Pretty quiet in the Racers Hangout as of late.
It looks like it’s time to do an audit on the gang to see who’s doing what to their Mopars this off season. So this is what’s been going on over at my joint.
I’ve been noticing the last couple race days that my brake pedal seemed lower than usual. So I got to looking things over. I’ve got disc brakes all the way around, the fronts are Wilwood and the rear is a kit from Right Stuff with the E-brake provision. I added a 2LB in-line residual check valve, which has been the fix for this problem in some instances. It seemed to help a little but not enough. One problem with this right stuff kit is that the bleeders on the Calipers are not situated at the very top. So when bleeding the rear brakes I need to partially undo and tip the calipers. With that being done I got into checking the E-brake arm travel on the caliper (GM caliper). That ended up being the problem. A simple adjustment and the brake pedal is now where it should be.
Would I use this same kit again? Nope. At the time when I was putting the Plymouth together the e-brake was important to have, as the intention for the car was to street drive and the occasional trip to a strip. That plan didn’t last long after a few passes.
Now with that fixed up it was time to get busy at something else, I had a number of things on the list and conveniently, I located and was able to make a deal on a vacuum pump. So that was next on the list. The pump came complete, less crank mandrel and gear. Well you know how one thing always leads to the next, well a new balancer and crank trigger upgrade.
After some mandrel shopping and racer buddy (Wookie) suggestions I ended up building a mandrel. Pic partially finished.
Ready to bolt on.
Back together. Star Standard Pump. 5” vacuum running.
With the vacuum pump comes the need of a vacuum gauge and having to find a spot for that. This is how that ended up.
New set of Painless rocker switches and vacuum gauge in place. No more hard to reach switches and gauges all in full view. Shift light also moved over from beside the tach to dead in front of me.
So with that done…
The transmission is out and in process of freshening. The converter also got sent out for freshening and a good thing that it did. Once apart it was found to have bent vanes and ready to let go. That was a surprise, it never missed a beat, but I guess that’s racing and why we do maintenance. Converter is back and ready.
So at this point the 727 is on hold. A&A low-gear set had a loose bushing in the ring gear housing so it got shipped to A&A, who told me that they’ve never seen that before, send it, they will make it right and send it back. The bushing will fall right through, it’s been spinning.
So that’s what’s happening over here. There is also a set of short 3.5” race bullets on order from Summit along with a Strange 5/8” wheel stud kit. On hold waiting for parts now, lots to keep me busy and shorten the winter.
What’s going on elsewhere ? Let’s hear about it.
It looks like it’s time to do an audit on the gang to see who’s doing what to their Mopars this off season. So this is what’s been going on over at my joint.
I’ve been noticing the last couple race days that my brake pedal seemed lower than usual. So I got to looking things over. I’ve got disc brakes all the way around, the fronts are Wilwood and the rear is a kit from Right Stuff with the E-brake provision. I added a 2LB in-line residual check valve, which has been the fix for this problem in some instances. It seemed to help a little but not enough. One problem with this right stuff kit is that the bleeders on the Calipers are not situated at the very top. So when bleeding the rear brakes I need to partially undo and tip the calipers. With that being done I got into checking the E-brake arm travel on the caliper (GM caliper). That ended up being the problem. A simple adjustment and the brake pedal is now where it should be.
Would I use this same kit again? Nope. At the time when I was putting the Plymouth together the e-brake was important to have, as the intention for the car was to street drive and the occasional trip to a strip. That plan didn’t last long after a few passes.
Now with that fixed up it was time to get busy at something else, I had a number of things on the list and conveniently, I located and was able to make a deal on a vacuum pump. So that was next on the list. The pump came complete, less crank mandrel and gear. Well you know how one thing always leads to the next, well a new balancer and crank trigger upgrade.
After some mandrel shopping and racer buddy (Wookie) suggestions I ended up building a mandrel. Pic partially finished.
Ready to bolt on.
Back together. Star Standard Pump. 5” vacuum running.
With the vacuum pump comes the need of a vacuum gauge and having to find a spot for that. This is how that ended up.
New set of Painless rocker switches and vacuum gauge in place. No more hard to reach switches and gauges all in full view. Shift light also moved over from beside the tach to dead in front of me.
So with that done…
The transmission is out and in process of freshening. The converter also got sent out for freshening and a good thing that it did. Once apart it was found to have bent vanes and ready to let go. That was a surprise, it never missed a beat, but I guess that’s racing and why we do maintenance. Converter is back and ready.
So at this point the 727 is on hold. A&A low-gear set had a loose bushing in the ring gear housing so it got shipped to A&A, who told me that they’ve never seen that before, send it, they will make it right and send it back. The bushing will fall right through, it’s been spinning.
So that’s what’s happening over here. There is also a set of short 3.5” race bullets on order from Summit along with a Strange 5/8” wheel stud kit. On hold waiting for parts now, lots to keep me busy and shorten the winter.
What’s going on elsewhere ? Let’s hear about it.
