[elky] Oh, hell!

  • From: Ray Buck <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:57:17 -0600

Race Car.  What else?

Yesterday I got the driveshaft in it, and I was gonna unload it from the trailer. 



But the battery was dead, even though it had been disconnected.  Maybe a current leak was discovered when Marlo and his posse loaded it on the trailer and they disconnected the battery after it was close to flat.

So after charging the battery, Jim came over and we were ready to unload.  First thing that happened when I fired up the motor was the ejection of a buncha water and possibly oil from the exhaust:



This wasn't all that encouraging, except that a check of the radiator didn't show any oil and the oil (on the dipstick) didn't show any water.  This one remains a mystery.



Then the long-awaited cleaning of the whiteboard.  We started a whole new list.

The trailer ramps had to be modified slightly so we could fix 'em in place on the trailer...this took a little time, but we "got 'er done."

We decided that the best place to unload the race car would be with the rear axle of the trailer in the gutter:



This worked fine...until I put the transmission into reverse.  Nothing.  No drive to the wheels at all.  Shit. 

We ended up pushing the car off the trailer (the ramps worked out fine) and then using a floor jack to get the rear end off the ground, we dragged the rear end of the car around so that we could use our high-tech push truck arrangement:



Poor folks has poor ways, it seems.  I tried firing the motor up and testing all gear positions, but there's nothing there but a box of neutrals.  Damn!, said he.  That transmission had less that 10 miles on it.  The park pawl still works, so it isn't a broken output shaft and it's not hemorrhaging ATF, so I don't really know what the problem is. 

But for the moment, the race car is back in the garage and the licensed cars (Burb and Camaro) are outside in the driveway while I try to figger out what's wrong.  Here's some of my dilemma:  I'm gonna have to replace the rear end.  Robert, is that 8.5" peg-leg still available?  It may be the ticket to solve that problem.  Then there's the transmission thing.  I'll pull the pan and see what I find, but my head is screaming, "T-56!  I know a T-5 won't handle 500+ hp, (I guess a World Class T-5 might be close) so that leaves a Tremec 5-speed, the T-56 or a built-up TH200-4R or TH700R4.  I spose if the rear gear was low (numerically) enough I could use a Muncie or T-10. 

I really don't know what I'll do at this time.  But I'll think of something (to mis-quote Arthur C. Clarke in "A Space Odyssey.")

r
 

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