Since my last update, I ran the car at the GLDIV National Challenge and the Rallycross Nationals in Nebraska and it has been something of a wild ride.
In reviewing my previous post, the keen observer will notice that I destroyed another transmission. Basically, my assembly method of just torquing the case halves together was pretty much the dumbest thing I could do. By the time the car came home from the divisional, the transmission was completely thrashed. Teeth missing,bearing bits rolling around, the whole deal. The divisional itself was a challenge: I broke a CV in the morning of day 1 and then had a ground wire come loose in the afternoon which absolutely killed my times and put me in third place. I was also doing a lot of one-wheel action and through the pictures that were taken realized that it was a lot worse than I thought. Nationals were going to require a lot of work.
For the transmission, I found someone in Columbus who had a trans for $75 that was already removed from a car. From Modern Performance, I got an Ed Peters modified OBX limited slip. I also got a set of Koni STR.T struts for the rear. Tim helped me get the transmission put together since he is much better at those fiddley things than I am. The LSD came with new bearings and races, and I sourced new ring gear bolts from the Internet. I found that the axle didn’t want to seat all the way on the driver side, so I ground down the retaining ring to put some curve on the edge and was able to get it to slam into place. I also went ahead and put the power steering back on the car.
For the rear struts, I got some really big and stiff bump stops and put them in to try to prevent oscillation.
The wiring was fixed and I added a ground strap to the engine.
The combination of power steering and the limited slip is amazing! There is all sorts of additional grip and power that I didn’t have before. And with the rear end being so much stiffer, the car is much more controlled.
In the end, I was 7 out of 14 in MF, so not a great result, but the car made it through the event and then made an 850+ mile journey to Cleveland because I was trailering Pete’s car since it wasn’t in any shape to be driven back.