[Shotimes] Track Day - Road Atlanta

[Donald Mallinson]

Peter Chase wrote:
> I'm afraid it might be a combination of both the clutch and the tranny since 2nd gear seems more finicky than the others.

Peter,
Have you tried the reverse test?  start the car, let out the 
clutch, shifter in neutral.  Then shove in clutch, wait 
about 10 seconds and try to go into reverse.  If it grinds, 
then try this:

Again with engine running, let clutch out in neutral, then 
shift to any forward gear.  Then with the clutch all the way 
in, go back to neutral, pause a second or two and then try 
reverse again.  Grind?  It is the clutch without a doubt.

It is really rare for a tranny to get hard to put into gear 
by itself.

One other thing comes to mind.  Do you have the ROD shifter? 
  If so, hard shifting and lousy feel can quite often be 
traced to the bolt being loose at the tranny where the rod 
between the shifter and the tranny bolts up.  This is NOT 
the rod that actually does the shifting.  If this support 
rod comes loose, it can cause the tranny to feel like all 
the syncros are bad, and the shifter is loose.  Put some 
loctite on that bolt.

> As far as the understeer, I'm trying to get my hands on a 26mm rear bar to help with that. 
Before you add a bigger rear bar (that WILL loosen up the 
rear) just try taking some air out of the rear tires.  If 
you normally run say 35 all the way around, you could try 
dropping the rears to 32 and then 30 if that doesn't do the 
trick.  Most people with FWD cars run WAY too much pressure 
in the back, but equal pressure is the SAFE way to understeer.

I like to run my cars on the street at 37 front and 34 rear. 
  ON the track, I will go maybe 42 front and 34 rear.  Works 
out pretty neutral for me.


> The struts I'm not too worried about as I know I can do those myself.  It's the clutch/ tranny stuff that I'm alittle weary of doing myself in my carport.  Also, do you have any suggestions on where to clean/lube the shifter linkage?
Get the excellent video from Josh at SHO Nut about the 
tranny/clutch job with the Quaife install thrown in for good 
measure.  With that video and a decent set of tools, you can 
do the tranny work, but after thinking about your problem, 
If you have a ROD shifter, I think your support rod is loose 
as mentioned above, and you may not need to do any of this.

With a ROD shifter, there is a support that the mechanism 
slides on underneath.  Spray with WD40 to clean it and then 
follow with a foaming lube of some sort, or maybe motorcycle 
chain lube.  This support lets the shifter move with the 
engine.  In a cable shift SHO, the cables move so no 
mechanism like that is needed.  With the cable shifter, take 
off the top of the console and see what the mechanism is 
like underneath.  There can be wear that causes the shifter 
to feel loose.

Try this page for more insight into the rod shifter and the 
parts involved:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?N25963BE1

Don Mallinson