Following on from the Tech Day in Southampton with Dan Knowlton on 29th June, there was further work that just couldn't be done at that time, and additional work that was only noticed during inspection on that day for which further parts were required. So with great, great thanks to Dan, we agreed that I would return on 28th September to get this further work done.
On the list for this day was,
Replacing the Lower Control Arms and Fitting Support Brackets
Fit New Stainless Manifold Studs and Brass Nuts where they are currently missing.
I set off from London at 6.15am and took a very steady 55mph drive down to Southampton which took about 2 hours. The reason for the slow drive was due to the state of my LCAs that I had seen last time, whereby the bushings were working themselves loose. I arrived just after 8am at which time Dan was ready for me, so as before I drove straight into position at the lift.
Replacing the Lower Control Arms and Fitting Support Brackets
We started immediately, loosened the wheel nuts on either side and then raised the car to complete removal of the wheels. Then we removed the anti-roll bar.
Next the positions of the springs were marked up to help when putting it all back together.
Then the tie rod end was removed.
followed by the lower ball joint from the LCA and the steering knuckle.
The bolts through the LCA were then loosened.
Dan took his spring compressor to compress the spring to then enable removal of the LCA.
With the spring compressed it was possible to be remove it.
With the spring off the LCA could then be removed.
The photo above and below shows the state of the bushings on my original LCA, drivers side. It had moved more than half-way out and was a probable accident waiting to happen.
With the old drivers' side LCA out the new D-Arm™ Fully Loaded Anodised Solid Aluminium Lower Control Arms from DeLoreango.com could be fitted.
In addition I had also purchased the Front Lower Arm Support Kit - Stainless to stabilise the lower arms further.
With the support bracket fitted the spring could be repositioned and de-compressed and the lower ball joint re-attached.
and then the tie rod end could also be re-attached.
After this the same was done on the passenger side before the anti-roll bar was re-fitted.
Lower the transmission and replace the main seal
Without delay the next job was started. I've had an oil leak since forever, however after taking it to a local garage to be fixed, it came back with a worse leak. I've put up with this for several years but now was to time to hopefully stop the leak for good. Whilst we would be doing this job I had also purchased a new clutch kit just in case the leak might have been in some way a result of the new clutch kit having been fitted by the above mentioned local garage.
The oil has been appearing from what seems to be the main seal area and then would travel along the underside of the frame before dripping on to my garage floor. No matter where I positioned my drip tray, the oil would always find a new place to drip from that would miss the tray and land on the floor! The oil on the frame can be seen in the photo below.
This job started by firstly removing the drive axles.
This was followed by detaching the gear linkage and the clutch hydraulic line.
After some awkward manipulation we managed to detach the transmission from the flywheel casing and lower it on a stand.
The clutch pressure plate needed to be removed next.
followed by the clutch plate and the flywheel assembly.
With the above all removed this exposed the Rear seal plate.
The rear main seal seems to be fitted okay but there was nonetheless signs of oil on it and on the seal plate. Oil could also have been seeping from the join of the seal plate with the engine block.
Dan removed the seal plate and took a blade to scrape off the old gasket and residual sealant that had previously been applied. He also removed the old rear main seal, cleaned this area of the plate and then using his press, carefully fitted a new rear main seal into place.
Once all the old sealant had been removed all surfaces were cleaned up to ensure the best possible seal when the plate and main seal are refitted.
Next we were ready to reassemble. Dan had some Wellseal Jointing Compound that was used to seal all the joins to prevent future leaks.
The jointing compound was spread on all surfaces, the rear seal plate, as above, the surfaces on the engine block where the seal plate is affixed, seen below.
Once the compound went off, the rear main seal gasket was positioned on to the rear seal plate.
With the rear seal plate now back in place, the lower bolts were re-inserted with further sealant around the threads.
Once the excess jointing compound was tidied up the flywheel assembly was refitted.
Using a custom made alignment tool Dan then refitted the clutch pressure plate.
Following this the the transmission assembly was repositioned and fitted back in place along with new transmission mounts.
Fit new stainless manifold studs and brass nuts
By now it was getting late. We thought we would fit the new stainless manifold studs where the 50% were missing and also fit new brass nuts all round to finish off the day. As we tried to fit the studs we noticed that where no studs existed, these holes were mis-aligned, probably the reason they were never fitted during restoration. We agreed that this was a job too far for this tech day. Maybe we would need to remove all existing studs and reallign before fitting them all. This would have to happen at another time.
I set off for home at 8.30pm and had a great run, arriving home about 10.20pm. The car handled noticeably better, especially around bends and roundabouts. It's also probably a bit soon to be sure, but upon arriving home there were no signs of any oil from the main seal region.
I'm all set now for next weekend, to attend the DeLorean Eurotec October meet in King's Lynn.
Thanks so much Dan for giving over your time for both tech days.
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