shots from the garage...

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Sept 2020..... last time I made a pass. While that was the norm in my “Nordern” days, it’s really odd in my desert southwest days to go that long. I’m throwing the car in the trailer and heading for Vegas tomorrow. It was about a year ago we raced up there before they shut down... Our main objective is chassis cert and hope like hell the wiring makeover has cured my shift timer issues. I’m REALLY looking forward to being in the car. Life has thrown us a curve ball in the $ dept and we’re dealing with it.... I’m seeing a very limited race schedule, but we’ll make due. It comes down to long term choices and of course the Duster is an expensive hobby nothing more nothing less. If nothing else releasing the trans brake button will be some much needed mental floss :)
 
All dressed up and ready to dance :)

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Was nice to skip work Friday to drive north through a snowstorm and then to sit at LVMS and watch it rain in 45 degree temps (of course I wore shorts... I live in the desert!). Job one was accomplished and got my chassis recert sticker. We nearly left, but decided to give Saturday a shot. Our first thought was to leave the trailer and drive home (2hr) but we ended up crashing at a friends place. Saturday all went well with the ONE prob that is still haunting us.... the air shift timer won’t make the 2-3 shift going down the track. It’ll work if you test it by grounding the “sense” terminal, or on jack stands, or if I lower the rpm down and run it on the return road. It also worked flawlessly when the other engine was in the car. Good news was the Racepak worked fine so the re-wire project rid of that glitch. Made three 1/8 hits playing with the shifter and then we did two back to back 1.28 60ft/9.30 full 1/4 passes. Today I added an LED light to the air shift controller “output” terminal and zip tied it to the cage. This will let me know if the output is indeed working or if I need to concentrate on the shifter. Our next venture will be Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix. Btw 2021 is the 30 pack aluminum anniversary of my track racing :)
 
I’m assuming you got a NHRA sticker Jay. Of course most of the tracks I race at are IHRA and they treat our wallets a little more friendly for certs. We were and still are blessed to have an NHRA tech inspector that will come to your house to do chassis certs. He does charge a mileage fee that is well worth it and a lot cheaper than I could get it to him and very convenient for most of us to have him drive to our shops.
 
I’m not sure how willing a tech inspector would be to make a 4hr round trip for a single car. I’ve always just taken it to them. You have to remember.... my “closest” track is 125 miles one way.... then 225 and 250, 251, 293, 304, 364 :)
 
A body said:
I’m not sure how willing a tech inspector would be to make a 4hr round trip for a single car. I’ve always just taken it to them. You have to remember.... my “closest” track is 125 miles one way.... then 225 and 250, 251, 293, 304, 364 :)
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ohh I understand I was just stating how lucky we are. I wish our IHRA inspections were that easy as I need three cars inspected. We have two days scheduled in April so I gotta at least get a sticker on my black duster.
 
Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix AZ..... ‘twas a train wreck this weekend. Absolutely got drilled Saturday in rnd 1 with a perfect light and .007 package. Sunday more of the same with a .012 redeye. More shift timer issues and then when I REALLY needed it, the Racepak card quit reading. One bit of ugliness I did however note today was the fact that when I shifted the 1-2 shift the shift light went off briefly then back on so I pulled 2-3 and the light stayed on through the 1/4... i have the feeling my very basic 904 may have gotten unhappy. I had a new card in the data recorder so hopefully I’ll be able to view it. A couple of nice things is that I used the same shock adjustments as Vegas and had 5 1.25 60ft times and one low 1.26. Also ran another new best of 9.11 with a 5.76 1/8 time in 1800DA. Left the car in the trailer. Not sure when this will be continued....
 
Hey Jay what shift timer issue are you having and with what parts??? We had an issue with Matt’s and I’ll tell You what we found.
 
Advanced Control Devices, INC.

Got it with my shifter when I bought it used. Stupid thing worked flawlessly when I had the little motor in. I was able to get my first pass Saturday and round 1 Sunday on my Racepak. I can clearly see what happened Sunday. I lowered the shift light to 6500. Low for this mill but I was simply trying to bracket race. I unhooked the air and shifted by hand. With the air shift rpm set at 6500 (Saturday) it will make the peak shift at 7100 rpm... that’s 1.38 sec after releasing the trans brake. Shifting by hand I made the shift at 1.78 seconds which put the peak rpm at 7865.... which moved the band up so my fall back rpm was 6507.... which means the shift light never went off.... confusion set in and I pulled third (1second later). This allowed the fallback to drop below the 6500 shift light, but only for 1.6 seconds..... I NEED to get this ironed out. It’ll be a much more user friendly car once it works.
 
Same box my son had issues with. It worked great for years then all the sudden it wouldn’t make the one, two shift on his 727. I called the company to see if it could be tested and he said yes but then went on to say they never had one go bad. He said interference in the system or a bad ground has always been the issue. We cleaned Matt’s grounds and it would still do it every so often. When we pulled his engine we found his distributor had gotten rusty under the cap from leaving it in the trailer at the track. Take a good look around.
 
Well all the wiring is completely new... and I’m the ground king :). Think I’ll be calling Digital Delay tomorrow and placing an order.
 
New shift timer on the way.... if the stupid wind wasn’t blowing I’d unload the car. Still want to give the trans the smell test :). Might make Vegas this Saturday yet.... although I have a ton to do around here.
 
And went you get back from Vegas the ton of things to do will still be there...
 
A body said:
New shift timer on the way.... if the stupid wind wasn’t blowing I’d unload the car. Still want to give the trans the smell test :). Might make Vegas this Saturday yet.... although I have a ton to do around here.
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life is short. Go friggin racing
 
Hindsight being crystal clear I should have taken the advise and gone racing. I just can’t seem to find an event to hit that doesn’t interfere with that dang work thing and a couple other family events. Have my new Digital Delay shift timer installed, but haven’t been able to “live” test it. Funny I never even considered an air shifter.... but the PPP I scored used was equipped and came with an ACD shift timer. Since they’re legal in “Pro” class (don’t think they should be... but I don’t make the rules) I’ve been using it off and on and find it quite useful with the W8 mill since there’s not a whole lot of time frame from a 7000 rpm shift and a 8000. Before I know it the HOT will be here and the car will go on summer break.
 
A body said:
Hindsight being crystal clear I should have taken the advise and gone racing. I just can’t seem to find an event to hit that doesn’t interfere with that dang work thing and a couple other family events. Have my new Digital Delay shift timer installed, but haven’t been able to “live” test it. Funny I never even considered an air shifter.... but the PPP I scored used was equipped and came with an ACD shift timer. Since they’re legal in “Pro” class (don’t think they should be... but I don’t make the rules) I’ve been using it off and on and find it quite useful with the W8 mill since there’s not a whole lot of time frame from a 7000 rpm shift and a 8000. Before I know it the HOT will be here and the car will go on summer break.
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you should make plans to come to the Moparty event in Sept Bowling Green Ky.
Its a friggin blast. Long haul, but... fun.
 
FAMOSO..... tucked in the almond and orange groves of the south Central Valley N of Bakersfield CA.... prob my favorite track ever. It’s wide smooth and long, and 300 and some change miles from my door. On a last minute deal we threw stuff in the trailer and made our way over there last weekend. March Meet which is a HUGE nostalgia race was postponed to Memorial weekend this year due to the kung flu guidelines so we thought this would be a good time to hit the track and gather some data. The organization renting the track was ANRA, another nostalgia deal. Now they’re renowned for not only having nostalgia cars, but also nostalgia pay outs. No biggie.... I never look at the purse when I choose races to attend. Any pesos I gather in this hobby is strictly an unexpected bonus. We rolled in Friday afternoon to an incredibly packed pit area. I was amazed! Apparently everyone is jonesing to race! Saturday we were called to the lanes..... and WOW! 6 lanes of Hot Rod Class... 103 cars in class! With the car count they decided to run 1-2nd rounds that day. We managed to get through those two so we were on to Sunday! More of the same and we ended up in round 7!! The FINALS!! .....where I threw away the weekend with a bad red light! . Got a lot of numbers... handful of 1.28 60 times and two 1.25s. Was running 9.12-9.14 and one 9.105 surprise thrown in (new best). Car is launching so nicely we’re getting close to leaving the wheelie bars in the trailer... didn’t touch them but twice.

...and for the funny part. This class was $250 to win. Yep, 103 cars $100 entry for the weekend and two fiddy. I got $150 for runner up.... so a tank of fuel :)

cars running great.... time to check it over good and prep for Memorial Day Weekend
 
Hey you did good, had fun, paid for entry and a case of beer, new best, saw some good friends, nothing broke, and you made it home safe. Sounds like a winning weekend to me. But man that was a pathetic payout for the car count. Great job and thanks for the updates on Facebook. I love following your race weekends.
 
A body said:
................... This class was $250 to win. Yep, 103 cars $100 entry for the weekend and two fiddy. ...................
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Holy CRAP!!....That is criminally CHEAP!! Nice job though:thumbsup:
 
and on a technical note the new Digital Delay shift timer worked flawlessly! Sometimes throwing parts at a problem DOES solve things! It was nice having the air shifter back.
 
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