RebekahsZ

I really like this girl, but if you have seen Dog the Bounty Hunter's wife, you are kind of getting the idea. I think she and her husband are comfortable with the status quo and they have a hello of a lot of fun together at the track. Sweetest girl you could ever meet, but you gotta get past any of your own insecurities to really tap into her coolness. And she kicked my ask the two times I've raced her even though I have at times run faster than I've ever seen her run. I hate all the solo runs that I do because it is WAY different with another car on the track and even more interesting when you are being released from the tree according to your dial-in. Its almost enough to make me want a T350 just so I could play and not get eliminated in the first round, but not yet-maybe I'll double my racing costs by buying back in as many times as necessary to make a night of it. That would be pretty extravagant. I don't understand why all the other cars make a run, then fuch off for an hour before they run again. The staging wrangler asked me if I knew this was a dragstrip or if I thought it was on a circle track because I just sort of loop right off the return track into line again and again. I mean, what are all those guys doing between runs? Probably talking trash and getting drunk. Me, I just want to get better. Got car up on jackstands and inspected everything. No mechanical breakage whatsoever, well, not MECHANICAL. The only failure is in the line lock solenoid, which isn't holding pressure. The switches, indicator light are working properly and the solenoid is energizing and clicking, but the pressure isn't holding. I ordered a new solenoid from Summit (weird, the whole kit is just $84, but a replacement solenoid is $204-what's up with that?) and a rebuild kit (tried beating it with a hammer and it didn't help). Will look into rebuilding the one I have while it is mounted on the firewall-hopefully the kit comes with instructions. If that doesn't work I'll go to the trouble to install a replacement. But, I put the line lock solenoid in an awkward place for repairs-it will be a major pain if I have to remove all the lines and take it off the firewall. Tires. Ready to go tomorrow to get the 9" Hoosiers swapped on. Anybody have an opinion on this wear pattern? Before Friday I hope to have aluminum rear LCA bushings to try to stop the toe-ing in on launch. Will set up the bushings to further increase positive rear camber, too. Bedtime.

Ordered. Will start with street pad for autocross and drag. Will get some high temp pad for a trip to AMP in the spring if Matt will have me.

Just finished trouble shooting the line-lock. It is the solenoid, so back into the brake fluid game AGAIN! Arghh. Another Paypal to Summit.

Unfortunately, the picture isn't pretty, but she is a great racer and a lot of fun to chat with. This is Alabama and some of the girls are have had a little too much BBQ. "I wish they all could be California girls..." She's married and her husband is her crew chief. Her car was built by her dad, who is deceased, so driving it is kind of a special thing for her. For me, it is nice to have a fierce competitor that is close to my speed. I'm a seven second car surrounded by 5-second turbo/nitrous Mustangs and 8+ second street cars at most of the local tracks.

Just got an invitation to dinner with a friend I haven't seen in 22 years. His wife said Saturday?-crap: that's the night that the track with the best traction is open. Looks like I'll be spinning out next week too. See how my priorities have gotten warped?

And oh yeah, when you say 6.30s do you mean to say that cage requirement starts at 6.39? If so, maybe I DO need to start pulling my dash??

I really don't see me doing more than a 150 shot and not even a cam. Keeping the thing alive is really eating up more time than I can really budget. I really want to get involved more at church so I can't let my little idol (the car) get any more out of hand. Do you think that power package is likely to break 6.3 just with technique alone? My first passes with my current setup were in the 8s so technique can make a big difference. Probably not enough to go from 6.6 to 6.3?? Eager to see your times with a good light, clean launch and no speed limits. What gear were you in going thru the traps?

Switch is just worn out like tooquick260z. Has been that way since I bought it 20 years ago just never hopped out on its own 'till I started drag racing with slicks.

7:40 .5849 1.99 7.91 97 solo; spun out of hole, 2-step at 3800; turned down to 3000 7:45 .5044 1.53 7.23 82 win; spun on shift to second, got out of it, still burned a Mustang 8:21 .6119 1.59 7.18 98 win 8:27 .6403 1.58 7.19 98 win 8:31 .5316 1.56 7.10 99 win 8:35 .5630 1.61 7.18 99 solo 8:49 .4601 1.64 9.06 50 lose; redlight-coasted down track-lost 8:52 .5655 2.17 12.6 45 lose; had raised 2-step to 3500 and spun 8:59 .5626 1.58 7.23 97 lose; missed 2-3 shift; lost to a full-cage mustang that ran a 7.11, but he red lighted anyway 9:03 .5651 1.58 7.13 99 win; '67 Chevy II on street tires 9:07 .5467 1.56 7.14 99 solo 9:15 .5771 1.58 7.18 98 solo 9:18 .2561 1.57 7.15 98 solo; red light was frustrated with my slow lights and over-did it! 9:22 .5868 1.56 7.16 98 solo 10:07 .5519 1.62 7.32 97 solo; had just added 5 gal of fuel-why are my ETs getting slow? 10:19 .5572 1.59 7.24 97 solo; weird how car is going slower; staging wrangler says I'm spinning a lot 10:27 .6169 2.02 12.99 50 lose; 2-step disengagement failure; Mustang I burned at 7:45 got his swan song 10:38 .5424 1.58 7.22 98 solo; 2-step switch adjusted 10:49 .5819 1.58 7.18 98 solo; for some reason the ETs start falling again 11:00 .4713 1.57 7.16 98 solo; red light trying to push the light and drop that RT 11:13 .5233 1.57 7.13 98 solo; best light of the night 11:26 .4008 1.57 7.12 98 solo; red light trying to repeat previous light 11:30 .5583 1.57 7.08 99 solo; best ET of night 11:39 .5790 1.63 7.20 98 lose; got beat by a trans brake 7.12 Nova (driven by a girl with purple hair & tattoos on her tits) 11:42 .5730 1.81 7.39 99 solo 11:48 .5352 1.62 7.16 98 solo; track closed

Is there a 1/8-spec for a cage? I'm kind of thinking that I'm only gonna do a 6-pt bar/door bar. I'm only aware of 1/4-mile NHRA rules that break down to 9.99 (six-pt bar) and 8.50 (full cage). Enlighten me, if necessary. This winter's priority over power is being able to race without fear of getting sent home.

When I'm drag racing, my key chain often gets ejected from the ignition switch. Took the key off the heavy keychain to lighten it up hoping it would keep the key in-didn't help. I'm always searching for my key somewhere on the floor in the dark. So, I had three options: new switch, rebuild switch, or be creative. See picture for my repair-works great!

Went to strip last night with new driveshaft and repairs to floors done. Had to go to the closest (junkiest) track because I was on-call for the local hospital and the others are too far to be able to get to ER within the response guidelines (30-min). Put the cell phone in the suction cup holder on the windshield so I wouldn't miss a call and got down to business. Put the gopro on the windshield to but it was a lackluster night and I didn't ever turn it on. Car was on the ground and first car to the staging lane by 7:30 - ran all night to about 12:30; did a bunch of early passes, then they let me get a run in between each of the two bracket racing classes (Foot-brake and Pro). Same geezer won foot-brake last night that beat me last week-he's taken home the money two weeks in a row with an 11-second 80s Ford LTD. There were NO SPILLs all night, so the racing was nearly continuous thru the night. Took a $20 in my pocket, ate McDonalds on the way home and returned home with a dollar left over-that's cheaper than the movie! Brought home 26 timeslips. Had trouble hooking from the first run. Turned 2-step down from 3800 to 3000 and had better traction. Turned it back up to 3500 and spun twice so down it went again to 3000 for the rest of the night. 60-foots were high 1.5s (like 1.57 to 1.59); times varied from 7.08 to 7.55 while spinning badly, but ran most consistently between 7.10 and 7.18. Lights were from .471 (3-red lights) and .58-something, but I ran most consistently around .550. Missed the shift to third twice after bad spinning starts (seems it is pretty easy to break my concentration). Had one 2-step malfunction, but an adjustment of the switch cured it. Line-lock did not work for the entire night, which made warming the tires pretty hard, but I went back to my left-foot braking burnout technique and kept running. I played with my brake bias and burned my hands on the exhaust when I borrowed some 10mm wrenches and loosened the emergency brake cable a lot trying to get some line-lock effectiveness, so it must be the solenoid. I think maybe my slicks have just heat-cycled out. They are plenty soft but are at the very bottom of the wear markers. They feel spongy instead of sticky. One spectator told me that the slicks were wrapping enough that he though my rims were gonna hit the ground (13psi). With the camber I have (+1-degree) the wear is very even across the tread. But the rubber is coming off in little sheets, and no one else seemed to be spinning, so I don't think I can blame it on track prep. Strangely, my 3.54 gears were a little short last night: I was hitting the factory rev limiter JUST before the traps. I usually hit it just after the traps, so my next set of tires may have to be 27" if this continues. That will mean changing ride-height... Got some names for roll bar builders, made lots of friends (people really light up to the old Z-car). Swapped some phone numbers for follow-up questions. Sealed the deal on a set of Hoosier 9" slicks that I went and bought this morning for $200 for the pair. Guy said they had 15 passes on them, but they look great, like they haven't even had a burn-out. Gotta go get car into garage for inspection and start on the line-lock issue. Will start buttering up to Mrs. Thompson tonight and get new slicks mounted Thursday, and maybe get back to my tree practice next weekend.

No failure at track. Tons of passes 26 passes. Best of 7.08. Nothing went "clunk!" I'm unsubscribing to this thread and moving FORWARD to the next project. Thanks for all the help and encouragement.

Oops

JMortensen-you don't have room for people in that car!

JMortensen-you don't have room for people in that car!

How much more is chrome moly (percentage)? With my modest power I don't want to get fat. I'm on a personal diet (again) to try to lose some easy pounds.

Brakes ordered today from AZC. Requested street pads for best cold initial application braking. Already have 15/16" MC and Wilwood prop valve installed. Dave is going on vacation and will box up and ship when he gets back.

Hey Oz Boy- you put the pedal on the wrong side! The pedal is on a hinge. It doesn't need to be very strong. Just make sure you have a stop at the bottom so you don't crack the plastic.

Yes sir, we have discussed that before and I agree. This darn car is so full of compromises and the rollbar/cage will be a compromise too. Realistically with my lifestyle, this is a drag/autocross/2track day a year/drive to work to keep battery charged car. I'd like to stiffen up some but the minimum rule book I will try to confirm to is NHRA/IHRA for drag. I want to have heat again someday and a radio, so that makes a knee bar unlikely. I recall our discussions about roll cages and smacking the head. And I REALLY don't want to pull my dash (I hurt for weeks after working under there). So I think I'm gonna do the best I can with a six point (plus every pound costs hp). So, I'm really looking at where I should attach the forward legs to stiffen best if that is all I do. Rocker? Firewall? Junction of rocker and firewall down in the corner of the foot well?

Back together with fatigued metal scab patched, everything cleaned and painted. New driveshaft in. F-ing seats back in (what sadist designed those crazy stock rear seat mounts that require a contortionist with a double jointed wrist while standing on your head cursing like a sailer)? Took over an hour on one seat due to cross threading mounting bolt three times. Hitting the strip tomorrow night expecting cool air.

I think 1tuffz gave his before and after long tube dyno numbers some while back.

I had the metal bracket from the GTO. I cut that down to the bare minim needed to have something to bolt to the firewall. I think I used the holes from the stock z, bolts and everything. I marked the tunnel with a marker to show how high the stock pedal was and used a simple wooden block to space the gto bracket as needed from stock mounting point. Then the DBW pedal just clips and bolts to the GTO bracket. I will try to do pics tomorrow or sat. It turned out well enough on the first try. I used a weatherpack connector on the motor side for the six pedal wires for quick disconnect wngine removal.

Thanks Jon! When you gonna finish that dang car?

Just keep in perspective that all this work might gain you 17hp. Save some time, money and energy for a 150 shot.