TARP Blog

No, I didn’t cut off my leg. That wouldn’t take two days.

Instead, I found some additional weight to cut from the TARP Special. As the title of the post may have tipped off, I was able to remove 13 pounds of needless weight from the car on Wednesday and yesterday evenings. Where was this hidden weight? Right in plain sight.

About 8 pounds was spot-welded to the floor in the area directly underneath the seats. Speculation is that the 3.5 pound cast iron weights were added by Toyota late in the production process to help control some noise/vibration issue. After drilling out 22 spot-welds on each side, it was possible to remove the weights and the steel panel that held them to the car.

The other 5 pounds was removed by stripping more of that asphalt-tar coating on the interior surface of the floor (and a little that was still on the firewall). Using dry ice helped to flake out the more gummy bits, but mostly it was just elbow grease and a slightly sharpened paint scraper.

The result is that the car is now well under 2000 lbs and I’m sore as heck this morning.

MR2, Race Prep Author: Pat

It took the better part of yesterday to finish getting the oil seal replaced and then a late night last night to put all the pieces of the drive shaft and left rear suspension back on the car, but by 1:30 this morning, it was done. And yes, the half-shaft bolts were torqued on to spec (27 ft-lbs for those playing at home).

After dropping the girls at school this morning, I came home to test the car. And what do you know, it worked! I’ve started it a few times since the race just to circulate the fluids but this was the first time that it had moved under its own power since that fateful broadsiding that robbed it of its precious bodily inboard joint. I drove it around the block. Same sounds as before.

Tearing it apart and putting it back together revealed some interesting things about the car. The strut insert (a/k/a shock absorber) on the driver’s rear is totally blown; I suspect the same is true for the other rear corner. Also, the rear brakes are hardly being used even in race conditions; the rear pads were barely worn. So there’s a couple of things to add to the list: new, cheap rear strut inserts and a cheap brake proportioning valve so we can get some more oomph (or any) out of the back brakes.

But for today, a small triumph. At least the car is ambulatory again. Huzzah!

MR2, Race Prep Author: Pat

I’ve started the repair work on the TARP Special. As it sat on the jackstands in my garage, I noticed a small river (rivulet?) of oil making its way from the car’s nether regions downhill toward the garage door. Upon further inspection, that oil was coming from (go figure) the oil seal that the prior owner allegedly replaced.

I figured I should probably repair his repair to prevent that oil leak. Plus the leaking Red Line tranny race oil is expensive stuff, like $11/qt., and I didn’t really want to see that go to waste. I wish that I could say that I wanted to make sure that we didn’t oil up my driveway, but you guys know a lie when you read one.

To replace the oil seal, one has to remove the differential side gear (which connects to the inboard joint tulip, which connects to the tripod joint, which is connected to the half-shaft, which drives the wheel). To remove the differential side gear, one uses a 3-jaw slide hammer (available for borrowing from your neighborhood Auto Zone). To get the slide hammer in there, one has to remove the entire suspension for the rear wheel. As I’ve said numerous times on this project, thank heavens for air tools.

Once the wheel assembly and strut were out of the way and the brake caliper hung from sturdy steel wire, the side shaft came out easily. There is packing grease all over the underside of the car from when the joint tulip exited the car, so it’s a Mike-Rowe-Dirty-Job working around that area right now.

Next on the list is to remove and replace a snap ring on the side gear, then remove the existing oil seal. Then put in the new oil seal and re-attach everything. Then the car should be driveable again.

Repairs to follow after that will be to pound out the dents from the Houston action and then I’m pretty sure that we should install better driver’s side door bars for safety’s sake.

MR2

A friend recommended that I take a look at the NASA (this NASA, not that NASA) club codes and regulations, specifically the instructions/explanations about black flags. We were instructed by Chief Perp Jay Lamm and maybe by Sam that a furled (rolled up) black flag pointed at a car means “hey, you! You’re black flagged, bring it on in!”

However, it turns out that the NASA rule is a little more subtle. An open, unfurled black flag means to bring it in, but a furled black flag means “warning, you are driving in an unsafe manner or you did something wrong. If you continue to do so, an open black flag will be shown to you.” Those furled black flags are pointed at the discretion of a corner worker but don’t mean that the car need exit the race.

In other words, the NASA rule and the LeMons instruction were precisely contrary to one another. My recollection may be inaccurate, but I’m pretty sure that on at least one of my phantom black flag incidents, I came in as a result of a furled black flag pointed at me.

I’m sure the corner workers were more familiar with the NASA standard rather than the LeMons standard. Not to whine, but in an ideal world, these rules would be identical; I suspect that’s really the intent, but Jay is erring on the side of caution. For future reference, I think we shouldn’t come in unless and until we see our car number on the black flag number board.

And we really need to figure out the frequency that race control is using at all tracks we race at so we can monitor that frequency and let our driver know when they’ve actually been black flagged.

Race Analysis, Team Strategy Author: Pat