Jordan wrote:They had a transmission failure (in the parking lot so I hear) so they were swapping that yesterday and entering in today's regional event. They should be running as we speak (write). :)
Turns out it was the big nut on the end of the pinion shaft. It had loosened up despite loctite. It had been re-used too many times and the staking had no effect. This caused the box to jam up in gear. The threads on the pinion shaft were buggered a bit but could probably be re-cut. The rest of the internals were fine. RallyHoMotorsports started setting some impressive stage times by the end of the day on Saturday!
We had more than our fair share of issues with the greasecar TDi VW Rabbit too. When I arrived on Wednesday I was informed of a lack of oil pressure issue (caused by the oil pan contacting the pump and stripping the pump gear keyway) which caused the turbo to seize. A new turbo and oil pump were ordered for early next day delivery. Then the rod bearings were pulled and new rod and main bearings were ordered from NAPA due to arrive Friday morning by 7:15. After reccee on Thursday I replaced the turbo and we got the bearings in and things buttoned up on Friday morning by 10:45 (last car due to park expose at 10:00, first car to start at 12:00). The bearing were in real bad shape so it was a good thing we replaced them. We could have made the start (late) but when we cranked the engine we had no oil pressure. We dropped the pan again, removed the pump and ran it off a drill to prime it. Put everything back in and thought we were good to go until we realized we forgot to install the oil drain (directs oil drain from the motor to the pump pickup tube). So we got things sorted and started on Saturday morning. Things went OK except for one stage where a tail light cluster rattled loose, caused a short, which blew a fuse that shut the car off.