the central post no longer touches the lever in the center of of the main housing and the circuit is restored, once again allowing the generation of a magnetic field. The result is the rather rapid pulsation of the diaphragm as the circuit is continuously broken and restored. This rapid movement of the diaphragm is amplified by the plastic horn section, which is then what you hear. So what was wrong with the horn? Two main problems: 1) Corrosion. So much rust existed on both the positive and negative terminal leads that a connection could not be established. These were cleaned easily enough with a file. 2) In between each section of the horn there once existed a gasket. This gasket was intended to provide JUST enough distance between the wire coils and the metal bar while still allowing the horn sections to be tightly screwed together. (ok, they also prevent water from getting inside) Due to 25 years of elements, the gaskets are all but gone. As they slowly deteriorated the distance between the metal coils and the metal bar gradually closed, the metal post touched the central lever and the circuit was stuck open. To correct this, I slightly loosened a few of the screws. (since Horn gaskets aren't exactly a common auto part. Usually you just buy the whole horn) Once a few of the screws were loosened, the distance was enough to allow a closed circuit and now the horn works! There seems to be an adjustment screw, however, that has a spring attached and goes through the central lever. It may be possible to adjust this and allow the screws to be tightened further. Allbeit, both horns sound like they are on their last legs, but they should suffice now while I work on fixing more serious mechanical issues. (Comment on this)
10:03 am	Somewhat back I've been gone for such a while because once I was done with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, it was time to actually write my thesis. Spent the whole of the spring semester writing it up and thankfully it is now finished, accepted and I've since graduated with my Masters in Nuclear Engineering. I took a day off after the graduation ceremony and now I'm right back to work on the PhD stuff. So I've been a little busy on that end so updates are going to be far between. However, this does not mean that work on the DeLorean has stopped. No sir! The summer months have just begun and now so too has the work. To start things off, we took off the windshield trim panels, stripped them, primed and painted them with Krylon Semi-flat black. Once that was done, we reinstalled the trim panels and finally glued down the windshield weatherstripping, which now allows the driver-side door to close a little cleaner. The overall affect is quite aesthetically pleasing. Also got under the car to check out the trailing arm bolts. First up was removing the dust shields, which were in a major pain because they were each held on by 3 bolts that had rusted nearly tight. One had to be cut through and 3 other broke during removal. Needless to say these were all replaced with stainless steel bolts, washers and nuts. Inspection of the trailing arms bolts yielded some interesting results. First off, the bolts are not the same type. One is a metric and the other a standard. The standard is on the driver's side, which is where space between the frame and automatic transmission is at a premium so it doesn't surprise me that this is the original standard bolt. (or at least appears to be) The drivers side TAB has 3 shims and is set up in the standard way as depicted in the workshop manuals. The three shims are resting on one end right up against trailing arm itself, and against a large metal washer sitting atop the bushing on the other end. So you have trailing arm, 3 shims, and large washer. The passenger side has an unusual setup. It goes Trailing arm, larger washer, 2 shims, larger washer. It's almost as though a large washer was used instead of a shim. Since they are quite obviously not the 12 point Toby Tabs, I've ordered a set and will replace all the trailing arm bolt hardware sans the bushings. The bushings are not cracked or split. I've also ordered the front end recall kit. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 15th, 2007
1:44 pm	Hiatus To any and all who are wondering, I'm currently on hiatus from updating my journal as I'm busy saving the land of Hyrule in "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" for the Gamecube. I should be back with updates as soon as the land of Hyrule is once again safe. Suffice to say, during the winter months it's a little too cold to work in the garage so work on the DeLorean will be much more sparse. However, the downtime will give me ample opportunity to plan the future work. Currently, I anticipate rebuilding the ignition system (new coil, wires, plugs, rotor and distributor) and new vacuum lines. I also should take a look at the charcoal canister as I think that's where the stink in the engine compartment is coming from. On a short note: Took "D" to a Christmas party and she got lots of attention. She's also still running fine since getting the transmission up and running correctly. Let's hope things only get better. And somebody remind me to check out the TABs when the weather gets warmer. Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
6:17 pm	Breaking out the BIG guns Part 2 As you'll recall, in order to place the governor circuit boards into the Radioshack project box they needed to be desoldered from the existing wiring harness. In order to accomplish this, the harness needed to be freed from the plastic mount that slides into the side of the mini-alternator. The mini-alternator mounts alongside the transimission and measures the RPM of the car. The electrical signal generated from this mini-alternator it was the governor uses to determine when to shift. So three things need to be taken care of here: 1) The harness needed to be removed from the plastic mount alongside the mini-alternator 2) The harness needed to be soldered to a connector that could mate to the Radio Shack project box. 3) A new set of cables would need to run from the mini-alternator up to the Radio Shack project box so the circuit could still read the signal being sent and know when to shift. Removing the harness from the plastic mount was a difficult task. The cable was firmly entrenched in the plastic mount by a ton of what appeared to be hot glue. I've talked to a another guy about this and he didn't recall any glue in his mount. (granted this was just one other individual who has also had the nerve to move his governor circuit to the engine compartment) I did have some pictures of this, but in the end all it really looked like was a bunch of whitish pieces of plastic laying all over the table from slowly digging the stuff out. Eventually, however, the cable came free and I could then solder it into a mating connector. However, I decided to run the new line for the alternator signal first and do all the soldering at once. Recall, originally the governor circuit boards were right inside the mini-alternator. The boards read the signal from it through three small wire leads that ran from the circuit board to the alternator itself as seen in this pic: In the dead center of the boards you'll see three metal lines that run from the boards to a white rectangle in the mini-alternator housing. These are the lines that carry the RPM signal to the circuit. With the circuit now in the engine compartment I would have to run some lines from the mini-alternator to the engine compartment. The black cable along the left is the main wiring harness to which the boards were soldered and you will see it runs into a plastic mount that has been slid into the side of the mini-alternator. This is where all that hot glue was. I cut a length of some three conductor wire from a Radio Shack spool that would run the length from under the transmission to the engine compartment. I fed the line through the plastic mount (now devoid of hot glue) and affixed a rubber grommit. Initially I planned to just solder the wire to the mini alternator, but at the last minute decided to solder a socket to the wire that would allow quickly disconnecting the line. The result can be seen here: You can see the platic mount that I've passed the cable through. This slides into the side of the alternator. The brown plug is from the end of an old CPU fan that I had. This connector allows the line to be quickly connected to the three metal lines for the RPM signal and quickly disconnected if needed. Recall, the governor harness is an octopus-like construction of wires that looks like this: all three of the lines run under the car along the same path. As such, with one end of the RPM signal line mounted in the mini-alternator, I ran the other side up to the black block top, securing it with electrical tape and zip ties to the other black cable line (which goes to the microswitch) for ease of manipulation. And yes, I know that's hard to follow using only words. The point is, I ran the other end of the new RPM line up to the engine comparment area where the desoldered harness line resided. I then soldered the new RPM line and harness line into a connector, which would mate with the Radio Shack project box. I then enclosed it all in a small project box of its own to protect it from the elements: You will see along the left side the black cable line that originally ran into the plastic mount of the mini alternator. Taped to it is the new, gray, RPM line. All of these were soldered into a connector of 11 pins. 8 for the original harness line and 3 for the RPM signal Line. Connecting the new cable line to the Radio Shack project box made a snug and stable connection. All lines still showed proper current flow using the multimeter... Or did they? You see, rewiring everything like this was usefull because it would allow easier access to the circuit if it needed more work. It would also allow easily inserting a digital PIC in the future. But the fact remained that the problem that had caused the overheating of the transistor that prompted all of this had still not been found. While checking the lines after soldering the connector, I started to notice something odd. I was getting continuity across pins that I should not. I hadn't noticed this before because it's very difficult to check proper continuity of a component when it's part of a larger circuit. But now the circuit had been removed and was housed by its lonesome in a new box. This also allowed easy reading of pins on the cable harness. I was reading contuinity across several pins that I now knew I should NOT because the circuit couldn't possibly be interfering with my reading. Specifically, I was reading a near short, about 20 ohms resistance, across one of the solenoid ground lines to the solenoid power line. This near short existed on the solenoid line that controlled the melted transistor! There should be an infinite resistance reading across these two pins, otherwise you are applying power to both the power and ground lines of the solenoid. No wonder the transistor overheated, it was cought right in the middle of the short! The question, though, was where was the short occuring? The most reasonable guess was along the wiring harness line somewhere between the harness block top that mounts in the engine compartment and the circuit. As per suggestion of fellows on the mailing list, I looked for possible melted areas along the cable. I found one teeny tiny melted spot and reasoned I had finally found the source of all the trouble. However, when I gently cut open the harness jacket and looked at the wires inside, all was fine! I decided to cut open the jacked just below the wiring harness block top. I then cut the ground line for the offending solenoid and tested the pins again. This time there was no short. The only way this could be, however, is if the short existed north of where I cut the line and any further north was inside the solid plastic molded harness block top! Checking the pins on top of the block top showed the short existed there! So let me spell this out in no uncertain terms: The problem with the transmission existed because one of the transitors, which controls the shifting solenoids, melted and blew out, thus causing a loss of first gear. It blew out because of a short on the solenoid line. Shorts of this nature, according to everyone I talked to on the mailing list, result from melted areas of the harness line or a short on the circuit board or a blown component or a bad solenoid. In our case, it was not a bad solenoid. It was not a short in a melted area of the harness line. It was not a bad component. It was BAD wiring in the solid, molded black wiring harness block top. In an area that I have no idea how it could be subjected to damage. The only thing I can think of was that the wiring harness was bad when it was purchased, like a manufacturing defect. So I need to figure out where this thing came from and let them know. Further investigations revealed there was also a short on the kickdown switch ground line pin to the power pin! (which may explain some scortch marks on the circuit boards.) Again, this was also found to be in the block top! In order to fix this, the block top needed to be bypassed. In the case of the solenoid ground line, I soldered a wire to the cut ground line inside of the hardness jacket and directly connected it to the solenoid cable line at the top of the block top. The kickdown switch, however, was another matter. I soldered a line to that just like the solenoid, but the only way to properly connect it to where it was supposed to go was to cut the mating connector line in the engine compartment and crimp the two together. I then created a splint for where the harnesses connect to the block top and wrapped it up tight to help prevent any additional problems in the future. The result: The red line is running to the top of the block where the solenoid harness line connects. It connects to the harness via screws/stand-offs holding each eye-hole connector of the solenoid harness to contacts on the block. I simply removed the screw/stand off holding the solenoid ground line to the bad block top contact and rebolted it to the red wire. (very hard to describe unless you've seen it and messed with it.) You can also see the electrical tape holding the harness lines solidly to a popsicle stick splint, preventing further movement and possibly more line damage in the block. With all this sorted out, the harness was assembled and remounted in the engine compartment. Here are some shots of it mounted: You can see it in the back corner of the engine comparment. The black Radio Shack project box is mounted to the side pontoon via bolts that also hold the vacuum canistor in place. Now, there was other work that needed to be done before she could be test driven to ensure everything was working correctly and I will post about that work in the future. Long story short, we wanted to drive her home for thanksgiving, got ten miles out and lost third gear. We hooked up the break out box to see what was happening and it showed that we would shift into third gear and then immediately shift down into second. We were pretty sure this was a noisy signal from the RPM line and the mini-alternator and could be fixed quick. We decided to take the Buick home, to be safe (and got cought in traffic from an accident and rush hour traffic and spent 4+ hours getting home instead of 2 and a half hours, but that's another story). After thanksgiving we checked the connection of the RPM line in the mini-alternator and, sure enough, found one of the metal pins on the alternator was loose. A very secure soldering job was done and the car taken for a test drive. She performed beautifully. Took her for another test drive last night and still no problems. To be sure of things, we want to get an hour long test drive going since it took quite a while for the original transistor to blow. So far, though, it's really nice having first gear. I'm confident about this because I actually found a problem that perfectly describes why the original problem existed and fixed it. Next post: The work that was done between finishing this and going for a test drive! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
4:00 pm	Breaking out the BIG guns To start things off, we took a little trip out to radioshack and purchased parts we knew we were going to need, such as male and female connectors, fuses and fuse holders, etc. The problem we initially ran into was the choice of a project box. We wanted something small, something that could fit the existing governor circuit boards with relative ease. however, Radio Shack was out of stock on their ideal sizes for this endeavor and we were stuck with a large project box. In the end, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, but at the time it presented additional challenges. The first of these challenges was how to actually mount the governor circuit boards into the project box. With so much room, the rails along the sides of the project box for mounting circuit boards were too far apart to allow secure placement of the governor circuit boards. Speaking of governor circuit boards, the first step was to actually desolder them from the wiring harness. The lines from the harness to the board were desoldered readily enough, as well as the four smaller wires linking one board to the other. With the circuit boards sans the harness, we were free to place them into various positions in the project box and to dream up ways of wiring and mounting them inside. Eventually, an idea dawned upon me. If we could find some spare poster board or cardboard we could fashion a "wall" with rails on it to support the governor circuit boards. What I found on hand were some fake, carboard credit cards that come in some of the credit card junk mail offers. I had been storing some away for scrap support in building an RS232 adapter for my GPS, but since I bought a new one that was USB powered the coardboard scrap could be used for this project. Layering them together in different ways and white gluing them together provided quite a bit of strutctural support. In addition, because the final piece was constructed of layered coarboard, it was easy to cut out small valleys for the circuit boards to ride in. Here is a pic of the wall: You can see the two white valleys for the circuit boards to fit in. It was now possible to securely mount the circuit boards into the project box: You can see how big the project box is and why the support was needed. here's another angle of the boards and the support in the project box: With the boards in place, we were now able to conceive of a wiring scheme. Recall, we wanted to place fuses inline with each of the solenoids so that if anything were to happen the fuses would blow instead of the transistors. We reasoned we could cut a hole at the bottom of the cardboard support, runs the main lines from the circuit boards through it and to a socket on the right side of the project box. Two of the main lines run to the solenoids and transistors and they coudl be routed through the fuses before heading to the socket. It seemed really nice on paper and suddenly having a lot of space in the project box was seeming very nice. Of course, to cut holes for fuses and a socket requires... well.. cutting. So this meant a trip to the aerospace machine shop. First up, we cut a hole in the side of the box that would fit the pin socket we bought from Radio Shack. We did this using the time-honored method of a hacksaw. Next, we drilled some holes in the top for the fuses using the drill press. Here's a pic of the work and one of the fuse holders mounted: You can see we bought the nice fuse holder packages that have the twist tops instead of the smaller enclosed ones. We wanted to be able to change fuses on the fly if something happened. You can also see the hole on the rigt for the socket. Here's another shot: In the back right on the table you will see a white plastic "cap." This is the socket for the wires. On the left you will see a metal sheet. This came with the project box. Each box comes with a plastic lid and a metal lid. At the time we weren't quite sure what we were going to do with the metal lid, but we find a very nice use for it as will be illustrated later. Now that the fuses were in place and the hole in the cardboard support cut for wires to the circuit boards, it was time to do some soldering. Initially we were going to use the smaller copper wire that comes with the kits from Radio Shack, but were were concerned the load on the lines may be too much. True they were copper, but the gauge was small. As a solution, we found an old ATX 400W power supply that no longer functioned. We cut the main line off of it and had instant access to higher gauge wire. This wire is aluminum, but the gauge is higher and it was used in a 400W power supply so we were fairly certain this would work well for us. A multitude of colors were present on the line and we were able to match color for color, except for one, the original wiring of the circuit boards. The exception to the rule was the green wire, which we replaced with orange. Cutting all the lines to length, soldering them to the boards and then placing them into the box to get an idea for how it would all fit gives this pic: Here you can see the wires running through the hole in the support, heading towards the socket. two of the lines already have quick-disconnects to attached to the fuse holder. These are for the solenoids. You can also see in the lower left of the project box that only one transistor is currently mounted to the circuit boards. That is because, if you recall from the last post, more robuts TIP42Cs were ordered, but had not yet arrived. So no additional work on the transistors was done yet. The socket we chose was a 12 pin socket to handle the 8 lines to the harness and the three lines to the alternator. (one pin left over for fun stuff in the future if needed). With everyting wired up, the box looked like this: You can see the box is shaping up nicely. We were glad at this point for all the space in the larger box. By this point the new transistors, TIP42Cs had arrived, but were will still stumped on how to actually mount them to meet our criteria of adequately cooling them. In a flash of inspriation, we realized how we could mount them. Remember the metal place all project boxes come with? We realize it would fit on top of the plastic lid without any trouble. We could then cut a hole in the plastic lid jsut above the transistors and attached the transistors to the metal plate. In addition, we would mount heat sinks on top of the metal plate too. The nice thing about this is the plastic lid would insulate the rest of the wiring on the inside so if it was ever jostled it would not contact the metal plate and short something out. Sounds easy, but it was a little more difficult to do logistically given where the transistors mount to the board. In the end, we went back to Radio Shack and bought some solder-fluxed circuit board to solder the transistors on and then ran some wires from that to the governor circuit boards. We then cut the hole in the plastic cover, drilled a set of small screw holes in the metal plate, applied thermal paste to the backs of the transistors and heat sinks and screwed it all together: Here you can see the transistors soldered to their own small circuit board and then mounted to the metal lid through the hole in the plastic lid. The thermal paste we used on all of this was none other than Arctic Silver 5, trusted by PC enthusiasts everywhere. If the stuff is good for my Athlon XP mobile 1800 overclocked to Athlon Xp 3200+ then it's good for these transistors. With the lid screwed down, the final box looked like this: Gives a very nice appearance. And all the lines checked out ok. The only thing left to do was to fashion brackets to mount it in the engine compartment. We knew were we were going to mount it, using the existing bolts in the engine compartment that hold the vacuum canistor inside the rear left pontoon. So spacing was the only issue. We found some old computer expansion brackets laying around and measured and drilled with the following results: So this just left wiring harness itself to worry about now. Next update: Breaking out the BIG guns part 2. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 30th, 2006
7:12 pm	Disappointment Long time since last post, though that doesn't mean I haven't been working on things. The next few posts will illustrate what I've been up to in the past month. Additionally, I've been really busy with things involving my research. Most notably, I attended WCNR-8 (World Conference on Neutron Radiography) in Gaithersburg, MD where I presented a paper on my findings. It went over well and my advisor tells me people liked what they saw. I also saw a few rainbows during this interim. Anywho, back to the task at hand. The rebuilt governor was installed and seemed to be working properly. First gear is really nice to have. To test her out, we took D down to a friend's wedding. This was the second week in September so now you have a time frame. Somewhere along the line we experienced a power blip and the clock reset itself. Later investigation lead us to believe this also when the new damage to the Governor occurred. When we arrived home I used the breakout box to check the condition of the governor. Sure enough, first gear was once again lost. We were able to nurse D around to the wedding and then back up to State College, but during the drive back we also sprung a coolant leak and realized the coolant hoses would need to be replaced. (was planning on doing that anyway) Also realized new front rotors are really needed. Upon arriving home and removing the governor harness again (draining the tranny fluid and dropping the pan and removing the harness now being done in less than 2 hours... I learn quickly =) Opening the governor up revealed the following: Again, sorry for the blurry pics. This is the board opposite the transistors and you can see one of the traces is burning itself up! The question at the time was "why?" We believe we have the answer now, but you will have to wait for future posts. That trace is the return line for the mini Alternator and also runs directly to the main ground wire in the governor harness. Indicative of a short somewhere, but where? Here's another shot: However, the REAL damage was on the transistor side again. The BJT responsible for the solenoid controlling 1st gear had melted and cracked clean through both vertically and horizontally. Pieces of the package were falling off. According to friends who work in the EE field, this is definitely the result of an overheated transistor, most likely from a short. At the time it was believed due to shorting on the metal top that covers the circuits, but was found later to be elsewhere. Here are two really bad pics of the blown transistor. (gotta get me a real camera) So the first attempt at salvaging the governor failed. By this point I was quite well versed in the operation of the circuit, but where all the lines to the circuit came from and where they went was still a mystery. At the time I was, and still am, unwilling to pay $450 for something that I know I can fix IF it's the circuit. The thing is, at this point it probably wasn't the circuit, which means I probably wouldn't be able to do a core exchange, which means $650 instead. After getting some more insight into the harness and its function from members on the DML, a new decision was made. The governor circuit would be relocated to the engine compartment. There it would be easier to service if it were to fail in the future. Others have done this before with success, so we would do it too. We had several criteria to meet, though: 1) The box the Circuit was housed in would have to be modular. We wanted to be able to quickly disconnect it from the main harness for repair if it needed it. This would also facilitate the use of interchangeable modules. One would be the original circuit, the second would be a completely new one built from modern parts using the original diagram and the third would be the ultimate goal: a digital system using a PIC. The current name for the digital controller is called "Zohar" 2) We wanted fuses inline on the solenoids so that they would blow instead of the transistors, causing more shorts and burning more traces. 3) Upgrade the Transistors from TIP42s to TIP42Cs. While the TIP42 is technically sufficient, we wanted something that could handle a much higher voltage range in case of a spike. Hence, the TIP42C, which had to be special ordered along with 7.5V Zener diodes to replace the 7.5V ones already damaged and to hopefully build a new analog circuit in the future. 4) There would be heat sinks on the TIP42C to properly cool the transistors and decrease the likelihood of another melt. 5) Do a thorough back engineering on the harness to determine where all the pins went both on the board and in the car. This should be compiled and used for future reference. All of this meant another trip to Radioshack, and a LOT of time. So next post: Breaking out the BIG guns. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 29th, 2006
10:54 am	The Governor Circuit Boards Prying off the metal governor on the mini-alternator reveals the governor "computer." The two big silver things you see are the power transistors that allow the solenoids to be activated. You can also see some resistors and capacitors. Desoldering the three lines from the alternator to the circuit board allows the boards to be removed. The two silver cylinders you see here are capacitors. These were starting to leak and needed to be replaced as per the suggestions of the DML. Furthermore, you can see how old this circuit is. The capacitors are small metal packages and the boards a single PCB, kinda like what you would buy at radioshack (no offense to them.) Spreading the boards apart reveals a problem: If you take a look along the bottom edge of the board and along the right hand side you can see that instead of a dark green trace there is a black charred trace. The green protective layer has metled away and exposed the copper trace beneath, which in turn burned itself up, turning to ash. That's right. There's not connection between the wire that comes in on the board at that trace and the pin of the transistor trace runs to. This would indicate far too large a current draw which heated and burned the trace. Here's another shot: Which begs the question of how well the electronic components along the trace survived. Using the multi-meter, it turned out all the components except the transistor survived. All three pins on the transistor were shorted together. As far as BJTs go, that's bad. General repair work on the governor circuit board, as suggested by the DML, is as follows: 1) Replace the 10V and 15V with 50V equivalents. Radioshack part #s: 2) Bad power transistors can be replaced by more rugged TIP42's from radioshack (TIP42C's are better if you can get them) 3) add 0.1 microfahrad coupling capacitors across the power leads (pins 1 and 4) of the op-amps. The op-amps on my circuit board are Siemans TAA762A's. These are 6-Pin single Op-Amp ICs for high voltage and temperature environments. Supposedly you can still get these through parts miners or some such place through google if you're willing to get them from Australia. And so it was off to radioshack to get the parts: The capacitors replaced: The damaged trace by-passed by a stranded copper wire: Coupling capacitors installed (green guys) along with new TIP42's: Put a layer of electrical tape in between for added security and place back into the alternator: Results and discussion in next update! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:11 am	The Governor harness Right, so I haven't posted in a while because I've been terribly busy actually trying to figure out what is going on. I'm still not entirely certain yet, but if I don't start updating things are going to get an even bigger backlog and I won't know what to actually talk about. Anywho, as you may recall there's a problem with the transmission. She refuses to shift into first even when the stick is pulled down into that gear. She is always starting in second. The transmission of an automatic DeLorean is completely electronically controlled and the "computer" is the prime suspect in this case. Basically, the computer consists of two op-amps set up in voltage comparator mode with each one driving a power transistor. A voltage generatred by a mini-alternator riding along side the transmission is compared to a reference voltage from the battery (supposedly. I'm back engineering the circuit to double check) When a certain RPM is reached the voltages equal eachother and the power transistor is deactivated allowing one of two solenoids to be de-energized and thus shift the car. This is all derived from a circuit printout and information from Dave Teitelbaum and others on the DML. However, some information is still missing so I'm taking it upon myself to fill that in... specifically just HOW the whole governor wiring harness is wired. Then I can provide back to the community a very thorough write up on this thing. if the car is stuck permanently in a specific gear then the likely cause is because one of the power transistors failed. Well, let us begin the investigation and see what we have found. Here is a pic of the automatic transmission governor: The black box off to the left is the top of the governor wiring harness and is mounted inside the engine compartment against the back firewall. The power and main car harness connects to this. There are also 3-5 "diagnostic pins" (as I call them) which can be used to determine the gear you are in via the afore-posted break-out box. Proceeding counter-clockwise, the next thing you'll see is a yellowish box with a gear stem coming out of it. This is the mini-alternator that resides along side the transmission and measures RMP converting it to voltage. Inside this box is the governor computer, two circuit boards with op-amps and power transistors. Here's a pic of where it sits when on the car: The metal plate you see is the cover to the circuit boards. The spring and lever assembly is what is now as the "kickback" or the "kickdown." When the gas petal is fully depressed the assembly is pullef all the way to the left supplying a path to ground for both solenoids thus dropping you into first gear. This acts as a passing gear. The next thing along the line is yellowish conenctor with the three terminals on the end. This is the part of the harness that runs inside the transmission pan and connects to the solenoid harness, thus allowing power to run to the solenoids. Lastly, there is the microswitch end. This sits inside the transmission pan as well and "connects" to the linkage system from the stick shift so the computer knows what gear you are in. Next up: The circuit boards. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 7th, 2006
1:40 pm	more break-out box pics As promised, here are some more pics of the break-out box. This time hooked up to a battery: and here: Incidentally, I did hook this up to the diagnostic port on the governor. In park and in reverse and drive only one light was lit. When pulling the stick into second, the single light got brighter and when pulling it into first, only the single light was still lit instead of seeing two lights. So I'm pretty sure it's the governor and not a solenoid, but those can be checked once the governor is removed because that requires draining the transmission fluid and dropping the pan. Also incidentally, I tried that this past Tuesday, but did could not get the square-holed pan bolt out to drain the fluid. So it turned out to be a 100% successful reconnaissance mission instead. =) I'll take pics next time I'm under the car. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 1st, 2006
12:23 pm	Maybe I should move on to buying manual cars instead of automatics Got the DeLorean back from my mechanic earlier this week. She passed inspection, but there are other problems that have no manifested themselves. The most major of which is the transmission. Apparently, she won't shift down into first. Even at startup she's in second gear. Posted on the forums about this and it would seem the primary culprit in this situation is a bad transmission computer governor. This box controls all the shifting of the transmission. That's right, there's no linkage or hydraulics involved in a DeLorean automatic. It's all computer controlled. This box is apparently highly subject to being damaged when the car is jumped. It's also highly subject to voltage spikes coming from the original front cooling fans. The original cooling fans draw more current than the fan relay is rated for upon startup. This spike is also known to damage the governor. David Teitelbaum from the DML was kind enough to send me a packet of information describing the governor, the most common problems with it, and the schematics to it and a diagnostic break-out box to see what the governor is attempting to do. It would seem there is a diagnostic port on the governor and the break-out box plugs into this. Two lamps on it light up in sequence to indicate whether the governor is sending a signal to try and shift the tranny. What's nice about this is there is still some concern the governor may be functioning and a solenoid in the transmission may be bad. The break-out box is a very simple set up. Here's a shot of a portion of it being assembled: Again, one of the nice things about working for a university is access to machine shops. Here, holes have been drilled into a project box bought from Radioshack to house the interior wiring of the break-out box. Here's another shot of the wiring after being completely assembled: The molex connector was my brother's idea. It allows it to be disconnected from the 10 feet of cable line that runs to the diagnostic port. Only three of the four molex pins are used right now and only half the project box so there's room for other future projects to be put in. =) (the running idea is an electronic compass) I had a picture of the thing assembled and with the lights on, but the image was so blurry there was no point in showing it. I'll try and grab another one soon. Big thanks go to David T. for sending me the info on building this and the governer itself. According to the information from David (authored by him and Hershey): Regarding the governor, it would seem the most common problem is the leaking of capacitors not properly rated for the job. This will cause erratic shifting. If one or more of the power transistors (which I recognize to be bi-polar junction transistors) blows out the car won't shift at all (which is my problem) or the solder joints on the lines are bad. (seems to be a very common problem) In general, the governor computer is constructed of two Operational Amplifiers setup in voltage comparing configuration. (I actually remember some of this from my EE undergraduate days) In addition, there are no coupling capacitors across these Op-Amps to cushion voltage spikes! (I remember adding those guys in my Op-Amps lab) At any rate, I've purchased $40 worth of Radioshack parts in an effort to save $450 on a new governor. I'm hoping I will open the governor up and see immediately some bad solder joints and blown capacitors. Otherwise... I may have to dig deep into my pocket. The adventure continues... (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
2:50 pm	On the road again... almost: Part 2 Well, at this point the new gaskets still hadn't arrived so we decided to mess aroud in the shifting stick compartment/center console. Here's a pic: The problem was/is this: The center rod you see is the shifter. If you look at its base you can see a metal ring that locks into those different notches along the base. This is to prevent the driver from throwing the stick from reverse into drive. however, the metal ring is attached to a metal cylinder, which itself sits on/around a metal rod. The metal cylinder was spinning freely around the rod so that the metal ring never locked into a notch, but always faced forward. The reason for this is a design flaw in the early VIN and corrected in later. If you follow the black metal cylinder from the metal ring at the bottom upward, you'll notice it flares out at the top end. This is a separate plastic piece sitting on top of the metal cylinder. It is the lever you pull up on to pop the metal ring out of a notch. You have a two piece system where one end is plastic and sits on another that is metal. The plastic lever part only fit snuggly on the metal cylinder because of pre-molded dimples on the inside. The years of constant use have broken the plastic lever up the side allowing the metal rod to turn fully. Later VINs have a two-piece metal system I believe. The proper way to correct this is to join the pieces somehow. the current popular solution is to drill a hole in the metal cylinder and rod and thread a set screw in. However, the machinery to do this is not currently available (though the University does possess it.) So instead we wrapped electrical tape on the end of the metal cylinder and "screwed" the lever on. Then more electrical tape around the outside to clamp it down. It works and shifts well, but is only a temporary solution. At this point we noticed the shift stick plate would not sit properly. After poking around we realized the back plate towards the rear of the center console seems to have been placed on backwards. After reversing this, the plate sat down squarely and could be secured by its screws without any hindrance to shifting. This also allowed the environmental console plate to sit better. If I could just find the proper screw to secure the environmental control panel to the blacking plate everything will probably work fine. Time to check McMaster-Carr... Finally, the gaskets arrived along a few extras I ordered... two of the gaskets anyway. Two more are on back order. But I was able to remount all the side marker lights with the two new gaskets and the four old. In addition, I replaced the trip odometer Knob. =) Here are some pics: Before: and after: A nice little pleasure to have and increases the interior aesthetics greatly. (Comment on this)
1:58 pm	On the road again... almost: Part 1 Well, this entry should bring to an end updates on all the major work done to pass inspection. Then finally I can get back to updating on the backlog of repairs that were done. Anywho, once the steering column was replaced and the brake shoes replaced, you'll recall I had to wait around for new side marker gaskets from PJGrady. During that time I sought out replacement lamps and sockets and crimped those on. Also during that time, I decided to take a look at the AC situation. Recall from before that pressure readings indicated the system had no pressure. Sure enough, we open the system to air and there was nothing, not even a hiss. Checking the oil level in the compressor came up bone dry. I disconnected the high pressure side inlet to the avaporator to replace the AC orifice tube with a new one. Now, the thing about these early VINs is there's always something quirky going one. In this situation, the high side line to the evaporator is bent as it passes through the firewall. this results in a bent AC orifice tube. The old one came out fine, but trying to get the new one in was a pain. In fact, I never got it in. I broke it trying to get it in. So that's one $7 AC orifice tube down the drain. So I took a look at the old one. There was a little flash on the filter screen, but other than that seemed to be in good condition. So back into the system it went. Only later that day did I find out there are actually AC orifice tube pullers and inserter tools. Oh well, too late for that. Reconnecting the system, I then changed the old AC low pressure switch on the accumulator for a new one, just to be safe. Old one is on the left, new one is on the right. The thing about this DeLorean is the AC tensioner system that is supposed to hold the AC belt on is missing. I have one of the two brackets, and no pulleys. I contacted John Harvey of Specialtauto.com fame and found out the part is obsolete so they can't sell any without doing a core exchange. Observing the construction of the bracket I DO have leads me to believe I could reproduce it through Iron sand casting. The ability to do this at the university here exists, but it would require use of the missing bracket to duplicate it... in which case why would I duplicate it? Well, I suppose I could sell it to others in my situation, you know kinda resupply the market? According to my advisor, however, it should be possible to have the machine shop wizard at the reactor here, Ron, build the pulley from thick sheet steel if we had some drawings or a photocopy of the piece next to a ruler. John Harvey tells me he will try and help me out when he has time, which probably means I'm on my own. Nothing new there, so undaunted I searched for a temporary solution to the problem while tracking down skills and abilities to refabricate the part. The solution is to get a belt smaller than required and with enough tension to fit without trouble. This was a long trial and error process, but the belt I found that works well enough is a Dayco 15505... tatoo that to your inner eyelids, folks. DAYCO 15505 Here's a pic of it on the compressor: There's still a little too much slack on the bottom and it bounces around then, but it pulley the compressor even when engaged and doesn't slip. To get this belt on requires unmounting the Compressor: Two bolts on each side. All needed to be removed and then the compressor slipped onto the belt and remounted. The next belt size smaller, the Dayco 15500 was too small, FYI. Was that was all set up, we used a small vacuum pump from Harbor Freight to evacuate the system to 30" Hg for 30 minutes. This little pump operates by using an existing air compressor. I imagine what happens is the air compressor blows down one side of the mounting block creating a vacuum on the other side and pulling the air out of the AC system. We let that sit for a day and it looked like it held vacuum so it was time to put in the refrigerant. I bought a recharge kit of Freeze 12, an R12 substitute, off ebay to recharge the system. It's supposed to be safe like R134A, but cool like R12. The hose and fitting kit that came with it seemed a little on the cheap side, but I tried em out. Sure enough the fitting for the low side fit on, but had a tendecy to get stuck open, as I discovered while trying to put leak sealant in. Being thoroughly dissatisfied with that, I pulled the R134A fitting off the Buick and placed it on the DeLorean. I then used the hose fittings for the Freeze 12 with that (which seemed to work find FYI for the Freeze 12 guys, might want to look into that) the rest of the sealant went into the system and the oil lubricant did as well. Then went in the first of three cans of Freeze 12... and things got wierd. I rapidly reached a point where the can would no longer empty into the system. I closed the can off and checked the pressure in the line. The pressure in the line was into the warning range, 45 PSI. So I stopped adding refrigerant and was quite upset sit I'm supposed to get all three cans in. The system was blowing out some cold air, though. The next day I was talking with a coworker about this phenomenon and she said that if you have an old AC orifice tube it can take a while to adjust to the flow and cause a pressure reading like that. Sure enough, when I checked it out the next day, the pressure was down to where you would expect it to be for a single can. I emptied the rest of that first can into the system and saw the pressure hanging around right where you want it so I'm still a little wary. I decided to let it go for the weekend and see what happened. After the weekend the pressure was still where I left it and the AC was dumping chilled air out... and only after one can of Freeze 12. So... I dunno. Tells me there was something still in the system. The only thing I can figure is maybe there as some left over lubricating oil. At any rate I decided to leave well-enough alone for the moment and see what happens. It's still pushing out chilled air. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 7th, 2006
10:56 am	Yeah, whatever... not my design After having found the proper part numbers and bulbs for the marker lights, we went about crimping them onto the original wiring harness. The crimping was really straight forward and resulted in some nice, new bulb sockets. All the marker lights are now working. Here's a shot of the crimping: And here's another, wider shot: Now as you recall, I had the steering column being worked on by a friend who can perform spot welding. I was kind enough to spot weld the portions of the metal cage that were broken around the column. Here are the results: and another wider shot: The weld is secure and adds a whole LOT of reinforcement to the steering column. No longer does the interior shaft bounce around cage and cause problems. My friend, Eric, who did the welding, had a few choice words regarding the column. His first remark was the cage was a softer metal, which made welding a little more difficult, but along with the design of the cage made it perfectly clear why it had broken initially anyway. The cage is secured by a washer at either end and through this the center steering shaft traverses. The thing is, the cage is long enough that any downward force on the column causes a huge torque arm to exist at the firewall end of the column. This presses upward on the cage, the only other attached portion being the end by the steering wheel. So as you press downward on the wheel, the column at the firewall pushes up on the cage. The cage, when pushed upward, causes a stress point on the column just behind the steering wheel. So the reason these are clean breaks is because the cage is constantly being bent back and forth slightly like what happens with a paper clip. So because of this my friend make recommendations on how HE would have designed the column with additional washers prevent the cage from bending so much. His closing statement is the title of this post "Yeah, whatever... not my design." Placing the column back into the car and into the bushing should have been a no-brainer, but my ever-present companion, Murphey's law, made it otherwise. First, the bushing which had fit so well beforehand had slightly changed shape from being compressed into the firewall and needed slight filing. Secondly, we discoverd the collapsable portion of the inner steering column gave way much too easily to be securely forced through the bushing. To keep the column expanded required several flat head screw drives jammed through the metal cage below the column extension so when it tried to collapse it would hit the flat head. This made it possible to push the column through the bushing... IF you could maneuver the thing around the knee pad brackets. Some slight bending of the bracket mounts was needed for that. Once through the bushing it was apparent the column could only enter the universal joint at specific intervals. So out came the column again and this time, my brother held the universal join up to the bushing hole in the firewall while I pushed the column through. It managed to pop right into the joint, but only half way. After much more messing with it, we managed to get it all the way in, but the bolt to secure it still required hammering to push it through the u-joint hole. What should have been an hour job ended up taking 3 hours. But the new column and bushing are in and the car steers like a dream. Doesn't bind up and turns quite smoothly... even more easily than before. The problem is, because you can only put the steering column in at specific intervals, the steering wheel itself is not aligned with the wheels straight ahead. To fix this will require removing the steering wheel. I did borrow a steering wheel puller, but the DeLorean's steering wheel is so deep the kit couldn't reach the bolts. Maybe Ken Reese can help. Oh, and I'm STILL waiting on parts from PJGrady. Should it really take 3 weeks to get some gaskets in? (Comment on this)
Friday, July 28th, 2006
6:43 pm	Side Markers and Seat Covers In order for D to pass inspection, she'll require new side marker lights. Thinking at first new bulbs were the only thing needed, I encountered a nasty surprise when I took the side markers off. 1) All screws are rusted and decaying. getting these out were difficult. 2) The bulbs and sockets were rusted into a single mass. Not very nice. I thought maybe I could pry the bulb out and loosen the rust enough to clean up the socket. No luck with that. The bulb came clean out of its metal housing and left that behind. The whole thing is one solid piece with the socket. This means the socket will have to be replaced. I took a look around DMC houston's website and saw that they do not sell sockets for the marker lights. basically, in order to fix these "properly" (I.E. all original stock) one would need to purchase the wiring harness for the rear and forward lights. That, unfortunately is not an option. Fortunately enough, soldering a new socket onto the existing line is by no means difficult and I don't think anyone is going to knock me using a non-standard DeLorean part in this case. Went down to Advanced auto and NAPA looking around and after a few misses came up with these nice guys from napa: This is part #LS6429 and takes bulb #57. So for anyone who is having a similar problem, tattoo those numbers to your inner eyelids. The socket fits very snugly, but it is easily jostled loose... unless you take the spacer ring off. Then it fits with just a little bit of play in it, but with no danger of being bounced out. 3) The gaskets to keep water out of the sockets have turned to foam: I have ordered a new set of gaskets and screws from PJGrady, but for some reason the order is still under the heading of "pending" even though it was placed almost a week ago. Why is it that most DeLorean vendors seem to leave you hanging on when the ordered will actually be filled? onto other things... One of the objectives was to restore the leather on the seats. This is still an objective, but one for the far future since that is not an inexpensive task. My brother and I purchased a product called "Leatherique" which we had heard many good things about. We bought enough for two complete application for both seats. I must say that the results were disappointing. In the case of the driver side seat the leather seems to have shrunk as a result of the product and the existing holes are now stretched. The leather did soften up a little bit in many areas and the dried cracked spots are not such a problem anymore, but the seats are still very stiff. I'm guessing the seats were just far too gone to be adequately saved by this product which many other owners seems to swear by. The product did say multiple applications would be needed, but at $50 for two applications and the improvement that brought I'd say I would need $200-$300 worth of the stuff to salvage what's left of the seats... and since a single new seat reupholstering is $400 I'll just save myself from buying more of the product. I do have pics of this process, but will post them later (hopefully). For now, the problem was to find an adequate seat cover to save the seats from further deterioration and improve the look of the interior. I believe I found such a product at Wal-Mart (yes that's right, Wal-mart). It's a black Faux Leather seat cover by a company called "Touring Items Type S" website: www.winplususa.com. here's the seat before the cover: and here's the seat after the cover was placed on: The seat cover is still a little wrinkly, but the false leather looks nice and the seam lines along with the total blackness of the cover make it fit in well with the interior. I'll have to buy another one for the passenger side. More updates once the gaskets arrive and the steering column is welded together. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: Mysterious Cities of Gold: Off to Adventure (Comment on this)