What a weird shakedown weekend at Pacific Raceways this weekend.
I went Thursday for a test and tune day--Right away in the morning my clutch
was slipping. Spent most of the day pulling the transmission and found no
clearance between the concentric throw out system I use and the clutch.
Pulled some shims, and that was okay. Back out on the track for the last
session. Seemed fine though there was some oil near the rear of the block.
Oh, well, it's English.
Friday morning, practice, rolling around slowly in heavy rain. Seems okay
until get a meatball--leaking oil. Lots of searching for the leak, and I
discover that I put the blocking plate for my fuel pump on 180 out--leaves
about a 1/8 gap in the gasket.
Out again for the last practice session--seems okay, raining fairly hard--I
do some very lurid slides and one spin trying to find the edge of traction.
Found it.
Saturday, raining like hell. Car won't start on the battery so we jump it.
Not enough oomph from the pushers, so when a tow truck goes by I bum a tow.
Drop in into fourth, won't start--not even a pop. I stop and pop the hood.
Touch the starter and the car lurches backward! I've been trying to start in
reverse!!! Arrgh. That can't be good. Pop it into neutral and it starts
right up.
I skip practice and the qualifier because it's raining so hard and my
grandsons are visiting (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). So I just
run the race. Sun comes out, track dries, start from the back and take an
easy first. Everything running great.
Rain starts again, but lets up. I decide to run the second race. fiddling
with the car, I start it--running on two cylinders. Somehow I swapped plug
leads when I checked the plugs. Fix that, then I notice that the throttle
cable is loose--the arm is rotating on the axle, and there's no "pinch"
left. Grab the grinder, fiddle, get that working--called to pregrid. Toss on
the stuff and head out, and Joe--my son in law--says there's a puddle of oil
under the car. Pressure looks okay, I figure it's just something pooled from
the previous leak. He can't see any more leaking under the car so I head to
the grid. ask the grid workers to check for oil drips. Nothing. Cool.
Get into first place, pulling away, rear end locks up at the end of the
straight. Can't turn. I stand on the brakes and get it slowed pretty much
before I hit the grass--then nothing, I zip across a hundred yards of grass
with no perceptible slowing. I hit the tire barrier going about five MPH and
ding the nose a little. Load it up, drag it home, and find the drain plug
missing from the rear end. From the looks of the threads something might
have driven it out from the inside. But maybe not--I might have forgotten to
tighten and/or wire it.
so I need to rebuild my rear end before I hit the road for Atlanta next
Thursday night. fortunately I have all day Sunday to get started.
Unfortunately I have business stuff all week. I'll get it done one way or
another. Or I might show up in Atlanta with a bum rear end and a box full of
parts.
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