So the race car's been done for 3 weeks. Driving it
around the block before putting it on the trailer last
night, tranny locks in 1st. Drop tranny oil, lots of
metal. Lots. Open side cover, it's toast. Leave for
Road America Thursday. No spare tranny. Flounder
suggests using the one out of my nearly pristine
street car that I drive 3 or 4 nights a week. I decide
against it, as the gearbox is fine after 13+ years,
and I;d like to keep it that way. I'm sure I'll soon
have 2 inoperable vehicles if I start parting out the
streetcar. Write off the race weekend. Call Peter C.
this morning, he has an old gearbox in his shop
unknown quality. He opens it up, calls me, says it
looks amazingly good inside. Hmmmm...not much time
today, tomorrow is our anniversary, Wednesday is
booked solid, and I planned on being ready to go to
Elkhart Lake by then. Not much time to get to Madison
and back AND pull engine, etc. Peter's computer guy
is gong to be in Janesville, about 1/2 way to Madison.
He drops tranny at a nursery. I check with the boss
(gear head, although he makes a tad more money than I
do, and his tastes run to Porsche Speedsters etc.),
leave work around 2:45. Get tranny, home by 4:30.
Change out of work costume (typical "biz casual"
khakis and blue button down that I hate). Get engine
out by 6. HAVE to go to Tae Kwon Do tonight (black
belt test in November, this week's critical for
reasons not warranting explanation here). Shower,
leave for TKD by 6:20. Return at 8:30. Spend an hour
or so on the tranny making it as good as I can with
various ancillaries (cradle, throw out fork, seal up
side cover, etc.). Get the whole mess back in the car
around 11:30. Start hooking everything up, save slave
cylinder for last (I should have put it on out of the
car and just bled the clutch instead). Wrestle with
the goddam top slave bolt for 45 minutes, almost as
long as it takes to pull the motor. I finally give
up, put some fluids in, think I'm done except for the
slave, then realize the radiator is still in the front
yard. It's obviously too late to think straight, so I
call it a night (or morning, as it is). Take 3rd
shower of the day, and rite this down t clear my head.
Anyway, thanks ONCE AGAIN to Peter C., it looks like
I'm going racing after all.
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