rebuilding after the crash

Do you Measure out to
1/16
Or
1/8 ?

 

If it's within 1/8 the manufacturer says it's good.

 

More tire tech. There are two schools of thought on balancing tires. One group says it's not necessary. The other says bubble balance. The tires are so big it's nearly impossible to find a machine to fit them on. I bought a bubble balancer for twenty dollars at a swap meet many years ago. I put the wheel on. When it stops rocking I look at the center. There is a black ring and a bubble. Weights are added to make the bubble go inside the circle. Pretty straight forward. I put heavy duct tape over the weights when I'm done. Ready to install. View attachment 6445624 View attachment 6445625

 

heh...I remember seeing one of those head gaskets before...

 

What you said about being on the wall, says allot about the kind of racer you are.

It doesn't sound like too much got torn up either, pretty awesome.
Looking forward to hearing about the next race.

thank you for all of the updates

 

There's all kinds of junk on the wall. I can't throw it out. In a way it's the story of my racing career.
Today's fun was replacing heim joints. The right side heims were bent. I don't trust straightening them. There could be a hidden crack. They just go in the garbage. As I'm putting it all together I started to think about the increased speed. I also thought about the way the car handels. I decided to increase the positive caster. This plays a huge part in straight line stability. A normal car has a half to three quarters of a degree. Most straight axle hot rods have up to five. I had six. I gave the upper heims two turns in. That gave me ten. Modern funny cars are 8-12. I think this will help a lot.

 

P -Caster ,,
Much more stable @ high speed.
Knuckle buster in Reverse some times,
It really Hurts when it happens ,
Maybe Not so much with a Round
Steering Wheel ,

 

My straight axle hot rods have 8-10 degrees of caster and my independent front end cars have 5-7 they drive way better that way the bonneville car I set a record in had 20 that car drove very well at nearly 200mph I think your car will be much more stable with more caster in the front end

 

I'm going to see how it goes with ten. I'm not opposed to putting a few more in if needed.
I'm all set for Sunday.

 

We got after it today in the 95 degree heat. It's all set up nice and square. Ready for Mokan.

 

the show is coming to Tucson, that's a long haul for you!

 

Jim I’m not sure that’s the same thing Brian’s running in he is running nitro chaos not that he couldn’t but I think it’s a different series I didn’t know there was a fuel altered chaos till two days ago either way you should go check it out as it’s not far for you the funny car chaos and nitro chaos are great shows I’m sure this will be too

 

Funny Car Chaos, Nitro Chaos, and Fuel Altered Chaos are all owned by Chris and Tera Graves. Chris has also ran the Outlaw Fuel Altered Association for many years.

 

I used to go the Fuel Altered Nationals in Tucson in the early 80s...4th of July weekend. Been a while!

 

The local track runs until it snows. There's usually a good weekend or two in October. We plan on taking the car to the Grove then to try and hit 200 mph. If it's still in one piece I might go to Tucson. It would be fun. It's only a two day drive. I can get to Oklahoma city in 16 hrs. Made it to Dallas in in 20 hrs. You never know I will talk to the crew. If I go are you coming out to the race?

 

If I don't burn up all my vacation time at Bonneville, Dad and I might be driving out to Tucson for that event.

 

I set the car up the way I did last time. The more I thought about it the more I wanted another set of eyes on it. I called Brian Metzenheim luckily he had time. He ran through the whole process and was done the same day. I was close but not close enough for Metz. He is a perfectionist. I have total confidence the car will perform as expected. See you in Mokan.