Post repair reassembly - April 2012

Chassis split, surfaces cleaned and new clutch disk in place.

Gearbox and bellhousing assembly complete and ready for reinstallation.  Thankfully my buddy Jeff Phillips stopped by at this point to smoke my cigars and help me get it back down on the floor gracefully.

A little jiggling and persuasion with a floor jack and whoosh - it all slid together nicely.  It looks a lot nicer now that I have gotten an opportunity to clean in some of the 'hard to get to' areas.

Engine subframes in place and almost ready for reinstallation of the rear suspension.  But I decided this was a good time to do a thurough eval of the fastners and rod ends.  So the parts order is in progress, and reassembly will have to wait a day or two more. 

Post VIR Repairs

The O-Ring that seals the input shaft sleeve was obviously "well past it" as my Brit friends like to say.  Wish I had thought to replace that last winter during the original conversion build.

Close up of the input shaft sleeve that passes through the oil tank.  No scrapes or marring, so the the o-ring should do it.

Speaking of the new o-ring here it is safely installed in the bellhousing.  Thanks much to Richard Pare at ICP for helping me figure out the size and part number at McMaster Carr.

Disassembly complete.  Cleaning underway...
Reassembly is just the reverse of disassembly, right?

More VIR 2012 Photos

The "T" car.  Fresh from qualifying. 

Sunday morning pre-qualifying.  We packed up the Citation and as many of the tools and supplies as we dared.  Thanfully qualifying went well, and no last minute thrashing was necessary.
 

 

F1600 Series Offical and general all around good guy Mike 'Purple Frog' Eakin takes advantage of the brief lul in activities to rest on my golf cart and pontificate with the R-Sport crew.

More VIR photos

Intrepid Crew Chief and Engineer Bill Maisey broods over the dinged front suspension - post Koykka incident.

The Citation, now reassembled (less clutch disk) sits despondant ready to go back into the trailer.

Tim Dunn and the R-Sport team occupied Garage #9 next door.  they had this neat gantry lift to put the car back up on high stands after each session.  I am sure it alleviated some of the back strain, and it just looked trick.

Bill Maisey working on the Piper the good old fashioned way - on the garage floor.  Once we got past the first practice session, car work was minimal between sessions.  Thanks to Honda for making the engine a 0 maintenance item at most races.
 

VIR 2012 Scrap Book

Young Finnish driver Matias Koykka and the brothers Cape occupied the garage next to us.  Unfortunately before we got the chance to meet face to face across teh tape line dividing our garage spaces, we met wheel to wheel in the uphill Esses damaging a pushrod and ending my session.  That said, Matias was the class of the field Saturday.  Watchin the Cape/Wayne Taylor crew constantly clean and prep Matias' car left me impressed - I think I probably learned a thing or two. 

 

The trusty Citation up on stands and done for the weekend.  After showing much signs of promise at teh beginning of the first test session, the clutch went up in smoke.  Further investigation revealed that teh O-ring sealing the oil tank at the exit point of teh Input Shaft was done for and leaking badly.  Spilling oil out of the input shaft cover tube and onto the spinninng clutch assembly.  Althougth there was plenty of friction material left, there was just no friction.  After driving around a few laps with the engine revving to 6500 at teh exit of each corner, I pulled into the pit lane in a cloud of clutch smoke. 

After some discussion, our team principal (aka "Grumpy") insisted that I stop working on the Citation and just drive his Piper.  I reluctantly agreed, and instantly regretted it after getting tangled with Koykka early in the first session out.  Thankfully, things got much better from here.

See my initial struggles at: http://vimeo.com/41355303

See the race report at: http://billmaisey.com/maiseyracing/odesign.htm

or get a taste vor the action from Mike Scanlans view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OWGv...ature=youtu.be