[benspeeder]

So it was a weekend of mechanical challenges, albeit simple stuff. Qualified sixth and was going over the car after qualifying when I noticed what I thought was scratches on my Kodiak wheels. Upon closer inspection I found a nasty crack! Dismounted the wheel and on the back of the wheel there were several cracks nearly all the way through the spoke. Dismounted all the wheels and all had cracks. No way they could be used. Since my rain wheels were 17 inches and the wheels with cracks were 16 I had to buy a new set of slicks, dismount my rains, mount up the slicks.



Got onto the grid with the 1 minute whistle going - barely made it! The race started out awesome and the car felt great but you can see in the video that I run over a curb really hard on the first lap going into the octopus. I think that might have damaged the left rear wheel bearing because about 8-10 laps into the race I get a nasty vibration in the left rear.



Started waving people by to try and make the halfwaypoint of the race so I don't get a DNF and pickup some points. I know the guy in blue/green BMW is second in the points and he DNF'd with a bent rear control arm so at least I stretched out the points lead a little.



At the end of the day I was OK because I didn't do anything stupid like try to get one more race out of the wheels or run the wheelbearing until total failure (don't ask me what happened five years ago in New Hampshire when I dind't realize how bad that can be!)



Enjoy the vid - still having trouble loading up the HD files so this is low res.



Cheers!



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPucOvdCaxI[/media]

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[rl968]

Nice... I'll be there next thurs/Fri for the SCH DE event. Far from me to be critical, but I heard a lot squealing from your tires, some unsteadiness and it looked like a lot of the turns were pretty wide, was that due to your tires not having enough grip?

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[Rap]

Nice driving, too bad about the vibration. Was that more prevalent at a certain speed or gear?

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[RS Barn]

Ben,

Agressive until you got the lead. A few missed apex's and then it's obvious there's a problem.

Good job shutting r down and being safe.

Car is strong!!!

Pete

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[benspeeder]

I sure did miss it going into T1 once I got the lead! It cost me the lead going wide there. Almost slid off the track. rl968 - yes,when you hear those tires really squalling, that's too much skid. A little squeal is not bad. Most of the time when you see me run wide out onto the curb - that's intentional and carrying as much speed as possible. NJMP is a track where you really want to be agressive on the corners, over the curb in, over it on the way out. There's a couple like that left curb on the sweeper going into the octopus you don't want to hit too hard. Both the BMW and my car may have had failures due to running the curbs too hard. The BMW definitely did - hard to say for my car. Let us know how you make out at your event!



Super fun track and a fun challenge to get it right. The sister track at NJMP, Lightning, is so much easier to drive. That's why they call Thunder the "pro" track :-)

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[ebarone968]

I missed it again Ben ! Keep me posted on your races coming up I will make it to one of them. Keep up the good work

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[pmcrespo]

Challenging track indeed... Great job driving it Ben. I echo Pete's thoughts; the 968 sounds and looks very, very strong. I am a litttttle jealous <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/cool.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> What times are you running there? Are you going to upgrade with some new mac daddy 21" spinner wheels?



I am going to try to make it to NJMP the 16th and 17th for some testing and tuning... Thunder/Lightning on Th/Fri as rl968 commented....





Wheel bearings? They go bad? <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wacko.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Yo Pete!!!!

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[Eric_K]

Have you confirmed it was the wheel bearing? When mine start to go they make noise but no vibration. The times I've gotten bad vibration, like can't see in the mirror bad, it has been from the wheels. Either the tire rotating on the rim or forgetting to tape the weights and they fall off. Since you mentioned putting on new tires just before the race I wonder if it could be a badly out of balance wheel/tire.

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[RS Barn]

Erik,

The classic bearing failure is apparent when you turn right. You can hear it in Bens video in turn 8.

Pablo, I may be at NJ the 17th. Pretty sure 16th is out. I am taking Kait to Penn State

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[pmcrespo]

Now that I think about it... I had one of those failures... After one too many Track Days at Pocono North (talk about turning right only!), I had that same bearing self destroy as I arrived Hershey for the Swap Meet!!!!



Ahhh... my Suppa Duppah Track Tiptronic 968 :-) !!!



Anyway Ben! Thanks for posting... I will be checking those bearings for any signs this weekend....

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[benspeeder]

Hi Erik - definetly the left bearing - hate to say that I ran it long enough it was smoking when I checked it in the pits <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Pablo - I just ran Pocono! Maybe that track helped it die.



PS - personal best there is a 1:32.4 but only did a 1:33.5 last weekend.



Hoping the Kodiak folks will step up and fix those wheels.

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[benspeeder]

Hey Pete thanks for the advice earlier today.



Looks like the axle bolts were loose on the left and causing the vibration. Pete suggested to do the bearing anyway - so a new axle repack and bearning ought to fix that car.



Next race is June 25-26 at NJMP Lightning

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[RS Barn]

I told Ben if he had excessive heat at bearing the CV bolts could loosen from expansion/contraction. I would replace bearing anyway for peace of mind

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[333pg333]

How old are the wheels?

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[Cloud9...68]

Have fun with the CV joint repacking - not at all a fun job - very tedious and time-consuming. Half the problem is associated with the fact that the CV boots are so close to the bolts, so when you put the 8 mm 12-point socket into the bolt, the boot wants to push it out. This means you have to be VERY careful when seating the socket before you start turning it, because there's a high risk of the boot forcing the socket off the bolt just as you are turning it, which can easily damage the star pattern inside the bolt. And then getting the half-shaft into position to insert the bolts on the hub side is a royal pain, because you can't see what you're doing, and the half-shaft isn't exactly light. Your forearms will be aching when you're done. I found it best to do the both hub sides first, then do the transaxle side, because the latter is vastly easier, because you can see what you're doing. And don't take any short-cuts when torquing the bolts. Set the parking brake to hold everything in place once you've rotated the hubs such that the bolts are in the best possible position to insert the socket, torque the four, release the parking brake, rotate the hub until the next set of four bolts is in the most accessable position, set the brake, torque the botls, and repeat until all 24 are done. Oh, and definitely get all new bolts (chances are you'll strip a few removing them, anyway!) - they're cheap, and this is hopefully not a job you'll have to do very often.



Clark's Garage has a very nice tutorial on how to do the actual CV joint repacking, but it leaves outhow much fun it is to actually R & R the half-shafts. Allow at least a solid weekend for the entire job if you're planning on dong both axles. If you're planning to do it yoruself, don't hesitate to drop me a note if you have any questions. Good luck.

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[benspeeder]

Got to admit I took the wimpy road and just wrote a check <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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