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Preparations,
Repairs and Crossed Fingers
"Sure, we liked
Erector sets as kids"
Ahhhhh.... where to
begin? How about with the aftermath of the 2003 OTC? If
you'll recall from last year, the car had an unexpected (but in
hindsight, quite predictable) catastrophic driveline failure at
Willow Springs on the second to last day of the event. The
failure of the engine output adapter was traced to incorrect bolts
(too short and no lock washers) installed by the factory. The
failure of the part cracked the transmission case, wiped out a bunch
of wires and turned the clutch linkage into a pretzel. The
driveshaft also jumped out of it's mid-support bearing and lost a
few grease fitting in the process. Besides the driveline
failure, we also had problems with brakes (a incorrectly designed
brake pedal which would contact the chassis at something like 30% of
it's travel), the rear axle (massively leaking axle seals), and
suspension (being completely setup wrong by the factory). The
suspension was fixed by seven hours at 7's Only Racing in
Buttonwillow but the rest was left to us!
It didn't take long
to figure out why the driveline had failed. After considerable
effort, we were able to remove the old engine output adapter and
install a new one. We sourced new, longer bolts of the correct
grade and added lock washers and nylock nuts to make sure it doesn't
come apart again. We also got the driveshaft back in place,
repaired the wires and replaced the clutch linkage.
Next we worked on the
rear end. Off with the brakes (which were soaked) and axles.
In tinkering, we discovered that the differential (actually just an
open diff that was welded) was binding. Off with the third
member where we discovered that when they welded it at the factory,
they didn't check to see if everything was still true! The
heat had distorted the assembly by more than four thousandths of an
inch! Thanks to Jay at J&S East Valley Garage (the main part
of our Top Fuel Drag Racing Team) for machining everything back to
spec (and diagnosing the problem in the first place). After
that, we cleaned up the brakes and reinstalled the third member.
Next was new axle seals and gaskets and the reinstallation of the
axle shafts and brakes.
After that, it was
time to work on the brakes. We took the old brake pedal off
and cut off the original shaft. We next bought some tube stock
and cut it to the approximate size. After some grinding, we
had a new shaft at the right angle to allow full brake pedal travel.
We tack welded the pedal and then sent it off to be finish welded
for a good strong piece. Reinstallation was a snap and now we
have brakes, what a concept!
While all this was
going on, we also removed the original junky mirrors are replaced
them with new, low distortion models. These were mounted on
new brackets we had fabricated by Tandem Metal Products (and they
did great work).
Things were starting
to look pretty good! We cleaned up the car, put on fresh
rubber and then it was time for a little test...
Video:
Testing on the Street (shhhh... don't tell anyone)
Looks like fun,
doesn't it? Too bad we discovered an old problem was still
there. After a few short runs, we put the car back up on the
lift for an inspection. Lo and behold, the rear axle seals
were still leaking. And that brings us to the present, a scant
month before the OTC...
3/18/2004: The
car looks great... too bad it doesn't have any rear axle
shafts installed! We're waiting for new gaskets (custom from
Pro Fabrication) and a new axle tube end plate. Once they show
up (hopefully tomorrow), we can have the old bearings pressed off
and the new ones pressed on. The new seals are already
installed (fingers crossed) and ready to go. Once the new
bearings are on, it'll only take a few hours to reinstall the axle
shafts and brakes so we can make another test run. Since we
had more downtime, I pulled the header and collector back off and
sent it to Olympic Powder Coating for their version of a Jet Hot
high temperature coating. It just came back and it looks
great. Hopefully this new coating will reduce temperatures in
the cockpit, which were downright BBQ level uncomfortable last year.
4/4/2004:
Things are happening! The header is back and it looks good.
The new end plate for the left axle showed up last week and it's
been installed and the new bearings pressed on (by Budget
Transmission and Smog). With plenty of black RTV on hand, we
reinstalled the axles and sealed everything up tight. The
brakes went back on without a hitch and the rear end looks ready to
go. Once the RTV cures (just in case the seals are still
leaky), we'll take the car out for a little testing and see how
everything works. The new header is also back on. The
pipes still seem plenty hot (500 degrees Fahrenheit plus) but the
"muffler" seems a lot cooler. I could put my hand on the
firewall in the cockpit and not get burned, which is a major
improvement. Everything else looks good and the car is pretty
much ready to go. We have all our pit gear and spare parts
assembled and ready to load in the trailer next weekend. We
even remembered to cut some plywood for jack stand supports this
time to avoid the wrath of track security! While we were at
it, we cut some new ramp extensions too.
4/7/2004: We
finally have all our radio gear sorted and working. It looks
like we'll have reliable communications this time back and forth
from the pits and car. Sampson Racing Communications came
through with the bits we were missing. All we need to do now
is get the helmet kits installed.
4/13/2004:
The trailer is here, but we're switching trucks so now we have
some leg work to do. The Ford F350 truck we used last year is
unavailable so we're going to use Dave's new GMC Yukon 2500.
We'll need a weight distributing hitch and sway control so we've got
a lot to do. In the meantime, the car is loaded along with
most of our gear.
4/15/2004:
After a lot of work and trips to the parts store, the new hitch
is installed and set up. The last bits are loaded and we just
need to finish rigging the radios gear and the camera. I think
we're ready to go!
4/16/2004:
It's time. The trailer is loaded, the truck is hooked up,
and last bits are in place. It's 350 miles to Las Vegas, we're
got a full tank of gas, no cigarettes, it's dark, and we've packed
our sunglasses. As an added bonus, Gregg from Isaac Directed
called today and he's sending out an Isaac Head and Neck Restraint
System with a helmet for me to test during the OTC. It'll be
sent FedEx overnight for delivery to the hotel in Las Vegas on
Saturday. I'm really looking forward to trying it and buying
either it or the HANS as soon as I decide on a new helmet. We
left San Diego around 8:30pm and got to the hotel at 3:00am (ouch).
Other than some crazy guy in a van who cut across the freeway in
front of us, the drive was pretty uneventful. Thanks to
Steve's quick yell and Dave's killer driving, we avoided a major
smashup.
4/17/2004:
After a late start, we took the rig over to the track and
unhooked. We setup the Isaac system, rigged and tested the
radios, and mounted the camera. Then we went over to
registration hosted by the Shelby Museum, which had one heck of a
nice collection. After we were all done at the track, we went
to Vegas for dinner and then it was back to the hotel.
Tomorrow the OTC starts at 7:00am!
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