thrustnut

Sweet, guess I'm getting some new door panels!

Just got in on the door cards. Any idea how many more we need?

Sorry I dumbed it down a little. It had to have compressor assist just to take off, ram jets are only efficient after your moving.The little I know about them I learned in T56-A-15 school, just basic principles. Another thing I herd was that there is a sonic boom happening inside every jet engine, but the act of compressing the air keeps it contained. (True?)

The Ram-Jet engines used on the SR-71 are essentially just a burner can, a fuel nozzle and a ejection nozzle. No real moving parts, and the faster you shove air in, the faster you go. So no real top speed on the engine, it was airframe limited.

JM, You think with your wealth of information you could help solve the problem instead of shooting down everything everyone else try's. Why bother replying if you don't even try to help.

I was messing with the input shaft trying to see if it would turn back and forth with the output shafts fixed (like it was sitting on pavement) which it did and the diff that's in the car now did not. What do you think fixed MY problem if all I did was replace the rear end and the clunk went away? Like I said nothing was loose, everything was the same going in as it was coming out. Not trying to be a jerk, but it seems pretty obvious that if I replaced one part and the problems fixed that the part replaced was the problem. I'm a mechanic also, I was looking for the problem, not to replace the diff. I was hopeing to find something else under there that could have attributed to the problem, but there was nothing there. Sorry my test was lame, but not a whole lot of diffs on aircraft and with no problems with anything on the car and input shaft movement on one diff not evident on another, I thought it was a pretty safe bet (which it was). Thanks for the offer on checking my rear end, but I'm sure I can do the same test. You should offer this service to Jacob80 to help find his problem. Anyway Jacob80, good luck with your diff problems, obviously my results where not valid... I will wait for my clunk to return...

Like I said, I'm not an expert. I was giving him the information I obtained from having the same problem and finding a solution. I would think that since I only changed the rear end, DID disassemble the old one and couldn't find any hard evidence of broken parts, that the play that was evident in the old rear end and non-existent in the new was the culprit. There's not that much going on back there, and most rear ends are pretty cheep, in most cases cheep enough that it's not worth rebuilding. BTW I have a junk 3.54 if any one wants it.

I am not an expert on this, but I did recently get rid of my rear end clunk which sounds to me like the same clunk you have. I had previously replaced the transmission mount, the tranny cross member mounts (with poly) the rear diff mount, and the mustache bar mounts (also with poly)with no success. I recently replaced my 3.54 with a 3.90 from a member here as a last resort. I didn't notice anything abnormal when removing my diff (nothing loose, missing, ect.) that would have caused the clunk. When I had the two diffs sitting on the bench next to each other I noticed that my old diff had just a tiny bit of play if I held the output shafts and spun the input shaft. The 3.90 I replaced it with had NO play at all when doing the same thing. I pulled the covers and again, nothing obviously wrong with the old diff (broken gears, metal shavings). The fluid level was low, but clean... can't say if that had anything to do with the clunk when installed in the car, but with both diffs empty only my old one had the play. The only other things I did when the rear end was out was clean up my half shafts, check play on the half shaft U-joints (they where good) and lube them. The last thing I did which was unrelated was replace my LCA bushings and pins. I personally believe now after this that ANY play between the input and output flanges is too much, but again I'm not an expert, just my opinion after some observations and fixing the problem.

I had RCI five point harnesses and NEX seats in my Z. The sholder belt was a Y-style harness, so it and the lap belts could mount in the stock locations with the stock hardware. The submarine belt I wraped through one of the lightning holes in the forward seat mount bracket mounted to the floor under the seat. I never used the submarine belt (just a tad uncomfterable) and I never raced it. I have gone back to stock now with Pulsar seats. Guess I'm getting old, it was just a pain to get in and out of and the fiberglass seats where hard on the butt.

Just bought some West Systems G Flex epoxy to fill the holes between the body on my 77 and the MSA body kit. I filled them with regular bondo body filler about five years ago, and it's cracking (go figure) but the car has never had a nice paint job, so no big deal. My plan it to get all the old filler out, the spots that where a ways off I backed with fiberglass before I filled. I will check and make sure the fiberglass backing is in good shape and then fill with the G flex and collodical sillica. It sounds like this stuff will work pretty well filling between the body and the glass, it's supposed to be pretty flexible. Let me know if anyone has used this product and your results. If no one has, maybe I can post my thoughts if anyone is interested.

Good luck from another Ex-smoker. You will be amazed how different things taste and smell after a couple weeks. I quit going into spring time about four years ago and could not believe all the stuff I could smell. Taste was even better, you don't realize how all the flavors kind of run together when your smoking. I can taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi now, Dr. Pepper was my favorite for a long time, now I don't like it much. Maybe some incentive to keep it up!

The last off runway trip this RG had was an etreamly long landing into the dirt and an embankment at the end of the runway. Again, pilot wrecked the plane, turned around and taxied back to the FBO. The killer is this plane is a replacement for the last 172RG that was totaled on landind (gear up- pilot error). I don't understand what it is about a 172RG that makes them so hard to keep on all three wheels on the runway. I got dibs on the prop, I'm sure it's unreparrable (bent back about 10 inches up the blade, still has some runway stuck in it!)

Direct drive prop, engine has to come out and get sent out for teardown and inspection. Got the wing tip off, suprisingly little damage to the forward wing close out end cap. Wing tip is shot though. I will try to post a pic of the prop... pretty cool looking.

Just had a guy nose our 172 RG into the runway a couple days ago. I don't think have ever seen a prop so messed up. He got mixed up in a crosswind and landed on the left main and and the prop, somehow hitting the right wing tip on the ground in the process. After the incident he drove the plane through the dirt between the runway and taxi way... at what point do you just stop and call it a day? BTW the prop on there was a fresh overhaul, less the 15 hours on it. Oh well, whats 6,000.00 in airplane parts. Oh, and this is the third off roading prop strike type incident in this aircraft in three years.

READ the rules, then READ your last post... it's pretty obvious what your doing wrong. If I where a mod I would shed this one just to prove a point.