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There was no progress last week as I was in
Carlisle. We had three Car Nuts this
week. The car is ready for some test and tune, but projects still remain.
We had
Don Goodman, Vince Falco, and Frank Serafine.
We got the roll cage completed, hood on,
recovery bottle installed, and the air cleaner installed. |
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Well the major task this week
was to put back the driver's side roll bar. We removed it early on
in this project for two reasons, 1) Last year I was told by the
track inspectors the roll bar was too low, that it needed to pass
between my shoulder and my elbow, and 2) it made it a heck of a lot
easier to work on the car.
I'm not a small guy so that put the bar in such a location that it was
impossible to get in and out of the car .
So..... we had to put a hinge in the bar. The bar could not be straight as
I would then not be able to sit in the seat.
So... the first step in the major task was to come up with a high
tech red neck bending machine (I even used the correct red neck
tool, my pickup). I took a LOT of heat for my method on this, and
some of the Car Nuts (which shell remain unnamed, did not want to be
associated with this method |
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Here I am, in that same red shirt, being
heckled for my pipe bender. I have no idea why. I did use the
correct red neck tool, my pickup. |
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Now for the install. To get the correct
position we cut the bar to length and welded it in as one piece. |
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So now that the bar is in, the driver can not
get in and out of the car. So, we need to create hinges so the bar
will swing out of the way for the big fat guy. |
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Time to cut the center of the bar back out and
weld the hinge in. |
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The hood went back on. If you
ever remove hoods, of doors, be sure to drill some locating holes
before you remove them as it makes putting them back easy. Only
minor alignment will be needed on the hood to get it right. |
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The Antifreeze coolant recovery bottle was
upgraded. The recovery bottle has been mounted inside the fender
because I would like to mount a transmission cooler right behind the
headlights. I will remove the headlights so the cooler gets a direct
flow of air. |
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The air cleaner was installed, these things
are expensive! |
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The car is ready
for some test and tune runs down the track. There are still issues,
not the least of which is, The fuel pump does not run when cranking
the engine and,
I took the car for
an alignment before its first outing at the drag strip after this
winters projects. I have had indications before this that the car
might have been used on a circle track. (the MSD box that was in the
car before I bought it was a 6T which is for circle track, when I
took the rear end apart to check the axles I found that the right
oil return was plugged with a cork. I talked with Curly on this and
was told that is a circle track trick to keep all the oil in the
rear end from ending up in the right tube.)
The
alignment brought to light several interesting items. 1) There is a
heaver spring in the right front, 2) the rear axle housing is toed
to the right. 3) The rear axle is off center (on purpose) and inch
to the right). All these things would be a setup for circle track.
Well I
told that story to tell this one. Because of all the weight I
removed from the car and that there is a stronger spring in the
right front, the car now has 2.8 degrees negative camber on the
right front.
It is thought
that if I bring the front end down, and put a matched set of springs
in the front (and I will put and offset pivot shaft just because
(gets me 1.5 degrees positive camber)) that I can get the front end
to line up. The toe in the rear can be adjusted out with the hime
joints on the latter bars.
While I was putting together this
update I received a call from my supplier stating that my new
lowering springs and offset pivot shaft are in.
My current plan is to take it to
the track tomorrow night (Wednesday) and see how it goes down the
track. If I can leave it alone until after club racing night on the
20th I will do so and then swap in the springs and pivot shaft and
get it aligned again.
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