Briz I am Praying that they are the ones to help you out and can get to the bottom of the problems contributing to what the car is doing, I wanna see some vids of the car making some consistent, good straight passes……. again..
Yesterday evening Jimmy called me up. He was looking to touch base and help out with the car next week. Its really cool when people actually follow through. Told him of my plans with Voss. Funny They know him and Jimmy knows of them as well. Anyway, he said " You should have stayed for the rest of the lecture" My reply was I took what Frank said as I should leave when he told me to put the car in the trailer. Guess that was not the case. Apparently Frank is not clear sometimes. No problem, get to go back as soon as the car is ready.
For your sake, I sure hope there is an easy fix here. I know your chomping at the bit to get some laps on this car. Good luck JW
Short update.. Had the car at Voss's shop for 2 days. Very first thing they did was measure from the center of the crankshaft to the ground. Over 15". Called crankshaft centerline. Had never heard of the term. Theres some short little shocks on the front with about 6" travel. They were fully extended with 0 outward travel available. Difference in weight on the nose between the old Iron block and the Tomahawk. They later scaled the car and made some adjustments to even out the weight Shes 2230 + my 145lbs. So with the front being high that throws' off the instant center. Basically shes starting a wheelie before I let off the button. To correct this we used ratchet straps to cinch the control arms together until the crank center was 12" off the ground. Then using the two travel limiter rods and a spacer tightened to hold and adjusted to make the front even L/R They were loose with several inches of free play to start with. After that they made some adjustments on the wheelie bars. Rear suspension was pretty close after the work on the front end was done. Spoke again to Jimmy and mentioned I'd want to make a few TnT passes before coming back to class. His thoughts were that I should just bring her back and try again at the next class. Thats this coming Wednesday and Thursday. So I Guess we'll see what happens.
So as much as it sucks Im again home early from the class. Made one pass and the track bar fell off on one end and the car got way out of shape about .5 sec into the launch. Had no idea while it was happening what was going on, and I cant place any blame. 1 of 2 things happened... Either I did not tighten the bolt when the rear got put back in the car or when it was at the chassis shop they possibly made an adjustment and didnt tighten that bolt. Either way whats done is done. On the + side it did leave better. Front end stayed on the ground and for a brief second it did go straight. I posted a short vid on my FB page if ya wanna see it. Next step is to get it up in the air and go over everything + put thread lock on anything that might come loose. Next day time TnT is 6 Jan and I'll be there. If it works well then we'll finish the class.
Way back when I helped a buddy who was bracket racing at the local track. The car was a full race car 71 z28 that went 9.90s. We checked nearly every bolt in the car after the races- that was mandatory. With solid mount everything causing all sorts of vibrations, we often found at least a couple that were loose. Suspension bolts, engine brackets, you name it and we put a wrench on it..
No thread lock....fine thread steel lock nuts....that's standard hardware for anything really....but especially ladder /4link stuff
Unfortunately not possible for this connection. The 3/4" bolt that holds the lower left bar threads into this "fitting" Its a blind hole but the full 1+" of the threads go fully in without bottoming out. Only possible way of locking it would be with a split washer or liquid lock tight
Theres a free Heim joint on the other side of what you see in the pic and a locking nut to set the bar in place. To me it looks like it was welded together then machined. Went over to the Voss shop to look at how their stuff is out together but those cars have a 4 link and wishbone set up. Im not giving up on this as it sits. Its made good straight passes for many years and totally believe its just a matter of working out the bugs. Hard part is the travel time and available dates to go and test. Times like this a guy needs his own personal track with all the right equipment to prep it. I have the room but the HOA would have a cow.
I figured the shadow made it look bad. I feel your pain trying to sort out a new setup. You know what the car should run, you make changes and then wait all week to get to the track. Then the track sucks, or the weather sucks or the track is so damn busy you wait 2 hours between passes, finally get to the line and then screw something up... it can be really frustrating.
At least you have tracks open somewhat near you, here in northern Ohio its all closed up.......maybe 6 hrs south in deep Kentucky or Tennessee we could find a track.........
