Transmission Gremlin Forces DNQ for Matter's Season Opener

[Bob Kraemer]

Nancy,
I am assuming that you & the team took the B&J apart between qualifying passes to check it for problems and when it was reassembled type F fluid was used. If so, I am not 100% convinced that trans fluid played a role in this. I am still leaning towards a malfunction in the regulator or shift buttons, especially if the car was shaking hard.
Don't mean to ask a dumb question...
Have you always run a B&J or is this your first year with it? The reason I ask is different shift pressure's are required and different shifter buttons are needed also.

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Well Nancy you have an interesting deal going on. Let us know how it goes and what if anything you find that fixes it.

I knew you could drive the wheels off that Massey Chassis. Just keep doing what I taught you!

[F/C Girl]

LOL Randy!!!

You know Bob, it's a very good point, and yes, this is our 4th year with a B&J so we know them pretty well, When it wouldn't shift on Saturday after the 2nd qualifier, we checked the lines, and since this was the 2nd pass on the tranny, he pulled out the gear drive or cover to smell is anything was burned, you can smell it if theres a problem. Mind you, it was already 2:30 in the morning since we changed over to a micro switch on the clutch and did a bunch of other stuff too. So, honestly, the fluid was fine (we thought) and nothing unusual, so we felt that this would work since there were no other symptoms. None. When I did the warm up, we had other problems, but I told em that 1 - 2 shift was soft again, Well, that was the end of our story.

Now, here is another possiblity: (Since Mike kept going back to the fluid as some guys use oil (which I've heard of, but we don't)

something in a line that clogged and when disassembled very carefully, fell out??? However, all the air pressure still hit 350 on the supply and 335 on the feed, ALSO if an air pressure problem, which we have had from 2 different scenario's, you can smell the burned clutches without even taking anything apart. So, its a gremlin, I went and bought F-Type yesterday and the tranny, All The same components (and Hutch from Cy's went through it too just to double check we weren't overlooking something) is back together and in the car. We'll fire it next week, go through warm up and I'll for sure keep you guys posted. we have to call Mike too, because this is just way too strange.

Darian cracked me up, I was telling him and he asked if this was our first Gremlin, YUP!!

Great ideas though, keep em coming if anything else rings a bell, because this one is really strange. We wished we would have found something broken or burned, then we would know, but instead, nothing.

[RH]

Nancy,been following your woes on the web. I am aware of the folks you have surrounded yourself with and I don't believe you guys will go long without an answer and fix. When these Gremlins appear it is nerve racking for sure but when we find and fix them it's nirvana

Good luck at the div.race.

Ron

[pro70z28]

I don't have a suggestion Nancy, it's just cool to hear Mike Strasburg's name come up. I had the privilege of putting a sponsor's name on their T/F way back in '03 for the Fall Nats @ Rt. 66. A customer of mine sponsored them for the event. They had the car on display during a company picnic. I lettered it that day & got to spend some time talking with the crew, Stuck around to see them fire it up for the crowd later & then watched them qualify that weekend @ the Nats. They are a great group of people. They still say hi & ask how things are going when I run into them at the track even though that was almost 5 years ago.

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Nancy,

Didn't you say you could feel it shift slow in the pits also??? How about during your test fire-up round up a manual shifter lever and if the spare trans shifts weird, put the manual levers in and test it again.

Just a thought.

Rapid

[F/C Girl]

that's an interesting angle. right now, we're going to still fire it Wed evening. So I'll let you know.

Randy, did you run at Denton last weekend?????

[Bob Kraemer]

Sorry and no offence to anyone, you can't do a manual shift lever on a B&J, only air shift.

[F/C Girl]

Hmm, I was thinking of Bret Williamson and how he has his designed.

He's the only A/FC that still uses manual shifting.

good point though Bob, I don't have enough knowledge to know if Bret's is a B&J or lenco.

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Sorry and no offence to anyone, you can't do a manual shift lever on a B&J, only air shift.

Well there you go, a darn good reason to run a Lenco instead!

Thanks for the info Bob, I quite obviously didn't know that.

Nancy, nope I wasn't there. The Nitro Madness guys with new driver Sean Belt went down. It was the first time for him in the car, and the first time the team traveled that far. I checked in with them over the weekend, and wished them well. Scott called today with the full report. I believe he said they have 5-weeks or so to revamp a few things and go out again. They are a great team and will do well, I am sure of it.