This is one of the things I like about GRM. When someones screws up there is no sugar coating it. You learn from it. You fix it. And you move on. Real life racing.
Many hands make light work—except, of course, when they make more work. Such was the case with our project turbo Miata’s mysteriously locked rear wheels. After skidding off track during our test day at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway, we towed the car home to figure out why the wheels weren’t turning anymore. Stretch goal: Unlock them so we could roll the poor car off the trailer.
The answer, as it turns out, was user error. You’ve probably noticed in our updates that we’ve had a lot of hands on our car. It’s great to have additional help, but at some point a helper drained the differential fluid, then forgot to refill it. We were running on track with a nearly-dry rear differential, and it eventually heated up so much that the pinion gear fused with the ring gear, locking the rear wheels completely.
Oops. Time to go find a new differential!
Watch the pages of Grassroots Motorsports for the full project car series. Subscriptions start at just $10.
This is one of the things I like about GRM. When someones screws up there is no sugar coating it. You learn from it. You fix it. And you move on. Real life racing.
A good reason to check all fluid levels at the track before going out.
I like that trailer.
Cotton wrote: I like that trailer.
I was just thinking that.
This is why I scream at people who drain oil out of something and then don't fill it right away.
You will get distracted. You will get pulled away. You will forget. Maybe not this time, maybe not the next time, but one time you WILL win that particular lottery.
Knurled wrote: This is why I scream at people who drain oil out of something and then don't fill it right away. You will get distracted. You will get pulled away. You will forget. Maybe not this time, maybe not the next time, but one time you WILL win that particular lottery.
Sticky note on the steering wheel solves this.
"Fluids, dummy"
You'll know which one.
Rufledt wrote:Cotton wrote: I like that trailer.I was just thinking that.
I was eyeballing it real close recently. It's even nicer in person.
This is another reason to always pull the fill plug first.
calteg wrote:Knurled wrote: This is why I scream at people who drain oil out of something and then don't fill it right away. You will get distracted. You will get pulled away. You will forget. Maybe not this time, maybe not the next time, but one time you WILL win that particular lottery.Sticky note on the steering wheel solves this. "Fluids, dummy" You'll know which one.
After I took a turbo car out when it was running a naturally aspirated tune, we started using "NOT IN SERVICE" tags.
Lol-The teammates must have asked each other "Did you check the fluid in the diff?" about 5 times during the autocross portion of the'08 Challenge (When the Mumpkin was still the Husband Wife build). 
The answer was: no, no we didn't check the fluid in the diff. It would have been best to check because we had apparently never refilled the diff. We continued to not check the fluid in the diff until it locked up at the top end of the strip after about the 20th drag run. 
I'm impressed it lasted so long. Ours seized the pinion bearing.
Displaying 1-10 of 17 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
