The other day I dismounted the set of tires I ran last year. My friend Art Heath helped. Art wanted the takeoffs for his Modified.
Tonight I was cleaning up the wheels because the rear ones really needed a coat of paint. I got the bright idea of mounting them to the front hub on the car as it sits on jackstands. Then I could easily spin the wheel while I sanded on it. I'm glad I did. Both the rear wheels are more than a bit out of round and wobbly. They both came with the car and they have been through a few off road incidents. And who knows it they were even round when I got them. I never noticed any problem or vibrations but still it didn't seem good and I've never really liked the two piece wheels. So I picked up the phone and called Rusty Ball. He will give me a call when the new wheels are in. He is even taking my old broken Muncie transmission in trade. I won't have to trip over it and it will cut down on the cost of the wheels.
The bent wheels are the two stacked in the back.
In reply to KevinGale:
I don't think I've previously seen a wheel with a greater width than diameter. 
In reply to petegossett:
They are wide!. The nice part is the old bent one's make a great shop stool. Drop a piece of plywood in the top and you have something you could park a truck on but is light enough to move around.
Hosed out the garage today and I found a race car under a pile of grease, oil and dirt. Some degreaser and hose connected to the hot water does wonders.
In reply to KevinGale:
That red cap is probably a 10% net gain. GRM sticker has been proven 25%. This must be true, I read it here. 
. Thanks again for sharing your build, those old modifieds make me smile. Spent many Saturday nights in the stands watching those beasts thunder by.
Pulled off the bell housing today. Currently this requires lifting the motor slightly.
The bell housing has a notch to fit over a cross tube. You can see the tube in some earlier pictures in this thread. I've decided this time I am going to make the notch bigger so I can pull the bell housing without having to lift the motor. Lifting it is a pain and getting the 11 bolts for the motor plate to line up again is no fun.
You mentioned that you offed the car a few times and just simply replaced the front clip, but how did you fare in those wrecks? I prefer not to die whenever possible
PManess wrote:
You mentioned that you offed the car a few times and just simply replaced the front clip, but how did you fare in those wrecks? I prefer not to die whenever possible
I've faired just fine. Never any guarantees but I've hit trees HARD twice, a bank at Mt Washington and few other minors offs and walked away without more than bruises. My friend also crashed his Modified into a tree after finish at Okemo. Knocked him out but he is still with us and racing. And in an earlier picture in this thread my sister in-law crashed the old mod into (you guessed it) a tree. That hit was hard enough that the engine moving backwards pushed the driveline back and snapped off one of the rear axle tubes and cracked the other. Karen had a few stitches but was fine. Trees are the worst but our courses are lined with them.
We bend cars on a regular basis at hillclimb events but it is extremely rare for anyone to get hurt.
Of course this makes it sound like a crash fest but you also have to consider I first raced a Modified at a hillclimb 21 years ago. I've had stretches of years between crashes. We have drivers who have never crashed and others who have crashed more times than anyone can count. You might think that is all about talent but I think the guy who holds the most King of the Hill titles was one of the biggest crashers. The guy could drive but he also pushed the limits. I've pushed the limits myself a few times. :-)
Edit: After reading this I want to be clear that I'm not saying that talent/skills/experience doesn't have anything to do with crashing because obviously it does. We have some very fast drivers who never go off. They're just good at knowing the limits and gathering the car back when they do step over them. I on the other hand sometimes run out of talent when I'm pushing the limits. Usually I run out of traction and pavement at about the same time. 
“Sometimes you have to bring back only the steering wheel so the car owner will know that you're giving it all you have.”
-- Mario Andretti
PManess
New Reader
4/17/16 9:03 p.m.
There's no fun in not driving at the limit, is there? I've always liked the circle track chassis idea but have rarely seen it done so well. Unfortunately, there aren't really any hill climbs here in Texas so I'm stuck to autocross and road courses
Time for a new driving suit. I got the old one in 1995 and it is getting a bit worn. This is the art work for the custom suit from Impact. Nothing real fancy. Custom because the none of their standard sizes is quite right. Apparently guys who are short and getting fat in middle age are not supposed to buy driving suits. 
Pulled the clutch today. There was a surprising amount of dirt and oil in it. The bell housing is one of the lowest points on the car and you can tell from the bottom picture that the it scrapes the pavement occasionally. I figure it also must be bottoming out in the pits/campground area. So I decided to hack together a quick bolt on shield to help keep dirt and oil out.
From this photo you can see how the bell housing was open and is really the lowest thing on the car.
Here is the rough and quick shield that should help keep the new clutch internals a bit cleaner. It only protects the bottom and one side since the starter fills the other side.
A hillclimbing friend of mine Erik Saunders is selling his Troyer Roller. He bought in intending to race it in hillclimbs but now he is doing more bicycle racing and so he is looking to sell it. Just in case anyone is interested Erik's number is: (Removed now that it sold)
Erik said:
Troyer mod roller for sale. This is the sister car to Kevin Gale it's got a narrow clip front end, like new winters q/c rear, 3 sets of gears and some other spares
$3500
-Erik
I guess it probably good its a long ways away.....
I wonder if Ted Theodore is interested...
It has a powder coated neon bumper. How could anyone resist that? Erik actually fabricated that bumper himself. I think he was planning on making the nerf bars the same color.
The Quarter Master internal slave sits against the heads of the bolts on the bearing retainer. The problem (and I've had this before) was the four bolts were not the same height. Ordered some shim washers from McMaster and now it sits flat.
Drive shaft almost together.
It needed a new yoke since the Jerico has a different output spline than the Muncie I took out.
Word of advice to myself. When the u-joint doesn't seem to want to go together in the vise don't force it! It probably has a needle bearing that has fallen out of place. This is the second time I've forgotten this and tried to force it into place. It doesn't work and then I have to replace the u-joint because I'm afraid I bent or deformed the needle bearing.
Finally got the old clutch parts clean and mated them up with the new clutch internals.
The little tool that aligns the clutch splines and centers things in the pilot bearing was too big. It fit the clutch splines perfectly but it was too big for the pilot bearing. After a little head scratching I came up with this. It is a battery clamp and a razor blade. The vise grips are holding the razor in place to shave down the plastic end to about 0.60". I just kept turning it until I shaved away enough depth. It took a little while but it worked great and I was able to install the clutch.
Hiding the blingy transmission inside the car. For what I paid, it should mount in the roof where everyone can see it. 
Plexiglass glass floor? Or a bumper sticker that says "ask me about my transmission" 
TRoglodyte wrote:
Plexiglass glass floor? Or a bumper sticker that says "ask me about my transmission"
Ask me about my tranny. :-)
That might raise your CG a bit too much, and screw with your driveshaft angles.
Hey love the build even more I love that you use it for whats its intended. But I really wanna know about your tranny, any bathroom problems? (too soon?)
