jt1

My 15x7 Panasports clear the 12.2 rotor/superlite caliper combo, but not by much. Maybe 1/4 - 3/16" without any spacers. However, they've never made contact, even running r comp tires on a road course. jt

It's pretty normal for the seal to add some drag, but it should be a small amount. With the seal in place, the stub shouldn't "free spin", i.e. keep spinning after you give it a good twist, but it should rotate easily with just a twist. I would examine it closely to make sure there isn't any metal to metal contact, and if that's the case, give it a try. Be sure the surface on the stub that meets the seal has a little grease on it to lubricate the seal. jt

Ideally, you bring the tire up to operating temp, let it cool and sit for 24 hrs before running it again. I've done it by finding an empty parking lot and running in circles, and also by accelerating and braking hard multiple times. Either way seems to work as good as the tirerack heat cycling, where they run it against a roller. None of these methods work as well as running it on track, then switching tires and letting the tires sit for a day, which of course is the most involved method. However, in my experience the gains of heat cycling are pretty small. There is probably some benefit, but not worth the time, trouble, and expense for most people. Usually I just take it easy on a new set the first session I run them, bring them up to temp slowly, and make sure I don't overheat them in that first run. This seems to give 80-90% of the benefits without the trouble. jt

WHO IS MIKE KELLY?????????? jt

In general, it sounds like the clutch is not releasing fully, so the trans is still turning with the clutch depressed. Usually a trans won't go into gear if turning. It could be the clutch adjustment, bad MC or slave as mentioned above, lack of adequate travel due to the MC/slave combo, or as simple as having air in the MC/slave. First step would be to bleed it and be absolutely sure it doesn't have any air. Then see how much travel you have at the slave and if that amount is enough to release the clutch. jt

Thank you for giving it a thought, I appreciate it. John

Looks like they're almost at opposite ends of the state. Manchester is 25 or so miles west of Dubuque. That would be a pretty good trip. jt

I've got my eye on a truck in Manchester Iowa. If anyone is willing to check it out, take some pics, and give me a good report, I'll send you and yours out for a nice evening, pay for some car parts, or just build up your stash. Let me know. jt

Richard, does AU ever get any snow? I've never really thought about that. jt

Colder temps increase the shock rate. jt

Mark, you're quite observant. That's an old 76 parts car with a totally ratted out interior, but a pretty good tub. I've robbed a good bit off it, to the point someone will occasionally stop by and offer me $50 for it. I'm concerned about the ackerman on it, but it's hard to get a good measurement since one of the tires is flat. The white car's tucked away in a heated garage, wanting to go to the track. It doesn't understand why I tinker with the stripped down ***** more than it. Buzz, usually a snow here is gone in 2 or 3 days. We've had two so far, the first one melted away pretty quick but the second one hung around for over a week. So far, we've a had quite a cold winter here. jt

I'm not really a fan of cold weather, but one thing I really enjoy about wintertime is some of the beautiful sights. Looking east toward Cherry Mountain: My parents house where I grew up: Some of the local residents, not always friendly: Sunrise this morning from work: Sunset from a while back: Business sucks so bad that sometimes it's hard to find much to be positive about, but it's there if you just look around, and sometimes I need to remind myself. Hope you enjoy. jt

Are we considering any bump/roll steer in all of this? You know, the outer tire in bump and the inner in rebound? jt

Give it a try and see. Tom's car is track only and 2" - 3" lower than yours. jt

Tom wound up getting some custom axles made. He never got enough compression travel with the 300 axles. His car is very low, and that made the problem even worse. jt

Lower control arm. A few more random thoughts: Can you reproduce the clunk with a quick on-off-on of the throttle? With the car jacked up, can you grab a rear wheel and rotate it back and forth quickly and hear anything? Is there any visual clearance between the outer heim joints on the lca and the spindle? Before I dropped the dime on a quaife, I would swap in another diff and try it. In my experience, a quaife is even noisier than other lsd's. The first time I drove my car with the quaife, I thought I had left the mustache bar bolts loose. jt

LCA good and tight with no signs of movement, esp at the inner mounts? Spindle sliding back and forth on the spindle pin? Upper strut nuts tight? The solid diff mounts don't make any noise, but they transmit what's there to the tub very well. If it's in the diff itself, a rubber mount might reduce it. jt

Nothing like a good day at the track. Car looks nice, and looks like you were doing a good job driving. Too bad about the air dam. Curb, or an off? jt

To be honest, I really can't hear what the car's doing in the vid. But- to get the jets uncovered in that short of a turn, the fuel levels would have to be very low. Try taking the turn at the same speed in first gear, which should give you a larger throttle angle. If you don't get the stumble then, you've got a tip in problem, not a starvation problem. Car looks great btw. I'm going to cmp sat, why don't you bring it? jt

Excellent. I thought that might be the case, but wanted to mention it. More first class details. jt

You've got a fantastic build going, it looks great. If those are copper lines, I would give some serious thought to using steel. The copper doesn't tolerate vibration or wear very well. I used it on a car, and it worked fine for a while, but eventually cracked and caused a big gas leak. It would be a shame to mess up that beautiful paint. jt

It all comes down to which one you like and can shoot most comfortably. Try to shoot the guns you are considering, either thru a range rental, or shooting with a friend who has something you like. Then make your decision. I jump around between a j frame Model 60, a K frame model 65, and a para single stack 45. jt

My guess is you're getting a weaker signal with the VicJr and you're going to have to fatten it up a bit to run as well as the rpm. jt

The first couple of years in engineering school aren't to teach you engineering. They are to establish basics, and to see who has the determination, desire, time management skills, discipline, and basic talent to be a good engineer. I was pretty frustrated my first couple of years. I went to a small, rural high school where all I did was sit in class and make straight A's. No study skills, no time management, no educational discipline, and liked fast cars, women, and parties way too much. I nearly flunked out my first year. At first, you're loaded up with a lot of boring grunt work, long hours, high pressure schedules, and never ending labs, to see who wanted to be there. It wasn't hard to get into NC State School of Engineering, they let anyone in. It was hard to stay. 18% of my freshman class graduated. My best advice is to talk to as many seniors and grad students as you can, and see what kind of projects they're working on. If you have a fsae program, try to talk to some of those guys. Talk to some real working engineers about what they do at work. If all that interests you, then you've got to decide if you want to tough it out and stay. If you're not a pretty strong math student, engr is gonna be even harder, so take that into consideration. If you decide to stay, it's gonna be a lot of work and you've got to commit yourself to do it. Best of luck with your decision. John

Z2go, that's really looking great. It's nice to see somebody making good progress on their project. Please keep us updated! jt