30. Best laid plans and all that!!!

Some times things just don't pan out the way you want them to, no matter how hard you try.We, when I say we I mean the team were hoping to have the gearbox back today ready for refitting, Steve and Dave had taken time off work and I had charged the batteries up and driven 200 miles to take them over to Dave's place so the dragster could be started up and the gearbox checked before putting it away ready for Dragstalgia. Then just when you think you have everything in hand...."Chaos Reigns" and it all falls apart.

First of all the gearbox it has taken John longer than expected to replace all the parts and set up correctly, he has worked hard to get it all done on time but! even with all his hard work..and we do appreciate it John.. time beat him, not to worry we still have a week and a half to try and sort something out, much rather this than rush a job and get it wrong, then......

While on the way to Luton with the batteries I get a txt from Steve to tell me that my other son Phil has been involved in a car accident.....

This is what happened to Phil's car at a roundabout when some d**k-head ran a red light, thankfully in the greater scheme of things Phil is ok nothing broken he will suffer from some bruises and aches and pains and probably nasty whip-lash as well. But what this prat doesn't know is ..he has ruined Phil's car, his pride and joy a car that over the last few months he has lavished much money and time on and none of this will he ever get back, on top of this it's his transport to and from work and even more importantly it's his transport to go visit and pick up his kids  every other weekend, this numpty has ruined more than just a four wheeled machine.

I'm not finished yet!!! oh no...as I pulled up at Dave's place..my brother.. he was under the bonnet of his Astra estate, his battery had gone flat, he knew that the alternator wasn't that old but the battery was, so she went and bought a new battery and as I got there smoke was billowing from under the car as the alternator slowly fried itself into oblivion. So even if the gearbox had been ready we would have still had a problem to deal with.

What with the damage to my bike, this week has so far been a bit of an anticlimax but I always try and remain optimistic, ..my son is still alive and kicking, my bike still works and the damage is fixable, Dave's car is now fixed and ready to rumble and the Gearbox will be fixed and ready in the near future so all in all I suppose things could have been a lot worse???

29. Help is always at hand...in the drag racing world

It's not often that I get surprised in this money obsessed world of ours, but every now and again something happens that restores my faith in the Human Race. Ok so I am looking at a dragster that without a gearbox is about as useful as motorbike with a missing wheel, suddenly my idea of doing a form of Motorsport that I have always loved and at the same time getting my family involved looks like it is dead before it has even started.

The gearbox internals are toast, destroyed. I looked at replacement gearboxes and even spare parts and to be honest not only were they very expensive but I don't have the know-how to replace them. Steve took the box down to John  O'Sullivan's engineering shop in Swindon...

Mow for those that don't know not only is John a really nice guy and a brilliant engineer but he is also a drag racer himself, even though he hasn't been on the track for a little while, this may well soon be rectified..shhh!. this is Johns last run in his awesome pop before he took a rest from the sport.

And as  you can see it takes some sort of driver to get behind the wheel of car like this...fearless.

Anyway with John's help it looks like we will be at the track for Dragstalgia after all, the guy has gone out of his way to help us get back on the track at about the point I was going to give up, I can't thank John enough. He has sourced some good second-hand parts from Andy Frost of Penn Auto's...owner of the worlds fastest street cart..yes it is a Vauxhall!!

.. and a rebuild kit and this time the parts will all be uprated modified parts so should last a lot longer and work better and he is going to put it all back together again for us, OK it's still not cheap, nothing is when you have no money LOL! but by God he has saved us a small fortune.


So we will have an engine that is running properly now and a gearbox that wont be slipping it looks like I will have no excuse now but hunt for the 8 second run, all this because of the unselfish help we have had....thank god it is drag racing that I entered and not another type of motor-sport as I doubt if you would get this type of help in other form of motor-sport.! God I love Drag racing. Roll on Dragstalgia...............

28. Oh boy! more money 11-06-2014

This is more of an update really,as I have mentioned previously the gearbox in the car.."powerglide", stopped working properly we only had 1st gear even though 2nd was selected, the gearbox was removed after much effort from my super crew and sent down to Mr. John O'Sullivan for a strip down and inspection.

Well, I have been told that what has happened has never been seen before apparently the casing holding the planetary gears has exploded and the aluminium pressure plate has disintegrated, there is no friction material left on the 2nd gear clutch plates and the clutch bands are damaged, sooo not only do I need a rebuild kit but I need replacement parts as well.

I have been told that it looks like the gearbox hasn't been touched for years and it has probably been slipping in 2nd gear for a while, which is good news for when we get it fixed as it means she should run even faster, I was also told that there are far too many standard parts in the gear box as opposed to uprated racing parts ie, springs etc, this will also be addressed so even though this is going to cost me an arm and leg I am saving another leg thanks to Andy Frost and John.

We should get the gearbox back in time for it to be fitted and checked just before Dragstalgia so the good news is we will still be there and with a bit of luck running faster than ever..only with a lot less money in the bank account...nothing new there then!!

27. It's a long long road 01/06/2014

We all met up in Bedford on Saturday, full of the joys of spring as they say, we picked the truck up and filled up the tank and made our way to the Pod, Saturday was a RWYB event but Sunday was Classic Ford Day so there were a lot of Fords around, some of them very noisy indeed.

Back to our little dragster, after the strip down last week all we had to do was adjust the throttle pedal and check the oil levels in the gearbox and engine, fill up with fuel and check everything out..which we did...

..everything checked out so we took her down for a run, today's agenda was tog et her down into the 9 second bracket and on the last run really go for it and try for an 8 second run..well that was the plan... we started up ran through the water I pulled the gear stick into second ready for the burnout. I got the go-ahead from Dave so I floored it, she got up on the tyres and there was smoke pouring off the tyres, but! something didn't sound right, I couldn't put my finger on it, while I was thinking of this the front wheels decided to defy gravity and up they went, this I was not expecting, well not on a burnout anyway, I headed towards the start line marshal who had a weird look on his face...yeah fear!, the car came down with a bump I put her in neutral but she conked out before i could blip the throttle so Dave came running after me with small fuel bottle in hand with which he primed the injections system with and I hit the starter and she fired up, I backed her up to the start line, waited for the lights and hit the throttle, maybe not as hard as I was planning as I still had this feeling that something wasn't right...the shift light came on I pulled into second gear but the shift light stayed on and I could not hear a change in engine note I double checked I was in second but nothing happened so I drover her off the end of the track.

What a first gear run looks like, shame Al missed the burnout!

After a little chat about what happened the gear linkage and oil were checked, we started her up on axle stands and checked the gears out but it looked like we still only had 1st gear ratio in both gears, we made a couple of phone calls and it looks like the muck we pulled out of the gearbox when we changed the oil a couple of weeks back was what was left of the clutch plates.

So my super crew stripped the car again and I mean stripped, to get the gearbox out you have to take all the body panels off, wheels off and then the rear axle has to be removed, all this was done within an hour and the gearbox put in Steve's car to be taken to Mr. O'Sullivan for a rebuild.

Good points for the one run, it was the fastest 60 foot and 330 foot time I had managed so far, looks like we were on for a 9 second run..oh well and the throttle pedal has now been sorted as my foot didn't slip off. roll on Dragstalgia..