DeLoreans DO talk to thier owners.

["Jim Reeve" <ultra@xxxx>]

Well, I seriously believe my clutch did what it did for a DAMN good 
reason. At the suggestion of Ken Koncelik, I went under the car just 
a few minutes ago and started playing with the clutch fork with a 
screwdriver. I was wrong, it actually was stuck all the way forward, 
a couple taps shot it backwards and I have gears again. Car still 
isn't drivable, but while I was down there, I figured I would look at 
the trailing arm bolts.

Damn am I glad I did that. My passenger side bolt is missing ALL of 
its shims. The whole arm has about 1/2" of lateral freeplay. Nothing 
says break the trailing arm bolt like that much freeplay does. I 
seriously believe that my DeLorean knew that, and it broke it's own 
clutch just to save both of us (me and car) from potentially getting 
seriously hurt. Its a shame that the system failure had to be 
something moderately costly and difficult (for someone without the 
right tools) to do. But any other type of failure I would have had 
fixed in a matter of days, and been back on the road.

All the car probably needs now is a new slave cylinder to replace the 
one I literally exploded. But I already suspended the insurance 
yesterday, and have decided to retire the car for the rest of the year 
anyways. In either late fall, early spring, or middle of winter 
(depending what kind of storage facility I can get) I still plan to 
drop the transmission, and replace all clutch components. While I'm 
in there I'm also going to replace the rear main seal on the engine, 
and replace both trailing arm bolts with new ones. I will probably 
also open up the transmission itself and replace any worn items I 
find. Anyone else have other suggestions to do while I'm at all of 
this?

Well I suppose now that I have figured out all of my problems I will 
quit complaining about them. I guess this just means check your 
trailing arms, or your DeLorean will fight back. :-)

Jim Reeve
MNDMC - Minnesota DeLorean Club
A much relieved but still disabled -> DMC-6960