by Goatman » February 16th, 2012, 8:55 am
Well, finally, here's a race report. Took some time to unwind from months of working non-stop on this thing.
This project started out with an XJ that already had a good lift and good axles and beadlocks with good 35" tires. Put in a cage, fuel system, seats and other various parts and go racing. Right.
Out came the seats and interior panels. Gotta lighten it up, don't need the HVAC stuff, so out comes the dash. Somewhere along the line someone thinks we have a chance to win with this car. The build gradually changes from a wheeling rig that can compete competently to a full on race car. Oh, we'll just rewire the whole thing, out comes the wiring harnesses. Russ is going to build a new bad ass motor, and Russ has an Atlas, out come the motor, trans and t-case. It has a perfectly good front axle, a strongly trussed D30 with 30 spline axles hub to hub and WJ knuckles and brakes. We're afraid of the D30 ring and pinion, Solid Axle donates a D44 center section and Yukon donates a Grizzly locker, so out comes the front axle assembly. It has a perfectly good front suspension with drop brackets, but Full Traction donates a front suspension system, so out comes the front suspension. We are left with nothing but sheet metal and a 35 spline rear D44 with an ARB.
The car is brought to G&G in Bakersfield in late Sept and we start working on the cage. We'll be ready by Goatfest in late Nov. Right.
We work every weekend except Goatfest, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We finally get the cage, frame and body tie ins, suspension, new front D44, body armor, seats, dash, bumpers, etc, etc, done by the end of New Years weekend. The car is hauled back down to Cal's house in Fullerton to get the motor and ton's of other stuff installed. We have a good crew working every weekend, and whoever can is working evenings during the week. The new motor fires the Sunday before the race. The wiring is being done the week before the race. The car drives under it's new power the first time to get onto the trailer on Thurs before the race. But, we stopped for 3 days to give Cal and James a rest and to get the car painted, so it looks good. NAPA donates the paint since our colors are blue and yellow. Plenty of running changes, upgrades, and set backs, but we're committed to building a good quality race car.
The car gets to Johnson Valley on Thurs, race is on Sun. We still need to finish some wiring and get the shocks tuned, and get some seat time in the car, plus things I can't even remember. James and Kris are working on wiring up the lights, ARB compressor, and other things. Everyone in the crew has something to work on. We want to be ready to pass tech, and we want some seat time in the car and get the shocks tuned. Cal and I run the car a little Thurs evening, feels good but the front shocks are too soft. Shocks go to Joel from Bilstein for some changes Fri morning, while the crew works on getting some leaking brake fittings around the line locks fixed and a leaking fitting on the Atlas resolved. Carol makes one of her many runs into town for parts and the brakes are back together. We get over to tech and we pass with flying colors, no issues. James is really happy. We get out with Joel for another round of shock tuning, the car feels good but the front needs more work. Shocks come off, more work on brake fittings and Atlas fittings. Ride height is a little low in the back, so longer shackles are installed. The car is ready to go and we take it out for a spin after dark Fri evening. Feels pretty good but on the way back to camp we break a rear driveshaft.
Sat morning we install the spare driveshaft, and the brake fittings are still leaking. We pool parts for another spare driveshaft. Since we added the longer shackles, now we need limit straps in the rear. Forgot our assortment of limit straps, so Cal gets them from ORW and we get them installed. We get the car out for a test midday and almost immediately break another rear driveshaft. WTF? Now the rear yoke is toast. Cal is able to buy a pinion yoke from ORW and some degree shims to fix the pinion angle problem that we suspect is causing our drivelines to break. First set of shims installed isn't enough, second set of shims are installed. Still working on the brake fittings, want to bypass the line locks but we need them to meet the rules. We figure out another driveline and another spare, and with the correct shims installed and the brake lines finally not leaking, we take it out for another drive Sat evening well after dark. No broken driveline, the car feels pretty good, shocks are plenty good enough to race. James had just hooked up the volt meter, but I guess we didn't look at it. Final pit crew meeting, the last checking of bolts and fittings. Looks like we're ready to race.
Sunday morning the car starts fine and is driven to the starting line up. All cooling fans are wired to be on all the time, as are all the lights. No time to do it any different. I get in the car to move it into our starting position and it won't start, battery is dead. WTF? We get a jump from one of the other competitors and we have low voltage, alternator isn't charging. Kenyon and someone run back to camp and pull an alternator off of his XJ (our spare was the wrong kind) and run back and install it on the car while the rest of the field is taking off. We're running and good to go, only 15 minutes behind everyone else. Cal and I are in the car, Matt is going to switch with Cal at the 2nd pit. We decide to run reasonably quick but conservative and let's see what happens. We don't pound over anything and don't push the car, and we've done virtually no pre-running. The car is feeling pretty good. Around mile 11 we catch and pass our first car, we pass a few more heading to the first dry lake bed, we pass another one or two on the lake bed. We get into some fast whoop stuff and pass at least three more cars, a couple of them are a challenge to get around but once we pass them we're gone. We pass another car or two heading into Martel. The car is feeling really good and we're getting our confidence up about how the car is handling and about the race. I'm still driving conservative, leaving the trans in D and letting it shift where it wants, not pushing the motor hard. We have passed quite a few cars by this time, both running and broken down, and we're about race mile 26 about to hit a small trail called Martel.
We get into Martel, get over a couple of rocks, then climb a steep loose section to a very big rock with a tight right hand drop, and we can't get passed the rock. WTF? We back back down, and can't get going again, something is wrong. We don't have 4wd. Now we're sort of blocking the trail, the first car squeezes around us with some slight body damage. Cal gets out and we winch ourselves sideways and out of the way. We have no front wheels engaging. All the cars we passed are now passing us. Bummer. We replace both front locking hubs but don't see anything wrong with the hubs we're taking out. The hubs were new with 300m drive gears, but evidently are not working correctly. Thankfully the spare hubs work fine, but we've lost over an hour. We decide to be conservative and go for a finish, and enjoy ourselves. We don't go slow, but we don't push the car at all. We make it to the first remote pit around race mile 35 and stop for a scheduled quick inspection. The rear end is a little loose so I want them to take a few pounds of air out of the rear tires. Everything else looks good, except that James tells us to take it easy, we have a slightly bent rear axle housing. Crap. We pull out of the pit and now drive pretty conservatively, wanting to make it to the finish line.
We get to the top of Elvis, around race mile 48, and a Toyota truck is stuck on the trail. He winches off and we head down the trail, but the car isn't turning well and we get hung up on the same big rock. Cal gets out to winch us and sees that we have a flat right front tire, no wonder it didn't turn well. We also have a trans fluid leak. We winch off the rock and drive down the rest of Elvis with the flat and stop at the bottom to check the leak and change the tire. Trans leak is no problem, Cal tightens a fitting. We change the spare tire. We also get a good look at our "slightly" bent rear axle housing. James didn't tell us how bad it was. In a few more miles we're going to head over Fissure Mtn Trail and start into the real rock trails. Cal and I seriously doubt that the rear axle is going to hold together as bent as it is, and we don't want to create a bad recovery situation, so we decide it's best to call it and head back to main camp. As badly as we want to finish, our race is over. We made it back to camp and parked the car in the pits. A little while later we fired it up to drive over closer to the finish line to visit and let people look at the car and it wouldn't move in 2wd, the rear end was gone. Looks like we made the right call.
The first race of a new season for a new class in a new car, bummer the first race is as important as King of the Hammers and we're not able to finish. Lot's of should have's and could have's, but we're happy we made it and the car runs really well. We'll get another rear axle in it, finish a few more things, work out a couple of bugs, get some testing time, and be ready to race at Glen Helen in July.
So many people and companies to thank. This really was a Team project. Many, many people helped on the build and worked in the pits. Even with all the hours and the stress, it was a fun project to be involved in, mostly because of the people. Good times.
Richard Gauthier
G[size=85]&[/size]G Off Road
G[size=85]&[/size]G Auto Repair
661-679-7957
'98 XJ
'89 XJ
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