Well
Ollie Patterson and his wife Teresa came to our place
for the Geezer Drags. We had a BBQ on Fri evening with
Dodger, my cousin Al Todd and wife Barb, my friend Terry
Bohnert( Pink Panther) and wife Becky and of course my
wife Phyllis and I. It did sprinkle on us but we weren't
smart enough to come in out of the rain and had a good
time anyway.
ot
timed
Sat
we met at Quaker Steak and Lube in Council Bluffs, IA
for lunch and then headed for the Geezer Drags. Dodger, Paul Lenneman, Steve
Micks and Cheryl, Ollie and Teresa and my wife and I
attended the lunch. However
it was raining and they cancelled the event for Sat..
So we went back to my house again for
Sunday
was damp and cloudy to start but not bad at all. The
event went on as planned but they included some of the
Sat functions into Sunday's. The sun did come out and it
was fairly warm and humid. Paul Lenneman, Steve Micks
and wife Cheryl and the Patterson's and Kinsley's where
ready for the festivities. I changed to the Drag
Radials and went out for a test run. My previous best
was a
9:15@xxxx in the 1/8th. My first run was a
9.307@xxxxx and the temp and humidity were both 77. The
car began smoking near the finish line. The second run I
did not heat up the tires and I had some spinning and
chattered a bit off the line. I turned
9.454@xxxxx . The
smoking persisted. The third run was a flagstart
competition, not timed, against a Chevy SSR. It was the
small pick-up 2 passenger with the Vette motor if my
designation is wrong. He did the flagstart wrong and
started when the guy pointed at him so he lost by
default. However I would've creamed him as he was
running 10.5's and I was running the 9.3-4. I didn't run
hard as it was a solo and it smoked more and as I was
exiting it had a vibration setting in that felt like the
trans.
We had been looking
to see what the issue was and noticed some trans fluid.
I wiped it off and didn't see anything wrong. It did get
worse and we didn't run it any more so as to prevent any
damage until we found out what was wrong. After the day
was over Ollie and I headed home and babied it down the
road. We got about 10 miles and into Bellevue, NE when
the smoking stopped and the vibration became very
obvious and forward progress had to stop. We pulled over
and put the rightside wheels up on the curb so I could
get under the car. The trans fluid was not even on the
dipstick now. I found the speedo gear appeared loose as
I grabbed the cable and wiggled it. I figured it was
loose and the fluid was leaking there. However I soon
discovered the tailshaft was wiggling and not the speedo
gear. With a flashlight I saw the tailshaft would
wiggle about 1/4" plus and the trans didn't. Then I saw
a crack all the way around the tailshaft just behind the
trans mount! Holy smokes I broke off the 727 tailshaft!
So of course 'ol
LeRoar got another ride home on a flatbed. Ollie and I
thought maybe I should just get one to stand by at the
end of the track next time :-0 So I guess I made some
good runs with a busted tailshaft and again I dodged a
bullet in that it didn't fly apart or ?????
Have no fear.
It'll be coming out and as long as it's down I'm
thinking maybe I'll pull the heads and see if there's
anything noticeable in there from the 8K disaster.
Dodger believes he has a spare sb poly 727 pb around so
we can at least get a case. This may take awhile to fix
while I try to come up with some $$$$$ for the project.
May be another nice winter project. I am NEVER bored!
In the meantime I need to finish the '72 Olds that I
have been tinkering with for quite a few months. I might
even get some money for LeRoar out of that job :-)
Another guy wants me to rebuild a carb and fix/diagnose
a trans leak that he has on his '66 Ply. (The infamous
one that Dodger and I worked on last summer.)
I learned how to
downsize my pics, thanks Gary H, so I'll enclose some
here. I hope they are OK for you Jimmy. Don't have any
of the broken tailshaft yet. I'll do another post to the
groups with some more Geezer Drag pics too. Great
event! BTW the last pic is what I call a Rich Kinsley
wheelstand :-)
Rich Kinsley '64
Dodge Polara LeRoar 4dr 324 poly w/goodies
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