How many times have we heard the phrase, “What can go wrong will go wrong”? Well, I can tell you I believe it entirely. We were kind of hoping to get the new INS dragster to the track for testing last weekend, but as they say that’s history. I decided to push the car out and start it last Wednesday wanting to take a little more time adjusting a few things now rather than after we get to the track. Once the car was running I could smell that definite odor of hot wires but could not figure out where it was coming from. We shut the motor off, checked all the wires, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. We started the car and of course the smell continued, only a lot worse. We shut it off again, and this time the smoke helped find the source. We had burned up the solenoid located on the back of the shifter. It was so hot that it was at least an hour before I was able to touch it and remove it. Talk about the smell!!
Well, I am still not certain that we have the problem corrected, but I should receive a new solenoid today along with an RPM 1 shift. I am fairly sure it was a simple mistake of placing one wire on the wrong terminal which supplies 12 volts through the relay to the solenoid and it burned up. Fortunately it was professionally wired so, if that is what happened I am sure they will reimburse me for the parts.
Now for the fun part. As you know it has been rather warm the last couple days, and I picked Sunday to be the day to take the INS dragster to “Banacom” which is doing the graphics in vinyl, hopefully as I type. Well, we had another problem. The dually (my tow vehicle) sprung a leak. Not a water leak, but a rear-end grease leak. We had grease on the trailer, tail gate, the whole underside of the truck, brakes included, even up through the trailer hitch. What a stinking, greasy, mess!!!
I had the pinion seal replaced a couple weeks ago, mainly because I noticed a few drops on the shop floor, and thought I would get it fixed before it stranded me. It almost stranded me but not quite. After getting a ride to the local AutoZone store and picking up four quarts of rear end grease, then crawling under a grease dripping truck and squeezing in the four quarts, unhooking the trailer, I made it back to the repair shop. Keep in mind I am sure the four quarts I put in were spread evenly under the truck as I drove home. So, sum it up this way…race day is coming up this Saturday and I have no truck, therefore no trailer, parts on the way to install, and a race car that may have a tough time finding a way home.
