And here, I thought I called 'em like I saw 'em. You guys give new meaning to the phrase "telling it like it is"! Still waiting for more info on your rear diff results Jim. Are we up and running? Or, did you already say that it is, and I'm just too old and saturated with Stout to rememberDamn, I love Guinness Stout
That Aussie gets paid more than me. I'll need to raise the comp agreement the next time around! You'll find that the yoke in your drive shaft must have been designed by the same imagineer that decided on the splined hub clearance for the stub axles. The size of the bearing caps on the front shaft are too small, and the bore in the yoke does not have a sufficient interference fit to hold the cap tight enough to keep it fro0m rotating. I am replacing both driveshafts just for the 1000, because the when you rotate the drive shaft, some of the u-joint bearing caps spin in the yoke. It's hard to believe that there is more friction between the needle rollers and cap i.d. than there is between the bore in the yoke and the outside surface of the cap, but there is. After 2 u-joint replacements, our shafts are trash. The spread between the cir-clips is a little wide also. Once pressed (or dropped, in my case) in, there is about .015" of end play between the caps and cir-clips. These problems exist mainly on the longer front shaft.
The longer, front driveshaft is the vulnerable one. The u-joints blew out of ours in the last 50 miles at the Baja 500. A circlip fell out, and I Yamabond those suckers in, and we lost a cap. F'd up the whole drive shaft. For what ever reason, the u-joints in the front shaft are smaller than the u-joints in the rear shaft. I'm no driveline guru, but I would think that the longer, heavier drive shaft would benefit from the larger u-joint. The difference in bearing cap diameters on the front and rear shafts is around an 1/8". Adding to the problem, is the fact that the stout, rear shaft bolts in at both ends which is fine, but the front shaft bolts at the front diff only, and has that sloppy fit, splined-slide interface where it attaches at the front of the motor.
We're bringing Sparkletts. Ha, not funny! Really, you are correct. There will be a section or two that, upon a planned belt change, we will switch over to a totally sealed, closed cover with mechanical ducting. I am confident I can get more life out of the belt if I just had a couple of days at Plaster City, but I know I won't. With our well guarded engine, we will most likely see at least 90 minutes of planned down time in the pits. It will give the rest of the guys a chance to catch up with the running fatso, the Iron anchor, the burly beast that is the Monster Mav. Ha heee Hooooooo!
I believe now that they added more miles, for a total of 1,280+ miles (yes, you heard it here in the Chronicles first), upon finishing the race, Marc will have set a SCORE record for most consecutive miles ever driven in a single race by one person
. We're talking about stopping for taco's before the finish of the race, if the lead warrants it. Really. Do you guys think that would be arrogant? Ignorant? Disrespectful? Cool maybe? Or maybe, it will be only as much as making a statement. Our Swan Song. It will be the final event for the Monster Mav's short career. One season of shame, and one of glorious proportions. Either way, this race ought to be one of the most talked about in recent years, or perhaps ever. It will be no cake walk for any UTE, including ours. But one thing is for certain: If it's hard for us, it will be undoubtedly harder for the rest of the class. . I don't know what he's saying over on the evil side that is F-book, but I'm sure he's playing down his role, and the task ahead. If he weren't so macho, I'd probably feel sorry for him.
Steve, you are outright hilarious my friend!
