Richard Cranium

Nice meeting you yesterday. Thanks for the deal on the smoker.

I'll take the smoker. I can probably meet up with you this weekend if you want to pick it up.

The smoker looks like it could be an interesting little project. Where are you located?

Wagner has a new thread up in the pics and vids section with his pictures. He has a couple good ones of you, one staging and one launching.

Thanks for the pictures. They look great.

You could use rubber grommets, pick them up at any hardware store in the electrical section. You might also check Jegs or Summit, running hoses and wires through firewalls would be pretty similar I think.

I does cover balancing the blade. I used to have the same little cone balancer they use in the video. It seemed to work pretty well. I like the idea of the used motor oil on the bottom of the deck. I'll probably do that with mine this year when I service the mower.

The autobody guys I know recommended a place called "First Glass" for glass replacement. I have had safelight repair 3 or 4 chips and been very happy with the work.

Yeah, the car was kicking right for every burnout. I tried driving through it but couldn't correct enough. Stayed in it too long, then panicked and let off the throttle and mashed the brake too hard. The tires were loaded up and unloaded making the chassis bounce hard enough to hit the frame on the track. I didn't even try to re-fire the car until Jim got up there and told me everything looked okay. It was all so violent I didn't know if there were pieces of the car on the track.

Again, thanks for putting this on. The best time slip I have in my pocket (there is a better one somewhere) is 11.351 at 88.15, but the 1/8 mile MPH is 116.46 3 of the 6 licensing passes completed (one was too ugly to count). Carburetor has some issues to work out. Thanks to Jim Rose (Clone) for tweaking some of the settings and getting the motor running better. I still need to play with tire pressures and get the tires warmed up more.

I put a set of Pirellis on our Honda. I think they cost me less than $100 per corner, they have been great and I think they are 80,000 mile tires. Hit up Turborust here on the board, I'm sure he can hook you up with a good deal on something quality.

Tim, I wish I knew what to say. When my father passed away I was completely unprepared. Even as a relatively intelligent person I somehow thought he was going to live forever. I'm still working to deal with it myself years later.

The original transmission is back in the car. Still need to run through the torque converter bolts and install the safety shield, but it's close to being back together. The post mortem on the busted transmission is that I'm a complete dumbass. My best guess is there was very little wrong with the transmission. Because of the tiny (and I mean really fucking tiny) leak at the cooler line fitting, we took the safety shield off. It was going to be easier to address the problem without the shield, and it would be reinstalled before going to the track. Since there is no NHRA inspection at Brian's I figured I'd get away without it. We noticed today that 2 of the 3 bolts that hold those parts together run through the shield. We removed the two bolts to remove the shield leaving only one bolt holding things together. When I shifted into first at idle with only one bolt holding shit together it failed. It was completely my fault and looks like I'll have to pick up another transmission case to replace the broken one.

That is the plan. I have 2 more bolts and the blown up transmission is ready to come out. Hopefully by lunch time the working transmission will be back in the car and I can start hooking everything back up.

I blew up the new transmission this past weekend. We've already started swapping back to the old one.

Welcome, nice bike.

Well, that sucked. I was not able to dyno the dragster. The so called "fresh" transmission we swapped into the car this past week must have had some damage. It ran in reverse, but as soon as I shifted into 1st gear it came apart. The plan at this point is to swap back in the old transmission for the track day next weekend.

Well, that's not going to happen. I have a week till the track day, so we should be able to get the leak taken care of by then. I wonder if Brian would mind a little tranny fluid seeping from a small crack. Actually I wonder if I could seal it with something simple for the short term? I'll have to think about that.

We measured it one evening. There is enough room to fit it on there. He even said he had a winch to get it up there. Apparently he has had a dragster on there before, so fingers crossed everything works out. Almost have things buttoned up and ready to go until this afternoon we found a TINY cracked weld in the transmission case. We thought it was a fitting leaking, but the leak is behind the fitting where a weld patch job was done. We're going to see if we can sneak a TIG torch in between the rails and the trans and re-melt the filler metal and seal up the crack. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm heading to to the barn now and see if I can finish getting the trailer ready to haul the car. It's not done, but only cosmetic issues left.

As long as we can figure out a way to get it up there and strap it down we are going to. This will be my run up test to the track day.

As long as nothing crazy happens I'll be there.

Everything I have read says the truck has a 7000 lb towing capacity with the towing package. The trailer is around 4000, the car is around 1500, the miscellaneous stuff in the trailer is 500 lbs or so. I think I'm okay.

With racing season getting started I was looking online for wireless cameras I could use for towing the race trailer. Hitching up a trailer blind is a pain in the ass as well. Does anyone have any recommendations for a wireless camera that I could stick to my tailgate and then watch a screen in the cab to line up the hitch and trailer tongue. Also it would be handy to put a wireless camera on the back of the trailer for backing into spots. Even with towing mirrors my visibility past the trailer is shit. If it matters, the truck is a 2000 Tundra and the trailer is a 28' enclosed.

One more busy weekend. I'll be back out next weekend.

Welcome. I look forward to seeing what your next project is. I've talked with HPfiend about the Gremlin.