Postby greenracing » Mon Sep 18, 2006 10:13 am
Well....
I ended my season this weekend. I know - it's that time of year anyway, but it's a bit earlier that I had planned.
The intention this weekend was to test the new ladder bar location. It appeared to accomplish what I had wanted - eliminate that tire shake. 2 launches and no sign of tire shake.
The car is still pulling hard to the left on the launch - which actually doesn't surprise me since I didn't change any preload or weight around. 1 change at a time...
This was the first time I had run at Quaker City. It's a nice facility. The only tricky part is that you pull up a hill to the starting line. The water box is actually on a hill. I usually look down the track and find the groove as I'm pulling through the water. In this case you can't see down the track when you're in the water because it's over the top of the hill.
I did my burnout up over the hill and realized I wasn't where I really wanted to be. I backed it up and moved it around as best as I could and pulled up to the line a straight as I could. I wasn't real happy with it, but it wasn't too far off. Then I looked up to stage and couldn't find the tree! I finally found it behind the windsheild post by leaning to the center of the car. I got the car staged, then I couldn't see the lights. I found them by leaning my helmet over against the outside bars - we're having fun now!
The car launched hard with no shake - wheels up and headed for the center line. I pedaled it and brought it back, hit it again and squirreled around a bit (my wife enjoys watching the crowds reaction to this....). I hit the shifter, moved my hand back to the wheel and the tranny when to neutral. Zing! (big cringe...) I let it coast till around 1000' and figured I'd may as well see if I can get it back into gear to get down to the turnoff. I wiggled the shifter and it dropped back into 2'nd and I tooled on down to the turnoff.
Back in the pits I crawled under the car and disconnected the cable and slapped the shifter from first to 2nd and compared it with where the tranny detents are - it was pushing it well past 2nd toward nuetral. A quick adjustment and that was fixed. I pulled the covers to makes sure that the valvetrain was all still there - it looked good. Looked at the filter - it was ok, and said a prayer that the bottom end didn't get stretched.
I considered cranking in some preload, but I wanted to get a run with the car lined up straight before I got too carried away.
The 2nd run I had Al Goodman back me up and help me get lined up. I felt like I was about where I needed to be this time. And I was in the left lane, so I could actually see the tree in the windshield! Another hard launch and another hairy ride that required a pedal job - ok I should have cranked something... Calmed the car down, hit 2'nd gear, car's pulling nice, then POOF followed by a big vibration and that sickening smell of hot oil.
I can say one thing - diapers work. I knocked a hole in the side of the block that allowed me to reach in and remove part of a rod, but I didn't put any oil on the track.
So I don't know whether the free-rev on the previous run stretched something, whether putting the car back in gear stretched something, or whether it was just it's time to let go. In any case I looks like my winter activities will start a bit earlier this year.