- Thread starter
- #221
Quick run down without any photos, I'll go into detail and stories later.
I raced in the EMC on Thursday (Feb 8) in the 4500 class. Everything was solid, at remote pit 1 we found out the tie rod was bent so tried to take it easy after that. At cougar buttes the tie rod got REALLY bent, so we were stuck for about 2 minutes until someone ran into the passenger front tire and I guess unbent the tie rod. Got through cougar buttes (only rocky section on lap 1), front diff was leaking a ton. With that in mind we took it easy, tried to keep the truck around 20-25mph until we looped back around to remote pit 1. The truck sounded horrible like something in the back was broken. At remote pit 1 it turned out the rear links were super loose, the front diff was literally falling out and multiple studs were sheared/missing and the top of the diff was hanging away from the housing. My team fixed all of that and put a jack under the tie rod and got it bent back. Went to fire the truck up and the dash started smoking. Turned out someone had incorrectly mounted the jack back to the cage and had hose clamped the fuel pump wiring harness shorting it to the cage. Fixed that and we were off. Probably 4-5 miles later we lost power steering. Pull over and turns out one of the hoses had cracked and puked everywhere. Repaired that and we were chugging again. Top speed was like 60 or 62mph, which I think we hit in the lakebed there in the whoops. I didn't want to go that fast but didn't know we did (tracker said our top speed) but our GPS had died and we were cruising in 3rd or 4th gear at 2000rpm or so and the truck was totally happy through the whoops (we shocked tuned a LOT and were able to pass a lot of people with a lot more horsepower since we just ate the whoops up). Got to back door, fell down/drove down it since I decided to floor it with like 3ft left before the bottom. Think we bent the tie rod again right there. Go up and over the hill, and then had to go up the qualifying course. On the far left line, get up it, look over and realize the right line looks super easy. Looks hard to reposition though. I try to crawl the left line but not enough traction. Back up and give it a bump and the front left tire comes up and we do a 3/4 roll to the passenger side so we end up laying on the driver's side. Get out, try to winch it up the qualifying rock hill with it laying on its side which the Harbor Freight winch didn't like. Some dudes come to help, they roll us over and we still have time to make the lap 2 cut off. Put it in reverse since we're like screw it, we'll just go around the qualifying hill (we're literally 200yds from our pits), and the everything just grinds. We have 1WD, maybe 2WD. Something in the front and something in the rear is broken. I think the front diff is blown and a rear shaft. We didn't have the ability to fix that within the next few minutes before the lap 2 cut off so just called it. Had to be winched backwards down the hill since we didn't have enough traction. Drove to the main pit and that was the end! Did 62 race miles and got within a 1/4 mile of finishing lap 1. No real mechanical failures the whole time. We had a back up tie rod built and sleeved that we were gonna swap in at main pit which the tie rod was the only thing that was causing issues, and then I rolled it. I guess a bunch of cars had rolled on that section, and I had never even been on that hill so had no idea what the right line was or where I should go or if I should skip it. If it wasn't for that we had been making decent time actually and really moving along considering how stock the truck is. Packed up last night and headed out today. Staying in Cedar City for a few days. Truck still runs and drives. I'll tear the axles down next weekend which will dictate if I keep them or if bigger stuff is coming soon. Once i get pictures I'll post them up! Thanks for the support everyone!
I raced in the EMC on Thursday (Feb 8) in the 4500 class. Everything was solid, at remote pit 1 we found out the tie rod was bent so tried to take it easy after that. At cougar buttes the tie rod got REALLY bent, so we were stuck for about 2 minutes until someone ran into the passenger front tire and I guess unbent the tie rod. Got through cougar buttes (only rocky section on lap 1), front diff was leaking a ton. With that in mind we took it easy, tried to keep the truck around 20-25mph until we looped back around to remote pit 1. The truck sounded horrible like something in the back was broken. At remote pit 1 it turned out the rear links were super loose, the front diff was literally falling out and multiple studs were sheared/missing and the top of the diff was hanging away from the housing. My team fixed all of that and put a jack under the tie rod and got it bent back. Went to fire the truck up and the dash started smoking. Turned out someone had incorrectly mounted the jack back to the cage and had hose clamped the fuel pump wiring harness shorting it to the cage. Fixed that and we were off. Probably 4-5 miles later we lost power steering. Pull over and turns out one of the hoses had cracked and puked everywhere. Repaired that and we were chugging again. Top speed was like 60 or 62mph, which I think we hit in the lakebed there in the whoops. I didn't want to go that fast but didn't know we did (tracker said our top speed) but our GPS had died and we were cruising in 3rd or 4th gear at 2000rpm or so and the truck was totally happy through the whoops (we shocked tuned a LOT and were able to pass a lot of people with a lot more horsepower since we just ate the whoops up). Got to back door, fell down/drove down it since I decided to floor it with like 3ft left before the bottom. Think we bent the tie rod again right there. Go up and over the hill, and then had to go up the qualifying course. On the far left line, get up it, look over and realize the right line looks super easy. Looks hard to reposition though. I try to crawl the left line but not enough traction. Back up and give it a bump and the front left tire comes up and we do a 3/4 roll to the passenger side so we end up laying on the driver's side. Get out, try to winch it up the qualifying rock hill with it laying on its side which the Harbor Freight winch didn't like. Some dudes come to help, they roll us over and we still have time to make the lap 2 cut off. Put it in reverse since we're like screw it, we'll just go around the qualifying hill (we're literally 200yds from our pits), and the everything just grinds. We have 1WD, maybe 2WD. Something in the front and something in the rear is broken. I think the front diff is blown and a rear shaft. We didn't have the ability to fix that within the next few minutes before the lap 2 cut off so just called it. Had to be winched backwards down the hill since we didn't have enough traction. Drove to the main pit and that was the end! Did 62 race miles and got within a 1/4 mile of finishing lap 1. No real mechanical failures the whole time. We had a back up tie rod built and sleeved that we were gonna swap in at main pit which the tie rod was the only thing that was causing issues, and then I rolled it. I guess a bunch of cars had rolled on that section, and I had never even been on that hill so had no idea what the right line was or where I should go or if I should skip it. If it wasn't for that we had been making decent time actually and really moving along considering how stock the truck is. Packed up last night and headed out today. Staying in Cedar City for a few days. Truck still runs and drives. I'll tear the axles down next weekend which will dictate if I keep them or if bigger stuff is coming soon. Once i get pictures I'll post them up! Thanks for the support everyone!
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