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..

26. Replacement...29/05/2014

It looks like we might be lucky with the weather on Saturday so the RWYB will go ahead so,today I hooked up all the batteries to their chargers, they have two days to get to their respective correct levels, Mr Yates tells me my fire suit has finally arrived from the States so I have now got to figure a way of collecting it from him and returning the loan suit I have been wearing.

The other problem I have had is with my Helmet the one I bought first fits fine but has a ridge on the back which for some strange reason just gets in the way..I am a tight fit in the car. Sooo I bit the bullet and bought another one, from the same place this one sis a Snell 2010 as opposed to my other one which is a Snell 2005, which means it is certified for a longer period and it doesn't have a ridge on the back but it did cost a bit more so I am praying this solves the problem....

Fingers crossed we will soon find out...a lot of work has been done on t he car so the plan for Saturday is to get the car out  get it on its jacks and start it up and check oil levels, and go through the gears and check the wheel bearings if everything is ok and levels are fine and no leaks we will go for a run,, but it will only be a burn-out, launch into second and then back off..around 330 foot mark, then back to the pits and check everything again, you can never be too careful in this sport.

If all is OK then the backlash will done again on the valves and the timing sorted, we have taken the play out of the throttle cable and sorted the valve clearances properly, we will adjust the throttle peddle so my foot stops slipping off, then the engine oil will be changed, with the semi synthetic Red Line oil we are changing it every three runs.

Then we will be after it and when I say after it I mean an 8 second run not a 9 I will not be happy till we have an 8 on the board and I have a sneaky feeling we might just do it!!! I must remember my anti fog spray for my glasses this time as being able to see is certainly an advantage...don't you think?

25. More work done

Last Friday my crew chief (son) and my Brother  made their way to the car in Bedford luckily the weather was not as bad as it could have been and for the most part they had decent weather to work on the car, I on the other hand was stranded at home with three dogs and three teenage step kids as Lorni was working.

First order of the day was to get the car out of the truck and set up camp.

..then remove everything again including the bodywork, then it was a case of take the axle off empty the diff, and god knows what was in it as the colour of the oil?? was bight red,

the new end casing was modified??? hit with a hammer till it fitted. then the diff was re-filled,  the welded up tail piece of the gearbox refitted and filled up....

Then it was a case of tidy everything up, replace everything including the bodywork...which got a polish and shine  up and then put everything back in the truck.

So on Saturday the 31st all we have to do is check the oil levels and the wheel bearings adjust the throttle pedal and we are ready to make another run..then it's wait for Dragstalgia.....can't wait.

24. Problems problems always problems!

What a day today has been, the plan was to go over to the car in Bedford, change the gearbox oil, this requires taking the body panels off, and sort out the throttle pedal and replace the dodgy rocker arm for the new one I received a couple of days ago. As I said that was the plan!

So up at 5am and  load the car up and leave by 6am..meet Steve and al at the usual services and then on to the truck, we dragged the car out of the truck as it is easier to work on outside. As Steve was jacking the back end of the car up he leant against the Left hand wheel and slick and it moved..it shouldn't do this..

Not sure if this shows up too well

The hub bearing was loose, the amount of play meant that the wheel had been touching the bodywork which had resulted in a red line round the inside of the slick, so now the first job is to see what is wrong with the bearing, but we did not have the very large socket required to take the hub nut off which was about 58 mm, we identified the bearing but no-one had one or could get it the same day and no-one had a 58mm socket. so it was taken off using the engineers adjustable spanner..(Hammer and Screwdriver) what we found was the bearing had never been seated correctly in the first place the tabbed washer had not been in the right place, probably jumped out while being tightened so the whole thing was loose and probably dangerous.

Steve managed to sort out the washer, re-pack the bearing with grease after cleaning everything up first including the disk and calliper, then re-tighten again and low and behold everything is fine..phew!!

So now the dragster is naked..no body panels on at all...

..which is what we needed to change the gearbox oil, now here's the thing we emptied the gear box removed its sump replaced the gaskets and filter...but then more problems...

This is what we found in the filter!!!!  no idea what it is but Steve guessed it might be what is left of some type of gasket sealer..we just don't know, we cleaned it all out and put everything back together again.But! this is when we saw another problem, I know  this is getting to be too dam frequent now.....the gear box had cracks in it, this would account for the oil we found in the bottom body panel. the cracks are in the end of the gearbox where it is mounted onto the bodywork.

The gearbox is a power Glide two speed and the cracks are in the tail piece. There was nothing for it but to remove the offending bit and see what we can do with it, this meant undoing the UJ's and moving the entire rear axle assembly backwards to clear the prop shaft away form the gear box., looks like we might get away with getting it welded up, we will see. I was told that a previous owner of the car had UJ seize on them so this might account for the damage on the gearbox.

Next job..replace rocker arm and pushrod..next problem, the rocker arm is ever so slightly different from the rest so didn't fit, we didn't get the throttle pedal sorted out either, so we loosely fitted everything back together...as it has all got to come apart again in the very near future.

Al looking all alone and abandoned

So after 12 hours of work we packed her back up in the truck cleaned up and went home,,,

Tomorrow Steve will take the gearbox tail piece round to a local engineering company to see if he get it welded..here's hoping the John O'Sullivan can do it, I will phone round and try and get a replacement rocker arm and try and find out how much oil goes into the diff, I am hoping Roy Wilding can help me on this,,he did build the axle assembly on this car.

Got my fingers crossed that we can get everything repaired in time for the 31st May..we will see...I want to run an"8".

23. At last..a run

Sunday the 4th  May 2014 is a day I will never forget, first of all the sun was shining I was up very early at around 5am packed the car up and left at quarter to 6 on my way to Santa Pod Raceway. I picked my brother up around 6:45 headed out to Bedford and met up with the rest of the crew at the services on the A6 just outside Bedford, then it was over to the truck and away to the Pod.

The car was unloaded and "camp Slimline Racing" was quickly set up...

And my super crew where quickly up to speed and after a warm up and before I knew it I was in the pairing lanes getting ready for my first ever run.

Now I am not saying I was nervous but!!....I could have done with stiff drink. So this was to be the start of a new journey for myself and my crew...who are my sons Steve and Philip my brother Dave and Steve's friend Al who came to help us out on this day, I was about to embark on something I had dreamt about for 40 years and yes I was bloody nervous. This all started for me in 1970 when my Father took me to the Pod for the first time and after seeing and hearing my first ever fuel car fire up I was hooked. So I maybe a 56 year old grandfather but I didn't care this was what I had always wanted to do and it had taken me this long to get here.

The engine was fired up and I was directed round to the start line, the first problem I had was my helmet it has an aerodynamic ridge on the back that kept getting caught on the roll cage..need a new helmet already! the second problem was, I wear glasses and they got steamed up making an already nervous Russ even more so as I couldn't see a dam thing.The brief was...no burnout, gentle run up the track and get used to the controls and the way she handles..so the light goes green I hesitantly put my foot down count to three and try to change into second..I couldn't I was already in second gear oh well not to worry I made it up the track in a very slow 18 seconds at an unbelievable 55mph LOL I didn't care I was ecstatic. Something I will say is this, the track looks very narrow all of a sudden when you are sitting in  a car at the start line looking towards the finish gantry.

We didn't get any video of the first run, probably because everyone got bored and fell asleep before I reached the finish line.

The second run was a lot better in that I actually started in the right gear changed into second at the right time, this time I netted a run that was nearly 5 seconds faster than the first at 14 seconds at 88 mph...still with no burnout and another problem became apparent my right foot kept slipping off the accelerator pedal the pedal was too far over to the left and too high for me, a simple problem to fix for next time..

The video clips on this page were all taken on a smart phone so not of the best quality I will try and get a video camera for the next test session.

I am now feeling a bit more confident with the car so "Turbo" our race consultant suggests next time I  should try a burnout and to try a more aggressive start. So the nerves are now back with a vengeance I am steaming hot as, believe me these fire retardant race suits are dam sweltering. Anyway before I know it I am once again in the paring lanes this time I have smeared washing up liquid on my glasses a tip give to me by Sarah Howells from the famed "Wild Bunch" crew and it worked! I was directed round to the start line again but this time the marshals used the hose and put plenty of water down for me, I had to drive through the water and then stop once I had gone through and on "Turbo's" command.."Floor it" in second gear, which I did and if I say so myself it was a decent effort...

So now it was time for my third run in the car and time to get a little more serious....

So now I have managed to get the car into the 11 second range with a speed of just on 120mph so we are getting there..small steps and no damage to either driver or car. So for the next run pretty much the same but just keep my foot in a little harder and longer, which is still a problem because of the aforementioned throttle pedal problem oh well I will give it my best shot.

This time the burnout wasn't as good or strong I had to come off the power as the car was moving about a bit, and same on the run the car got a bit loose and as this has never happened to me before I got on and off the throttle a couple of times I "peddled" it as they say in Drag Racing circles. But even with all this I still managed a run of 10.8 seconds at 125mph which was brilliant for my first days running, so that was it, time to pack up and go home and look forward to the next runs, which will be the 31st May weather permitting where I hope after having the throttle pedal modified to be able to run a 9 second pass at 140mph if that happens then I will apply for my racing licence and give it a real go.

And for those of you reading this who think that drag racing is just a case of pointing the car in a straight line and flooring it..think again, I wish it was that easy?