I have this pretty nice 4 seater in my shop, that belongs to a friend of mine. It is currently staying with me for awhile. He just had a new 2300 built for it and I have taken it out once. Some of you Utah guys have seen it out at the BOR race in September. Kyle got stranded with me in it on it's after midnight maiden voyage. This is it-
After the first time out I found a few little things that need attention. The car sat for a few years so no real surprise there. I also found an issue that is a little more concerning, but nothing I can't take care of. Today I pulled the engine and dropped the transaxle, so that I can address it. See pic-
I would like to get it back together this week, but as usual, I have a lot going on. Right now I am going to draw some new parts, so that I can cut them on the CNC plasma at work on Monday. I'll keep y'all posted on any progress. Thanks for looking.
You don't have time to work on this. You should be making trophies
Glad to see you getting things in order. I hope to join you on a poker run or fun run sometime. That is one sweet car! With four people it's like a party on wheels.
Don’t ever yield your gift of dream; Your knack for gumption, too. For “It’s the crazy ones that have all the fun," if dreamers yearn to do.
TimS wrote:You don't have time to work on this. You should be making trophies
Glad to see you getting things in order. I hope to join you on a poker run or fun run sometime. That is one sweet car! With four people it's like a party on wheels.
Trophies and a big ass disco ball. I'll leave the second one to your imagination as to why Nate needs to build a big ass disco ball.
I've seen a lot of older rails with that type of mount. I was told it was to lessen some of the loads on the pickle forks. That must have been a nasty landing for sure.
Chenowth Explorer torsion housings are 4 inches wider than a stock housing so there would not be pickle forks back there per se, just two tubes for mounting the trans mounts. But still could of torn that mount from a hard landing. With that mount torn like it is I'd be looking for add'l damage.
Dang, my tablet died in the middle of the write up. Cliffs notes not necessarily in this order-
1. Fixed the trans mount.
2. Took the car out a couple times.
3. I knew the lower threaded bosses in the engine were stripped, as were the upper ones on the front of the trans.
My buddy came to my shop on Memorial day to help with a fab project. He's an Army vet going through a divorce and some court stuff. I couldn't really get motivated to work and I decided to take him out and show him a good time. After 4-5 hours of riding around, I felt the trans moving the shifter in my hand. We were in a long straight rough section and it let go a few seconds later. Came to a stop in a mud hole, the clutch stopped working and it got stuck in reverse so I killed the motor. Uh oh! Climbed out and the first step sucked my shoe into the muck. The next one left said shoe in the mud while my socked foot stepped into 5" of what was basically wet concrete. Nice.
Oh boy. I immediately see the engine and trans have a 1\2" gap between the at the bottom and the 2 upper bosses in the bell housing are still bolted tightly but cracked. Luckily we are not 20 miles away any more and we walk the 1\2 mile to the truck. Using ratchet straps to pull the in gear car onto the trailer was not easy but it worked.
Last night after work I started pulling the CVs so it would roll freely. The gap had closed up, the trans shifted freely,and the clutch seemed to be working as well. That was a relief. Knowing I was pulling the trans anyway I finished removing the axles while it was on the trailer. Rolled her into the the shop and got the motor pulled. The failure was not the mounts I made but the plate that they were welded to. Once the stripped bolts let go the flexing of the plate broke it where it was welded to the mid rail, and the 1" anlge my mounts were welded to. Pics to come. It is pretty gnarly. Trans should be out tonight and to the trans guy tomorrow. I am going to have him go over everything and replace the bell housing and whatever else it may need. I'll need to rethread all the stripped holes before it goes back together. And there is a crack in one of the exhaust tubes at the flange to fix.
Gotta have it back together and prepped by June 27 for the Vernal race. I'll try to keep you guys posted.
OK here are some pics of the carnage. It looks like it is only the bell housing and the front cone as far as the trans goes. I was going to drop the trans off after work but I was running later than regular business hours and he had a cub scout meeting to attend. Going to drop it on Saturday. This gave me a chance to clean it up a bit. Shout out to Don B- who built the car, and who I ran into the day I broke it. You can see the mount that broke loose. It tore through the 1" angle and the part clean off the mid rail. I don't know exactly what happened to the welded tab in the last pic. Oops!
I got the trans into the shop. Looks like I'll get it back next week. I am going to have the same guy take care of the oil leak and adjust the valves on the motor. Hope to be fabricating and reassembling next weekend.
