This last weekend (Friday and Saturday), the local mustang club had an event at Nashville Superspeedway.
Got out in the first session (this was the first event for me this year, busy busy), and the car felt great, I was running much better *I felt* than I ever had at NSS, came out of the back carousel onto the straight, hit 4th and Boom! Missed the gear entirely, the "boom" was heard in the garages all I hear was a grinding noise. Car was still running, although vibrating something awful. I figured I trashed the transmission. I limped the car back into the garage, got it up on stands to see if I could see anything wrong externally. A couple of the guys there driving NACAR trucks came in and came over to help out. We could not figure out why the entire car shook violently while running. I called the guys at Delk, about a mile from the track, to come over and take a look. They show up, and start scratching their heads also, and told me to limp it to the shop.
They let me use a lift and some tools and told me to pull the tranny. Nice. Something I've never done before! LOL After a couple of hours I had the trans and clutch assembly out, ready to check out. We couldn't find anything visually wrong. Runout checked OK on the transmission (which was weird that the stock T45 has that much runout), runout on the flywheel checked OK. Laying in the floor, the trans shifted OK. We knew that the vibration was still present with the clutch engaged, trans in first, foot on the brake, so the only logical culprit would be the pressure plate. To be sure it wasn't the motor, I bolted a bellhousing on, reinstalled the starter and fired the motor up. Smooth as butter. About the time we got to this point, the first day had ended. We decided that it had to be the pressure plate, so first thing Saturday morning I was back down there, attempting to get everything back together to get back on the track as quickly as possible. Once I got the clutch assembly installed, the guys at Delk were kind enough to slam the trans back in, to save time. Everthing back together and vibration gone. This was/is a Mcleod assembly, and we still can't figure out what happened with the pressure plate. Visually, it looks fine. No hot spots, nothing. No parts in the bellhousing, nothing. Who knows, only that the newer Mcleod is working just fine. I will say, after watching the input shaft "wobble" on the stock transmission and being considered "fine" or "within tolerance", I can't wait until I put the TKO 600 in.
The nice thing about the MCMC event is god awful amounts of track time. I still managed to get 5 sessions in Saturday afternoon. I think I've had a problem with the pressure plate all along, the vibration I would get starting around 90 mph and up, which I associated with the IRS "vibe", was now gone. So, all in all, good fun even having to turn wrenches half the event.
Can't wait until Gingerman!
epper:
Got out in the first session (this was the first event for me this year, busy busy), and the car felt great, I was running much better *I felt* than I ever had at NSS, came out of the back carousel onto the straight, hit 4th and Boom! Missed the gear entirely, the "boom" was heard in the garages all I hear was a grinding noise. Car was still running, although vibrating something awful. I figured I trashed the transmission. I limped the car back into the garage, got it up on stands to see if I could see anything wrong externally. A couple of the guys there driving NACAR trucks came in and came over to help out. We could not figure out why the entire car shook violently while running. I called the guys at Delk, about a mile from the track, to come over and take a look. They show up, and start scratching their heads also, and told me to limp it to the shop.
They let me use a lift and some tools and told me to pull the tranny. Nice. Something I've never done before! LOL After a couple of hours I had the trans and clutch assembly out, ready to check out. We couldn't find anything visually wrong. Runout checked OK on the transmission (which was weird that the stock T45 has that much runout), runout on the flywheel checked OK. Laying in the floor, the trans shifted OK. We knew that the vibration was still present with the clutch engaged, trans in first, foot on the brake, so the only logical culprit would be the pressure plate. To be sure it wasn't the motor, I bolted a bellhousing on, reinstalled the starter and fired the motor up. Smooth as butter. About the time we got to this point, the first day had ended. We decided that it had to be the pressure plate, so first thing Saturday morning I was back down there, attempting to get everything back together to get back on the track as quickly as possible. Once I got the clutch assembly installed, the guys at Delk were kind enough to slam the trans back in, to save time. Everthing back together and vibration gone. This was/is a Mcleod assembly, and we still can't figure out what happened with the pressure plate. Visually, it looks fine. No hot spots, nothing. No parts in the bellhousing, nothing. Who knows, only that the newer Mcleod is working just fine. I will say, after watching the input shaft "wobble" on the stock transmission and being considered "fine" or "within tolerance", I can't wait until I put the TKO 600 in.
The nice thing about the MCMC event is god awful amounts of track time. I still managed to get 5 sessions in Saturday afternoon. I think I've had a problem with the pressure plate all along, the vibration I would get starting around 90 mph and up, which I associated with the IRS "vibe", was now gone. So, all in all, good fun even having to turn wrenches half the event.
Can't wait until Gingerman!
epper:
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