One step forward........The LeMons saga!

[ga.spyder]

As a lot of you are aware,Denise and I have a Lemons race car.We ran out of time for the fall race last year,but have high hopes of 2 or 3 races this year.Denise's husband,Ron,is a former Nascar Busch crew chief and a ARCA owner/driver.He is armed with a garage full of tools and vast ammount of knowledge.He has rebuilt the motor we tore up last year,and had me come over today to get the front end set up,and see if it would move!!The 3 of us spent most of the day setting camber ,caster and toe.Got it perfect(with a little creative engineering on the control arm ).So we put in gas,I climbed in,and we fired her up.
The Good....It runs awesome!!! Will light the tires up,idles smooth,great pickup,sounds badass,no leaks.
The cars steering is light,handles like its on a rail,and the stance(cut 2 coils front and rear) is great.
The Bad....Tranny We have no 2nd gear.it wouldnt downshift into 2nd on my first run.I had Denise try ,after we adjusted the clutch,and same story.I tried again and it just wouldnt downshift into 2nd,although the upshifts were smooth.Then Denise tore it up completely on her last run We also have some issues with the driveshaft hitting the tunnel,and possibly the panhard bar is tweaked.
The Ugly.....we continue to 'lighten' the car.Every time you touch it,metal falls off!!
So....one step forward,two steps back.We are going to be needing some help with parts and knowledge from you folks.Denise will post our wish list,and hopefully some pix soon

[rlux4]

Craig and Denise: Is it legal down South to have that much fun?
How far are you from the Burchette's, Craig?
Ron

[ga.spyder]

Hey Ronster...its 250 miles each way(I am dedicated).I figure I have logged at least 5000 miles in pursuit of the elusive lemon!!It has been a lot of fun,we always seem to be able to laugh thru the tears.The car is gonna be a terror on the track when we get it sorted out.
Craig

[rlux4]

250 miles! Makes my 100 mile jaunt over to see Ace seem leisurely.
Ron

[azygoustoyou]

Just listening to the fun and tears your having makes me want to be there. Just as your wanting that car on the track. There are a lot of us wanting to hear your story. Keep up the good work and us informed. You know were cheering you on!

[mdrburchette]

I think we could give a little credit to Ron for trashing 2nd gear, don't you, Craig? Did you see the line in the driveway where he spun the tires all the way to his parents' house? Ron made sure Craig and I felt like little pansies. We took it up the road hoping not to tear anything up on it. It was a brand new engine, afterall! When Ron took it up the road, he filled potholes in the driveway with loose gravel, made a nice gully for rain water to channel, then cleaned the old rubber off the tires when he hit pavement. He didn't have a problem jambing it into 2nd gear but I believe the car is separating now. I'm expecting it to break in half at the back seat, which may cause a problem when we're on the track. The fuel cell is in that back half.
Craig and I noticed a bit of a rearend shift when changing gears. Ron thinks it may be torque we're feeling or possibly a weak panhard rod. We replaced the panhard rod because the original was bent, but we replaced it with a suspect one so that's one part we need.
We may also need access to 4 14" wheels if anyone has a cheap set. We don't think we can run 13" wheels since the car is sitting pretty low now. In fact, we may be changing the rear springs to some early model ones I have laying around to keep it from bottoming out with a full tank of gas. We tried spring rubbers and it helped a little.
The tranny is a major issue but I have a couple of them lying around. Still, if anyone has a donor that is in good working condition, we would appreciate it! We'll be changing that over in a few weeks and I'll get some more sheet metal and try to patch some more rust holes. If Craig would stop poking his finger through the metal, we might be able to keep things together!

All in all, we had a good day. We got a little frustrated when we couldn't get the camber on the left side where we wanted it, but thanks to Ron's ingenuity, he made it work. Who'd a thunk to cut and reweld the control arm? Dang, I married an awesome dude! Pics soon when I run down the other dude that was there to supervise and take pics.

[ventura ace]

Sounds like great fun! Did you guys have a break in the cold weather, or were you out there freezing your you-know-whats off??

Glad to hear that you got all the engine bugs worked out. Did you ever decide for sure what the knocking noise was previously?

A

[mdrburchette]

We finally had normal 55 degree weather for the past few days and thankfully, next week will be the same. The knocking was due to the brand new oil pump seizing and causing the aux shaft to slip timing and hit the #2 rod. A new oil pump and a couple new rod bolts fixed that problem right up and the engine is a hoss! If the body holds together, I believe we have a contender.

[azygoustoyou]

I'm sure you'd rather it break there then at the track.

[ga.spyder]

Funny you should mention that,Brady.When we were rushing to get to the track,I was concerned that we hadnt really tried the rear end and tranny.I felt we shouldnt have entered the fall race and wait until this spring.I was outvoted by the team captain(same guy that said the trans''looked good'' ).If we had made the track,we wouldnt have completed a lap...tranny is junk! I think that whether it is for a race or street...dont rush it.It was a pretty expensive lesson learned!!
Craig

[mdrburchette]

Yeah, but we learn our lessons well, don't we partner?...especially the expensive ones.

[alfats]

Running Feb 6th and 7th? Watch out for Fasta Pasta!!!!! The Alfa will be running hard this race!

[mdrburchette]

We'd love to be a contender on the track but we're shooting for the April Chump race at VIR. Check out their website when you have a chance:
http://chumpcar.com/

[engineerted]

Are you guys going to weld up the rear end?

Ted

[mdrburchette]

I don't think so since we don't know if we'll be running in the rain or not. Our luck it will be monsoon season and they won't call off the race.