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.

News from the RallyHo crew indicated that they had some fuel pump wiring and pickup starvation issues that slowed them down a little early Sat.

On the plus side, Trionic ran great and the motor survived to fight another day.

A few more revisions to the car and it should be ready for BRS. If there is enough time and they get the ITB sorted I should be able to retune the car and extract a few extra ponies!


Geoff... didn't that light issue happen last year too?!

Jordan wrote:News from the RallyHo crew indicated that they had some fuel pump wiring and pickup starvation issues that slowed them down a little early Sat.

On the plus side, Trionic ran great and the motor survived to fight another day.

A few more revisions to the car and it should be ready for BRS. If there is enough time and they get the ITB sorted I should be able to retune the car and extract a few extra ponies!


Geoff... didn't that light issue happen last year too?!

Rallyho gave the flywheel CPS the college try, but could not get it to work. With Cark's help, he "loaned" his Squaabworks kits to get him to the race on time. Glad everything worked out and you all did well at the rally.
Now I can claim "Rally tested" Didn't say how many rallies...

I'm just glad I was able to help out!

They actually brought the car back down to my shop in CT Monday before the race. We hooked the flywheel trigger back up and everything worked great after putting the correct injectors back in. The original problem was they had failed to secure the CPS signal wire into the back of the ECM connector. They were going to pull Carks unit before the rally, but I'm not sure if they did.

Jordan wrote:Geoff... didn't that light issue happen last year too?!

Yeah, needless to say Justin was thrilled that it happened again and I was thrilled to find that the problem hadn't been fixed in the last year.

The light rattles loose on rough stuff so he used duct tape to hold it in place but during service one of our crew guys was sitting back there and Justin had his helmet back there during transits so something loosened up the tape. The reason it wasn't fixed was because the only way to fix it would be to replace the light cluster with something else which would require changing sheet metal around the light cluster. Apparently there were some guys who ran an early Rabbit back in the '80s and they had replaced their light clusters with generic trailer lights. Its apparent why.

attach LED strips to inside of rear window in appropriate colors. then you won't have to worry if the lights fall out completely.

matt wrote:attach led tube strips to inside of rear window in appropriate colors. then you won't have to worry if the lights fall out completely.

Are they expensive?

the price you pay will vary (alot) I have gotten some strips that were said to be for motorcycles (seemed to be totally waterproof inside a flexible covering) I think I spent $20 for 3 strips on amazon.

I don't know if they have appropriate brightness though since I've never actually installed them on anything. There are SO SO SO many different options. But if it's really cheap, you probably don't want to use them.