|
Mixed weekend for us, we were a little delayed getting to the track as we intended to finish a few last minute jobs and set off around 5 pm Saturday, hoping to get some track time all day Sunday.
As it was the jobs turned out ten times longer than anticipated and we finished 10 oclock
Sunday night ! arriving at the track 1.30 am Monday morning.
Drove the finished car for the first time up the return road and back and it seemed OK but on the first run it had a wicked misfire under load.
Tried to diagnose the fault and it lookes like a faulty MSD two step module. Much better with it disconected but still a misfire on the top end, managed back to back 11.5s so the car has some potential when sorted.
There seem to be a few handling problems, which was a bit dissapointing as the car had new top and bottom suspension arm bushes, new Moroso coil springs and new Summit 80/20 shocks
and then the tracking was set using a fancy Laser alignment tracking guage.
The car was very wibbly, wobbly ( technical term ) but was controlable as it allways corrected with a bit of steering. Unfortunately on the very last run, just before the finish line I lost all steering when the steering shaft universal joint parted company with the steering box. A little disconcerting as we were doing 110 mph.
With hindsight I spent a little too long trying to push the wheel up and down to get it back on but it became quickly apparent that no matter what I did with the steering, I didn't have any !!!
All this time I was turning right and heading for the field, Now I normally avoid any heavy braking but on this occasion I hit the brake pedal with both feet as hard as I could !
we went off the track sideways through an earth bank knocking a front tyre off the rim,
became airborne, landed, fortunately on the wheels and continued sliding across the grass untill we came to a very abrupt stop against a bigger grassbank.
Had a quick check that I hadn't lost my wallet, and switched every thing off and got out.
The Medics were there straight away, so thanks for there quick response, they did seem a bit dissapointed though when I said I was fine.
We had a quick look at what had caused the failure and it was simply that the grub screw on the UJ whilst it was screwed right in, it had not been located in the groove but sat on top of the splines, tight enough to appear to be located. The first time you know it isn't is when the wheel comes off !
Thanks to everyone who helped, especially the Flavell team, CJ and Micheal Murty who fitted my tyre back on the wheel so we could drive the car out of the field and back to the pits,
and thanks to the Angel in the passenger seat who kept us the right way up !!!!
So still have a little work to do but we will get there, first thing a new pair of underpants, next thing a slightly longer grub screw, then check, Castor, Camber, kingpin inclination, Ackerman Angle, and tracking, anybody got a tape measure !
Des
SS54
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
.thanks to all at york ,and big thanks to Mr D Billadeau on engine build ,top job Dave 
.congrats to Ash on mondays win . I must try harder out 1st round. 
BIG well done to Rich & Bri on there PB's 