In my never ending quest to find the weak link..LONG!

Well today I set out to try and get the car dialed in and ready to race. First let me say thank god for all the rain. At least I am not missing any races due to an uncooperative car.

My day started with a nice 1 hour drive to the track. We, my son and I were listening to the local car scene radio show and having a good conversation on the way to Sac raceway. So far it was looking like a good day looks like the new shocks I put on the truck definitely help the ride, that was a plus. Well we unload the car and get ready for the day. Plug in the charger check the engine fasteners clean the car up etc. We get it up on stands for a little warm up so far so good. Well once the kill switch was pulled my day started getting ugly. My son pulls the switch and poof, we got smoke. We had a wire that shorted out and made a smoke show for us, great. Look in the toolbox and trailer and guess what, no wire. Keep in mind I am usually the guy handing stuff out at the track, well I remember giving a chunk of wire to a guy a few weeks back, looks like I forgot to replace that. Well no big deal, unhook the truck and head to the parts store. I get to the parts store and find what I need, go up front and guess what computer is down and I stand there for 15 minutes waiting to get wrung up. Starting to wonder if I shoudl have stayed home and rode the Harley instead. Well anyway I get the needed stuff to repair it, my crew chief(son)handled the repair.

So we proceed to warm it up and all goes well. Mind you at this point we are about 1 hour behind schedule. Well thats ok not many folks at the track today so no problem. So off to tech I went. Well being late I waited for about 15 minutes or so. Finally I go up to the starter and say are we gonna be able to get teched or what. He says just give the card to the new guy running the lanes, we know you are good. No problem I proceed to walk back to the car and hand the guy my card, on my walk back to my car I got pelted with a 6 inch piece of rubber in the back of my head, beginning to wonder who I made mad this morning at this point. But undeterred I proceed to get in the car and return to my pit spot to watch LilDemon make his first pass. So I leisurely proceed to make my way back to the trailer. Wanting to warm the trans up a bit more I decide to take the access road and proceed to the first turn out and come down the return road. Well all thing are going great, getting a few thumbs up from some of the spectators there, yes we had some as there was a birthday party at the track today before we raced, complete with bicycle drags, so I wave back at the youngsters as they are waving and giving me the thumbs up. Makes me fell a bit better about the patch of rubber deal. Well anyway as I am approaching the first turn off from the track on the access road it happens..The car just shuts off. WHAT THE HECK just happened! I look at the volt meter, still got voltage. Everything else is working fine. Then I dont hear the tell tale buzzing, looks like my fuel pump quits. Hmmmm, I am thinking to myself at this point, the Harley is sounding better and better. I give it a quick once over, remember the fried wire. So I look the wiring over and see no issue. I pulled a fuse, which turns out was the wrong one after all and it was fine. So I sit there for a minute or three and finally my son and LilDemon come to my rescue with the golf cart. We tow it back to the pits and look it over, mean time LilDemon takes off to make a run. My crew chief is also his videographer. So we hop in the cart rush to the line only to see his car fading in the distance. We missed filming it. Well we come back to the pit and start looking things over. My crew chief finds the correct fuse for the fuel pump and it is blown, my old eyes are not what they used to be apparently. So we put in a new fuse and fire it up, viola all better. Well almost. While it was running we began to wonder why the fuse blew, still not entirely sure at this point but we found one very hot really and replaced it as well. So all looks and sounds good.

So finally at what is now 1:30 or so I head to the line for my first pass of the day. Hopeful that the new 4 link settings, yes we finally found a better number than 84 out at midnight Friday night and proceeded to change the bars around. Oh yeah this was also the cause of the fragged wire as apparently in my semi comatose state after being at the shop for 14+ hours I pinched it in a nut on the 4 link. Anyway enough about the lite. So I am now very hopeful that we found the "magic" spot in the 4 link and I can quit doing 200+ wheelstands finally. So I do my burn out, car sounds and feels great. I clean out the throttle a couple of times as it sounded a little fat. Now it is nice a crisp sounding. So I proceed to stage. I go slow as I always do and I stage very shallow. Works bets for me on the tree. Anyway I bring the car into the beams, feeling great and anticipating a good leave. Stage the car, mat the pedal, on the chip at 5400rpm, let go of the button 1.105 seconds later(give or take)the car comes off the stop and BOOM!!!!! I loose a transmission......

So in my never ending quest to find every weak link in my car we can ad another victim to the pile. For those playing at home we have so far, one converter, two relays, one fuse, one fuel pump, one trans brake solenoid, one wheelie bar clevis, some wiring, and one transmission. Not bad for four outings to the track and 9 passes

Damn, sorry to hear of the mishaps..........sure am glad I`m slow and not breaking stuff(yet). You`ll get it Al and when you do it will be sweet.

Wow i am really sorry to hear about that Al.
If i didnt know any better i would swear that you
were telling a story about my trips to the dragstrip.
You are not the only one who has had those problems.
I wish you luck, and im sure it will get better!

Al, first off, your car is beautiful. Second, isn't that what we do? Build the car, want to go faster. So we build again and see what gives. Unfortunatly you are finding them. And as for riding the Harley today, I think with the way your day went, the Harley would've been a bad choice. Can you imagine that chunk of rubber being a rock from between the duals of a semi. The car and you both came home unscaved. Sorry the trans took a dump, but you will prevail. Beep

No worries here guys. I am not upset at all. Just one of those days and I felt like sharing my story with some folks who might like to hear about it.

The tranny deal is not biggie. It does not owe me anything at this point. We were talking about it on the way home. It has had it's fair share of abuse. Not a total failure either. I have high gear so I think the low band just let go. Besides there is a brand new on in the trailer, just have to stab it is place. Bet we are not going back to the track without adding more weight to it. Funny today when I was getting pushed back by the track guys, they commented on how heavy the car is and it needs to go on a diet. Told one of them later well we are actually going to ad some weight to it before our next outing.

Hey all the broken stuff is giving me something to do while the wife is in Iraq anyway

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I am thinking to myself at this point, the Harley is sounding better and better.

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i'm with ya there Al, been riding the dirtbike or street bike just about every chance i get. climb on, push the button and have fun...no broken nothing, no zillion dollar parts or fuel. racing is a demanding, expensive hobby that's sure taking it's toll on me. been starting to get back at it in the shop but the bikes sitting there calling my name sure make it tough.