Dadson Racing: 2010 Revival

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

This is uncharted territory for us so was always going to take some time to set up correctly.

 

The guy who made the brake lines for us fitted the master cylinders and to be fair he had everything in the correct starting position with the balance bar centered and horizontal to the firewall at rest but as he couldn't bleed the brakes that was as far as he could go, my best guess is that setup gave us about a 60/40 rear bias which obviously is far from ideal.

 

As Whittie said he has done a bit of research on achieving the optimum set up then played with the master cylinder plunger length adjustments lengthening one while backing the other right off ultimately he ran out of free play at the brake pedal so had to adjust that as well, I think the current set up is just about right but we'll have a full compliment of tools with us on Wednesday just in case.

 

This is how it came to us with brake lines done.

 

This is one of the rods Whittie had to adjust which required seat out to gain access.

 

Here's how it currently sits at rest.

 

And here at full pressure, I'm not 100% satisfied with this it should ideally be horizontal to the firewall.

 

Once we have the achieved the optimum balance I'll fit the cable to allow minor adjustment from inside the cabin.

 

Cheers

Dad

 

[Whittie]

It's hard to know without experience, this from the wilwood website:

 

 

Either way, we'll have it 100% working by the afternoon on Wednesday

[PeterAllen]

What you have there relates to pedal effort not bias.

 

Bias is adjusted by screwing the balance bar which is connected to the two plungers coming out of the M/Cs. A good starting point is to drive the car slowly on a dirt/gravel surface and slowly apply the brakes. Adjust the balance so that the fronts will lock before the car stalls, i.e. before the rears stop the drivetrain.

 

I don't quite understand what those 'black' spacers are on the balance bar, doesn't the the balance bar screw through the centre pivot point?

 

[Whittie]

The balance bar has a conical joint in the center that is screws through - adjusting the pivot (center line in your pic)

 

 

The initial issue was that the stroke was all wrong so the front master cylinder was bottoming out without full brake pressure, you can see how now the front brake MC has much more rod length available to displace the brake fluid in the MC

 

Thanks for the tip about the dirt road - will gave that a shot en-route to track to get the ballpark set right.

[PeterAllen]

[PeterAllen]

Also, what actually locks the balance bar in position. I can't see a lock nut on the rod end bearings threaded onto the balance bar. Am I missing something... as usual?

[Whittie]

Bingo,

 

Except it's been trial and error at this stage adjusting the at rest position and the brake pedal position to allow the MC piston to move as far as it needs

 

The balance bar can't fall out due to the pivots of the MC pistons on the balance bar. Adjusting the central bearing (by rotating the balance bar) moves where it is in the black sleeve and you can only go as far as the threaded section of the balance bar allows before jamming on the MC piston pivot. The pivots (silver tear drops) of the MC pistons do not allow any more movement (left right) of the balance bar than the clearance between them and the black sleeve.

 

It is a racing regulation in some places to have a cap on the end of the balance bar, but it can't actually come out anyways unless you disconnect one of the tear drops and unthread it. At this point (tear drop not connected to MC piston) you'd have no brakes anyway, locking nut or otherwise.

[PeterAllen]

...The initial issue was that the stroke was all wrong so the front master cylinder was bottoming out without full brake pressure, ...

 

Is your front M/C big enough to cope with piston displacement in the front calipers?

[Whittie]

Yes, it's been sized correctly. You can see from the photos that the old man posted tho just how much offset is required on the balance bar at the rest position to get the correct applied pressure position.

 

At no point is the balance bar binding, it's still free to move through the full range, it's just a matter of fiddling with all the adjustment options to get the setup we're happy with.

[PeterAllen]

...The pivots (silver tear drops) of the MC pistons do not allow any more movement (left right) of the balance bar than the clearance between them and the black sleeve....

 

So every time you reset the bias you have to have new 'black sleeves' made to suit?

 

I'm asking these questions in an effort to help. I'm sure if we were standing next to the car holding a tinnie we would be communication far better.

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Murphy has never been to far away from us during this rebuild, he has been credited with writing many rules and one pertaining to the installation of new equipment states "When all else fails the instructions will be read"

 

Damn where's this been hiding?

 

 

Cheers

Dad

 

[d3c0y]

Are you guys going to do any production racing in this car or mainly sprints and hill climbs? You've probably answered that but 40 pages is a lot haha.

[PeterAllen]

It appears that whoever built that set up used the black spacers rather than the jam nuts, leaving the adjusting shaft free to vibrate to a different setting. 'Jam nuts' seems to be an appropriate phrase in relation to the brake builder.

 

If the builder couldn't bleed the brakes then, again, I'd be looking at the capacity of the front M/C and whether it is big enough to feed the front calipers.

[Whittie]

If the builder couldn't bleed the brakes then, again, I'd be looking at the capacity of the front M/C and whether it is big enough to feed the front calipers.

 

It's worth noting here that the brakes were provided as a kit by Beta Motorsports in the US. Sized according to the brake caliper dimensions that we provided to him. So, the kit is good. However, the installation was by a local mechanic who made the new brake lines.

 

I see what you mean tho about the adjusting shaft being able to move. However, it has to have some room to move otherwise when the shaft moves through it's arc (rest to depressed position) it would bind up. It doesn't need much room and currently has too much, but you can't have the unit bound up tight or it wouldn't work either.

 

You are correct that this would be much easier in person with a can or two. I will try and make a video if I can, detailing the current setup and how we're adjusting the unit to get it correct.

 

D3c0y: Just sprints and hill-climbs for this baby - oh, well, regularity too I guess which is as close to 'real' racing as we'll get.

[PeterAllen]

... the adjusting shaft .. has to have some room to move otherwise when the shaft moves through it's arc (rest to depressed position) it would bind up....

 

It shouldn't bind as the barrel nuts will swivel inside the clevis.

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

This discussion is good but I have to agree with you PeterAllen that in person over a couple of beers would be way better.

 

The install here is not complete as I'm yet to fit the remote adjuster which will change the equation a bit.

 

I've considered fitting this a few times but decided we should get the balance as close to perfect as possible before installing it, the balance bar is relatively easy to adjust so I guess there is the potential for it to move with vibration but once the cable is in place it shouldn't because the knob is spring loaded so in cab adjustment is literally done one click at a time.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Whittie]

Well, good news is the brakes work properly and feel amazing!!

 

Bad news is the head gasket didn't last 20 laps

[Whittie]

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

That vid Whittie posted shows how good the 44-1 gearing is for our track, the car is approaching the rev limiter in 5th down the hill and doing the same in 4th on the front straight and is right in the power band everywhere else.

 

Well yesterday certainly didn't go to plan, it started out well enough the threatened rain didn't happen and we caught up with some friends we haven't seen since the Zed was stripped four years ago.

 

Whittie's first outing was good and he reported the brake balance good enough that we can now fit the remote adjuster, once again the car attracted lots of attention and positive comment.

 

Because this was a low key test and tune day with no flaggies on duty I decided to try and get some pics from over the hill at the back of the track which is not open to spectators.

 

I took a few vids of him going past from behind the dump truck tyre barrier. (please excuse the hand held camera shake).

 

 

 

This one is out of focus until the end when I caught the steam escaping.

 

I so love passing Porsches but this one came at a cost with precious little coolant left.

 

 

With the benefit of hind sight we probably rushed things a bit too much putting the car on the track with only 500ks on it and pre the head being re tensioned, although at the time the engine didn't get overly hot I suspect the initial damage was done when we through the fan belt first time out.

 

Although Vince is always happy to see the Zed this is not the way we had intended the day should end.

 

Cheers

Dad

 

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

I'm currently out of town for a week and tried to remove the head before leaving so any repairs could be done while I'm away but ran out of time so it will have to wait until my return but I did get the cam cover off and what I found doesn't occur in a lap and a half so this was always going to happen and I guess the sooner the better.

 

There doesn't appear to be any water in the sump oil so I'm not expecting any bearing damage but I'll inspect it very closely when I drain it and run some flushing oil through when I get it going again.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

We've known for some time now that Whitties departure to the land of milk and honey was coming, he had a few little delays that I thought were really good because it kept him here just a little bit longer than expected but in the end the horses are gone as is the float and Falcon tow car also his old reliable bunkie Mirage uni car that filled in as a motorsport car while the Zed was off the road is gone and as I write he & Mrs Whittie are in the air somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

 

Whittie will make his new home in Huston he's on a two year contract and can stay in the US for up to five years before having to take on a green card which at this point in time he doesn't want to do but time will tell. 

 

International experience of two to five years is highly regarded in Whitties chosen career and will make him even more employable than he already is, clearly I'm extremely happy for him and immensely proud but to say I'll miss him is a massive understatement.

 

On the bright side we now have a destination in the US and it's not far from the Circuit of the Americas so a visit to coincide with F1 makes sense also dealing with companies that won't ship outside the US is no longer an issue.

 

I've got the Zed for safe keeping and apart from fixing the head gasket still have a few finishing off jobs to do and then it will go into storage, I will use it occasionally and possibly do a few events just to keep it ticking over but somehow Dad Racing just doesn't have the same ring to it that Dadson does.

 

Whittie will need a car and has already done some research below is a link to his current first choice.

 

http://www.drivesrt.com/2015/challenger-srt-hellcat/

 

Cheers

Dad

[MaygZ]

Hey Dad, think of the silver lining, find the glass half full .. etc.

 

Now you don't have to share the car on track days.

Now you don't have some cheeky young bugger going faster than you (dispite you being a much better driver)

Now you have someone to visit in the big US of A - and stay for free

Now you have someone who can source rust free, inland Zees and send them home to you (to make them into Zeds)

Now we all have someone we know in the US, not far from Arizona that we can send enough Zed parts to until we can fill a container before shipping it down under and save lots of $$$

[Grandad]

Hey Dad, think of the silver lining, find the glass half full .. etc.

 

Now you don't have to share the car on track days.

Now you don't have some cheeky young bugger going faster than you (dispite you being a much better driver)

Now you have someone to visit in the big US of A - and stay for free

Now you have someone who can source rust free, inland Zees and send them home to you (to make them into Zeds)

Now we all have someone we know in the US, not far from Arizona that we can send enough Zed parts to until we can fill a container before shipping it down under and save lots of $$$

 

 

Hey MaygZ

Thank's for that you are of course entirely correct on all counts.

 

There's been no movement on the Zed here other than changing wheels and setting the car up on jack stands so it's at a comfortable height for me to work on however my motivation is slowly returning as there are a couple of events coming up that I want to do.

 

I know this is a bit off topic but Whittie has hit the ground running in the US in just over two weeks since his arrival he's celebrated his 26th birthday, been welcomed into his new role by his company and shown to his exclusive office complete with name plate on the door (a nice step up from his previous work station), he's found a house on a few acres with fencing and stables on the edge of town and will take delivery of his Dodge Challenger R/T next Wednesday, he sent me a pic but I can't extract it from the email so maybe he can post a couple or I will later but basically this is it.

 

http://image.popularhotrodding.com/f/hotnews/1103phr_2010_dodge_challenger_rt/32416642/1103phr_01_z%2B2010_dodge_challenger_rt%2B.jpg

 

On top of that he took his electric RC car to the local indoor facility that by the way is over double the size of our largest out door facility here but I guess everything is bigger in Texas, anyway first time out on a track he's never run on before he managed to hit something very hard and break the chassis but still limped home into fourth place overall, I can't wait to see his results once he knows the track.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Whittie]

I did indeed take delivery of a new car last night.

 

2012 Dodge Challenger R/T

5.7L Hemi V8 (with a typically measly 372hp of yank loving inefficiency - 18 L/100!!!)

full auto

leather

 

just a plain nice car to drive. Much more car than I could afford in Aus, that's for sure.

 

And it does good burnouts.....

[gav240z]

Nice rig, will you import it with you upon return to Australia?