Saturday morning...the little woman has a bunch of honey does lined up for me so I had to get those out of the way before I jumped back in on the car. So with those out of the way and half the day gone I was back under the car.

I forgot to mention that before I put the slave in the car I decided to try to pre bled it. I used a wood clamp to keep the bearing from being pushed off and connected it to the quick release. I pumped up the pedal, using a rod to keep it down and bled it out. Not sure if this would work but I had a hard time bleeding the other when I first put it in.

After a while and several verbal assaults the trans was in. Now all I had to do was get it tighted down. mount the cross member shifter, fill with fluid, driveshaft exhaust....blah, blah blah :hairpullout:

It is now Saturday night and all is together ready for shake down and break in on Sunday.:faint:

Sunday... got the shifter on and buttoned up the console and went back under the car to make sure I tighed everything. Topped the trans with fluid. filled the rear with fluid, did another check, put the wheels back on and dropped it off the jack stands. After a few hours of driving I felt confident that it was good enought to go. Shifting was better than it ever has been even using to old trans. Reverse was easy and shifting and clutch engagement was smooth. I sent an update to David P and Steve R letting them know I was go for Monday.

Bright and early Monday I jump in the car and head out to Willow Springs. I get there and am greeted by the staff and fill out paperwork and wait for the events to unfold. As the day progressed many pictures were taken, slalom was done as well as skid path. Most of the results were not reveled and even I will have to wait to see how it did..... rats!! The weather could have been better the first day. We were battered with wind all day which combined with the sun and the sand made for some red faces to say the least. By the end of the day I had met all of the manufactures and their crew that were there..... some cool people.

Off to the hotel to shower, have dinner with the group, a few drinks and lots of laughs. Then it was of to bed.

Tuesday is the fun day. Track time!!!!! After some more pictures it was time to hit the track, we did the follow drive to get the lines and were were able to drive the track and make changes as we saw fit so the cars were ready for the afternoon test.

Well a funny thing hapend to me while I was out there...

My sway bar arm decides it doesn't want to play anymore an walked right off the end of the swaybar making some aweful banging noises as I come out of the corner. I let off the gas and cruise in to the pit not knowing want happened. As I look under my car i can see that the arm is gone. I borrowed a dirt bike to go look for it on the track but found nothing. Steve R. suggested i go back and look under mt car and sure enough the picture above is how I found it. The arm had hit the ground,snapped the end link, bounced back into the tire all the way around the wheel well and then somehow wrapped itself around the front brake hose and was hidden by he wheel........:omg:

Day over???? HELL NO!!! A check of the brake line revealed that although pretty beat up it was holding pressure and not leaking. So with the help of the other competitors, the Pozzi's and especially the crew from CPP (Much thanks to you guys!!) we put a spare pillow block I had in after some mods, cleaned up the spines on the arm, built a new end link from spare parts i had with me and the car was back in action. i took it out for a quick shakedown and all seemed ok.

David P. Set the mark in Mary's car but I am not sure if i am allowed to say what it was so I won't. Mary P was doing the track driving for the evaluation...man can these guys wheel a car!! She seemed to be going faster as the laps went by and she was but on the last lap for my car we saw the tail start to wag so we knew something was not right but Mary stayed in it and wheeled it in. Somehow the armed walked off again. Luckily it did not get flung off like the earlier event. I lifted it back up and with David's help again got it together so I can drive it home.

I learned a lot from this event, manufacturers helped me understand a few things about set up, driving, I got to see how a magazine puts these stories together and this was just the testing and photograpy..the writing comes later. I had no Idea it was that involved!!

I think most of all I got to meet some cool people on both sides. I think everyone lent a hand on my problem and even at the end of the event Jim from CPP offered to take his car off the trailer and take me home if I could not get the car together. He also gave me his number in case I broke down on the road and said he would come back for me. I can't give enough props for those kinds of actions. All I can say is thanks and hope to pay it forward someday.

Quote:




Originally Posted by efs69


i meth them in Pomona.


oops!!! lol but I think you're right!!

Glad the sway bar mishap didn't cause any serious damage. Congrats on the fun weekend!

Well that's pretty wild and wooly stuff!! Nothing good comes from parts falling off cars!

I think the part I like the best about auto sports is the peoples willingness to help everybody including the guy that might beat them. It's just a great group of people.

Glad it worked out for you.

Efrain,

Glad you made it home okay! I didn't want to say to much in my thread but since you shared the carnage here I just wanted to say I have huge respect for you getting that car back on the track Tuesday! I'm impressed that not only were you still eager to have it beat on but even more that you came prepared with enough spares to rebuild your swaybar.

Hope to meet up with you at a track soon!

Oh and having been on the receiving end of a similar offer to help me get my car home recently it is humbling and amazing what a great group of folks there are in the car world.

EDIT: one more thing. Great pic in post 113!!