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+--- Thread: Big balls or small balls? (/showthread.php?tid=4778)
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Big balls or small balls? - dclsteve - 15 Nov 2014
The drivers door strut was a bit weak so I've got a new one. Odd thing is the new strut is for a much larger ball socket so it does not fit - see pics. The older strut (dated 2012) has the same part number...so bit baffled. Can anyone shed some light on this? Am I doing something wong? The old strut has the black end.
Re: Big balls or small balls? - TheOriginalMrP - 15 Nov 2014
Steve, the top strut looks like the type you tap on, the second type is a loose fit but with a small pin that locks it on... Did you have replacement pins with the new struts?
The top type require brute force to remove, the second are easy but they need the pin to make them lock in place....(note the small hole in the inner end of the ball socket... )
The size of the ball makes no difference....
Hope this helps
Re: Big balls or small balls? - dclsteve - 15 Nov 2014
Hi Ben
Yup, new one came with pins, but even with the pin in place it just falls off.
Re: Big balls or small balls? - TheOriginalMrP - 15 Nov 2014
Well your car is only 250 vins from mine so there isn't any difference as far as I'm aware...
The struts are usable on both doors, have you popped the other side off for comparison?
The new ones still knock onto the ball, and with the pin in place don't budge...
Usually......
My pin fell off on one side yet the strut never came off... I found it rolling around buy my torsion bar one day.
Any evidence the ball's have been changed?
Re: Big balls or small balls? - dclsteve - 15 Nov 2014
The balls look original. Not looked at the other side yet, methinks that'll be the next job. The strut certainly didn't need any persuasion to sit on the ball which alerted me to the problem as the old struts needed quite a nudge to pop off.
Re: Big balls or small balls? - TheOriginalMrP - 15 Nov 2014
It looks to me like the ends of the first strut are the same type as the hood and louvre struts ( snap on )
I've no idea if they ever did snap on struts on the doors, maybe your struts (and balls) have been modified, but check your opposite side first. I'm sure you are not the first to have this issue...
Ben
Re: Big balls or small balls? - dclsteve - 15 Nov 2014
Funnily enough, the louvre struts have pins on the struts. All the struts were replaced on the car around the same time so maybe whoever did it changed some of the balls? I'll have a chat with Ed for new balls (that just sounds wrong!) and see if they match whats on the car. Although I cannot think of why anyone would change the balls? I would have thought they don't wear out!
Re: Big balls or small balls? - Chris P - 15 Nov 2014
Yeah…….Ed Balls would be a daft name…….Weather they were big or small!
Re: Big balls or small balls? - MikeWard - 17 Nov 2014
It's not the correct strut, that's one for either the trunk or louvre.
Re: Big balls or small balls? - MikeWard - 17 Nov 2014
I'm going by the black ball cap on that.
I have a set of Ed's that were fitted recently, and both struts have the metal ball ends per the originals.
Re: Big balls or small balls? - TheOriginalMrP - 17 Nov 2014
So that means you have smaller balls fitted to your doors / body...
Someone has previously fitted hood/louvre struts to your doors... But that makes little sense as they are diffferent lengths...
![[Image: door-lift-pistons-2.jpg]](http://www.specialtauto.com/delorean-parts/images/door-lift-pistons-2.jpg)
See what's on the other side!
Re: Big balls or small balls? - MikeWard - 17 Nov 2014
That's it, per the above image, the struts with the black ends have the built in safety clips. Typically seen on the trunk and louvre struts. The door struts typically have metal ball caps and require a separate safety clip to be installed post fitting.
Re: Big balls or small balls? - TheOriginalMrP - 17 Nov 2014
I think you are missing the point Mike..
Yes, you are right and it's louvre / hood type SOCKETS. on a pair of door struts because surely the longer ones wouldn't compress to a small enough length and/or have too much travel when closing the door.
Imagine...
When you fully compress the door struts when closing the door, let's say the compressed length is 15 inches....
The hood struts would be 17 inches and the louvre struts 20 inches....
Now how are the ball's on the door and roof going to miraculously grow 2 or 5 inches for the extra length?
There's something fishy somewhere...
True delorean style, I attempted to fit a fuel sender seal to my car today... There's talk the old ones swell over time, so I had cut a nice piece of cork out to use as a substitute.
Unhappy with that several months later, and still not put fuel in since I drained the tank last year, I decided to get a new seal (unavailable when I made the cork one)...
It's noticeably slimmer than the other... But do you think I can get the damn thing on without the cap cross threading?
I stuck to my original plan, and put my cork one back in...
Deloreans?
Lol
Re: Big balls or small balls? - MikeWard - 18 Nov 2014
TheOriginalMrP Wrote:True delorean style, I attempted to fit a fuel sender seal to my car today... There's talk the old ones swell over time, so I had cut a nice piece of cork out to use as a substitute.Are you running OEM or DMCH fuel sender? I had a DMCH sender in my car for some time (before acquiring a tank zilla) and didn't have any problems fitting it with the replacement gasket supplied by Ed...
Unhappy with that several months later, and still not put fuel in since I drained the tank last year, I decided to get a new seal (unavailable when I made the cork one)...
It's noticeably slimmer than the other... But do you think I can get the damn thing on without the cap cross threading?
I stuck to my original plan, and put my cork one back in...
Deloreans?
Lol
Re: Big balls or small balls? - TheOriginalMrP - 18 Nov 2014
I *think it's a dmch one, just a cylinder with a wire attached to the top .. wasn't an oem one a float device? This one is made up of relays....
This is the issue, and I've rambled about it before. .
Last year I replaced my pickup screen and cleaned the tank out. I stupidly removed the sender as it seemed the easiest glace to syphon the fuel from.
I didn't check if the cap came off cross threaded... But my car leaked fuel on an extreme tank up...I always put 40 litres in max after that...
Anyway, after I replaced the tank gubbins,, the sender touched the bottom of the tank. The cap would screw on fine on its own, but with the sender in place it always cross threads.
I was told the seals swell, and they do, but even the new one won't screw down... Only my cork gasket does.
Suggestions include dropping the access cover to allow the tank to flex to take the depth of the sender, remove filler pipe, etc etc...
But I'm lazy and don't like messing with something that's already ok...
So yeah... It's like the sender is too long but with my cork seal it does up ok...