Last stop on the tour this weekend. We did some work on the tranny on our Pro Mod bike-the main drive gear bearing was loose so we changed it out, gave the clutch a look-see, adjusted the valves and chain and we are ready as we can be. Going to Columbus tomorrow night to put the bike and all our equipment in Tracy Keil's Top Fuel Bike transporter for the trip and we are flying out of Detroit on Thurs. We are confident that we can finish third in Pro Mod. We are just 7 points behind the guy in that place now, and have him covered all year. Got my fingers crossed. Friday
AHDRA to Vegas this weekend
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60 foot's are around .16-.17 or so. We tried the NOVI for 2 days and went back to just a 3/16" plate coupling the carb throats together like we used in St.Louis where we were #1 qualifier and won the reaction time contest. I am not sure if the NOVI's are worth messing with in our bike's configuration. Now we have a G Square double or Siamesed S & S air filter teardrop cover and filters we are going to try. These things run too fat on top and if you remove fuel at the bottom it won't launch! We be flyin' if we can get it lean on top.
Hey you should look at the thread on the AHDRA site about X-Mod. They are talking about the formula and what will be legal. I am not real up on the class but take a look so you are sure what is legal! There is a cat from Jessel who goes by the nick "Runt" that is trying to pin down the rules.
We were using a handful of Dzus fasteners every weekend on our bodywork so we figgered it out today why they were failing. I have to go in a few hours early to finish some new standups to hold the bodywork more securely. We have to have it in Columbus Ohio aroound 4 in the afternoon to meet the guy taking it to Vegas. When it wasn't launching almost 3 G's it was not too critical but as it runs better and faster it is needing alot more attention everywhere. It is so critical to look at every single part really good during the turn-around at the track. It is alot of responsibility crew chiefing a fast bike. There is so much to look at and check out for safety, and the normal things that need to be done between rounds-gas, oil, tire pressures, air shifter, etc.
We have made the whole season with just one part failing-the little link that connects the end of the clutch cable and the throw-out arm on the clutch pack-it broke in half and caused us to red light in Atlanta 2nd round. Close to 90 runs and one part broken but we try to change things before they cost us a run. You really gotta hustle between rounds to make the call. Good luck with your X-Mod. Friday
Hey you should look at the thread on the AHDRA site about X-Mod. They are talking about the formula and what will be legal. I am not real up on the class but take a look so you are sure what is legal! There is a cat from Jessel who goes by the nick "Runt" that is trying to pin down the rules.
We were using a handful of Dzus fasteners every weekend on our bodywork so we figgered it out today why they were failing. I have to go in a few hours early to finish some new standups to hold the bodywork more securely. We have to have it in Columbus Ohio aroound 4 in the afternoon to meet the guy taking it to Vegas. When it wasn't launching almost 3 G's it was not too critical but as it runs better and faster it is needing alot more attention everywhere. It is so critical to look at every single part really good during the turn-around at the track. It is alot of responsibility crew chiefing a fast bike. There is so much to look at and check out for safety, and the normal things that need to be done between rounds-gas, oil, tire pressures, air shifter, etc.
We have made the whole season with just one part failing-the little link that connects the end of the clutch cable and the throw-out arm on the clutch pack-it broke in half and caused us to red light in Atlanta 2nd round. Close to 90 runs and one part broken but we try to change things before they cost us a run. You really gotta hustle between rounds to make the call. Good luck with your X-Mod. Friday
Thanks for the info! and yes, Otto has been trying to get the info on the rules sorted out too.
We've been launching hard for our little motor(113" TC), 1.22's for the 60'. I was curious what a Pro Mod does, so 1.16 - 1.17's. I think we have a little more work to do yet on the launch.
We also are trying to figure out what the best solution is for the top end. We had one run recently where the bike surged through the trap and made +3mph more than normal. We are still trying to duplicate that.
Have fun and I'll be interested to hear how it went for you!
We've been launching hard for our little motor(113" TC), 1.22's for the 60'. I was curious what a Pro Mod does, so 1.16 - 1.17's. I think we have a little more work to do yet on the launch.
We also are trying to figure out what the best solution is for the top end. We had one run recently where the bike surged through the trap and made +3mph more than normal. We are still trying to duplicate that.
Have fun and I'll be interested to hear how it went for you!
Thanks for the words. We have gotten a few votes for Rookie Pro Team and Rookie Pro Rider for 2005. That would be a nice way to end our first season. Last night we started reinforcing the body in the rear and I went in at 530 this morning to finish the welding and install all the new Dzus fasteners. Man, is that body stiff now! That should make it launch even harder-prolly bust something else, now! LOL! I am bushed tonight.
There were a couple of guys running skinny tire Pro Mods last year that are going for X-Mod and a few were going to go to Fat Tire Pro Mod instead. X-Mod was well represented in St. Louis.
I will give some results next week. later, Friday
There were a couple of guys running skinny tire Pro Mods last year that are going for X-Mod and a few were going to go to Fat Tire Pro Mod instead. X-Mod was well represented in St. Louis.
I will give some results next week. later, Friday
Friday,
If I have this figured out correctly, you guys won Pro Mod at Vegas! Right?
http://www.ahdra.com/ahdrauser/eliminations/Pro Mod.htm
If I have this figured out correctly, you guys won Pro Mod at Vegas! Right?
http://www.ahdra.com/ahdrauser/eliminations/Pro Mod.htm
Hey Tote- You got it man! WE WON! We worked so hard this weekend. Only got 2 qualifying passes since Mark crossed the centerline and hit 2 cones in qualifying. They cost us $100 each! So that qualifying run didn't count. We had to pull the rabbit out of the hat then and did! We qualified 2nd and then won every round of eliminations. We beat our mentor and world champ Pro Mod guy Jr. Pippin straight up at the line and at the long end! Another epic dragrace with him. We came from behind at about the 1000' mark. So we had to run the top qualifyer-Ainsworth. He red lit and so did we but he did first and worst so we won! He had us covered and why he left over 1 1/2 hundreths early is beyond me! We will take the win. We were 3rd overall nationally. Not bad for our first year of Pro racing. We ran 91 runs without a major failure and never took the cylinders or pistons out. We never looked in the camchest not once! It took a few minutes on the line to understand what had just happened. We developed an air leak in the shift system and if Ainsworth had not red lit he would have won as we could just shift three times and we were out of air! Talk about luck. Friday
OUTSTANDING!!!! Congratulations!Friday1 said:
Sometimes, I'd rather be lucky than good! You certainly got your share in the finals but Hey! that's racing!
Otto and I were following your progress through the weekend. We were happy that you took out Doug! By the way, Otto knows Jr. Pippin also through all of his racing since 1996.
On a separate topic.....
What size motor are you guys running?
You had mentioned before that your race motor goes fat on the top end,
how do you lean out the motor on the big end? and do you retard the timing a touch once Mark shifts to the big gear?
On the X-Mod 113" Twinkie, we've been seeing it go lean on the big end, so we put an extended bowl on the carb to try and prevent that. By the way, we found a pilot for the bike that will get us 45 lbs lighter and we expect with it closer to correct race weight, it should go 8.6's or 7's. not bad for a little 113 Twinkie!
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Way to go Friday!!!Friday1 said:
WHOO HOO, having followed your journey here since I got here, I'm as happy as if i was there on your crew!!
I raced a few seasons with a nostalga dragster(front engine 7.50 car) team and the first season I was there, we won everything in site. It is amazing feeling no matter what your position on the team Rolling down that track or return lane in the crew truck, fists pumping out the window with everyone cheering is an awesome feeling, I envy you Dude and a HUGE national race at that, Way to go!!! Congrats!!!
:clap: :clap: :banana: ?prty: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Hey Tote and adlerx, Thanks so much for the congrats. It means alot to see that enthusiam for our effort. You guys must know what it takes to do this kind of racing. Our team is definitely the David to Jr Pippin and Ainsworth's Goliath! We do everything on our bike but the paint. That means that we don't have the luxury of testing an intake system away from when we are racing. We don't rent the track to develop an intake system or test a new clutch setup. We just plain can't afford it and can't afford to be away from the shop that long. Don't get me wrong, I applaud Jr. and Craig for their efforts and driving abilities. If we had the $$ we would be putting it into the same things as they do. We have to make really well researched and economic decisions when we upgrade anything. We can't afford to make a mistake on a costly part or system. For next year we will be using the new Jessel valvetrain and prolly a vacuum pump. The new Jessel stuff will make valve adjustments so much easier. So all you little guys out there-don't give up. We are living breathing proof that the little guy can still compete.
We are using 4.6" bore,120 cubes, most circles call it a short stroke/big bore motor. We are not certain what makes our motor go fat on top. I think it is the air going across the emulsion tube once when it is pulled in toward the intake valve, once when the air rushing by the carb at 135+mph pulls it back across the emulsion tube and then one more time as the valve opens and it heads to the combustion chamber. That is a total of 3 times and tha's my theory why it is so fat. If we could go faster it would continue to get fatter. We lean it out as much as possible but then it will effect the launch. We can't legally run a scoop in 05 but the rules may change in 06. We are using Dyna ignition and I don't think you can change timing with this system in any gear. With MSD you can.
Jr. Pippin is a great competitor. He loves to have a close race. His team is always there with a hand shake after a round win or lose and they are sincere. They lent us clutch parts in Gainsville-our first race-and I am positive they didn't know or care we were racing them. Jr.'s crew chief Bob Taft and I sit in our lawn chairs after a long weekend and laugh and say "ONLY IN AMERICA"! Friday
We are using 4.6" bore,120 cubes, most circles call it a short stroke/big bore motor. We are not certain what makes our motor go fat on top. I think it is the air going across the emulsion tube once when it is pulled in toward the intake valve, once when the air rushing by the carb at 135+mph pulls it back across the emulsion tube and then one more time as the valve opens and it heads to the combustion chamber. That is a total of 3 times and tha's my theory why it is so fat. If we could go faster it would continue to get fatter. We lean it out as much as possible but then it will effect the launch. We can't legally run a scoop in 05 but the rules may change in 06. We are using Dyna ignition and I don't think you can change timing with this system in any gear. With MSD you can.
Jr. Pippin is a great competitor. He loves to have a close race. His team is always there with a hand shake after a round win or lose and they are sincere. They lent us clutch parts in Gainsville-our first race-and I am positive they didn't know or care we were racing them. Jr.'s crew chief Bob Taft and I sit in our lawn chairs after a long weekend and laugh and say "ONLY IN AMERICA"! Friday
Totenkopf said:
We had a lot of fuel issues til we got a pressure module from Race-Pac to data log the fuel pressure to the hundreth of a pound. You don't need alot of pressure but you do need alot of volume. Are you running a bypass system? We use a Kinsler bypass unit. We just hooked up the pump and experimented with the springs and pills til we got about 1.6 lbs with a fully charged battery. We also pay close attention to the fuel pump voltage. Our batteries are seperate-fuel and ignition/computer. With the datalogger it is easy to see a bump in the line for voltage and connect the resulting problem to the component that is malfunctioning. We use 18 volt Milwaukee batteries. Have had no overvoltage failures yet (knocking on wood table) with this setup. I package all the wiring in a nylon loom and it is all labelled with the labelmaker for easy indetification. Hope this helps, Friday
On the X-Mod 113" Twinkie, we've been seeing it go lean on the big end, so we put an extended bowl on the carb to try and prevent that. By the way, we found a pilot for the bike that will get us 45 lbs lighter and we expect with it closer to correct race weight, it should go 8.6's or 7's. not bad for a little 113 Twinkie![/QUOTE]
On the X-Mod 113" Twinkie, we've been seeing it go lean on the big end, so we put an extended bowl on the carb to try and prevent that. By the way, we found a pilot for the bike that will get us 45 lbs lighter and we expect with it closer to correct race weight, it should go 8.6's or 7's. not bad for a little 113 Twinkie![/QUOTE]
Hey Friday!Friday1 said:
Thanks for the explanation! much more sophisticated than the X-Mod bike.
The X-Mod bike has a basic gravity/draw feed fuel system and a single S&S Super D carb feeding the 113". No pump or bypass. We are seeing the motor run lean at the top of 4th and it recovers somewhat in 5th. This is why we put the extended bowl on. But we ran out of weather to further test. Total passes since built is 24.
Currently, just one rechargeable battery on board to supply power to the ignition module. Otto is going to add the MPE data logger this winter so we can see what is happening during any given pass and we are also developing a circuit to modify the advance curve when we want. This ought to prove interesting.
This stuff is just plain FUN!
I just found out that we won the reaction time contest for Vegas in Pro Mod. They average your reaction times for the weekend. I can't remember what our average was but it must have been pretty good. We have won this at 50% of our races this year. I guess we will be getting a check for $150 in the mail!
We got the bike back last night late in Dayton. I started to take some things apart today. We have a ton of work to do now. Gainsville in March is just around the corner. Friday
We got the bike back last night late in Dayton. I started to take some things apart today. We have a ton of work to do now. Gainsville in March is just around the corner. Friday
Yes we are taking it down to its individual pieces. And we have a leak in the nitrogen system somewhere causing the airshifter to leak. I have broken Dzus brackets everywhere and maybe will have a set of carbon fiber bodywork for next year. We have 91 passes on the motor in competition or testing and the cylinders, pistons and bottom have never been apart! The reliefs in the cylinders are not deep enough and it made removing the heads a real chore-it has 10 bolts holding each head on and 12 of them are almost impossible to remove. I am going to remachine the reliefs for a socket instead of a special thin box wrench. We had to change the valve springs after each 15 passes. The springs overheat due to the spring pressure making them get hot. You cannot remove the springs with a common spring compressor. I had to make a fixture to go under the valve head and then bring the table on the milling machine up to the quill which holds an apparatus I made to release the keepers. It takes some patience and being careful. If the spring pops out on you something is going to get hurt! Never had it happen but did lose a titanium keeper that slipped out of the hemostat and skittered under the lathe-that stuff is so slippery and a magnet won't work on it. A keeper looks like any one of the million chips under the lathe and mill! LOL! MY firggin' knees still hurt! We are probably going with the new Jessel valve train system. It is pretty cool! It will make valve adjustments very easy and stabilize everything for high RPM. It has a .625 thick tool steel plate that the rockerstands and everything will be bolted to. Now we have off the shelf S & S stuff that is 5/16 bolts threading into aluminum and aluminum rocker stands. OK for then but not for now!When you approach 9K rpm the valvetrain needs something a liitle more stout! FridayTotenkopf said:
Very cool Friday! anything that makes your life easier between rounds is a big plus and......... to keep the tune as consistent as possible, except the adjustments for atmospherics and the track.
I look forward to reading about the ongoing saga! Keep it coming.
I look forward to reading about the ongoing saga! Keep it coming.
:yes: Hey Friday, congratulations to you and Mark. well done.
i know i'm slow responding just found out about this section of VTF from oldschool, i don't think the forum likes me it works very very slow! but i'm a patient man.
hey my friend here Jacko has a 160"S&S pro stock bike that looks a lot like yours. it seems to need a lot of maintainace on the gear box, if they don't check it out all the time they have gear box problems, have you found this to be the same with your bike?
Dave Shaw the rider likes the manually opperated clutch i think i told you once before it has like a VPC pressure plate but was told its a barnett variable pressure plate, dave works the clutch leaver, his best time to date is 7.6, but is not compeditive as we have *** bikes running 7.3's, two or three new teams are coming in with G-2 bikes next year but they will have to learn the ropes.
congratulations again!
cheers Lakes
i know i'm slow responding just found out about this section of VTF from oldschool, i don't think the forum likes me it works very very slow! but i'm a patient man.
hey my friend here Jacko has a 160"S&S pro stock bike that looks a lot like yours. it seems to need a lot of maintainace on the gear box, if they don't check it out all the time they have gear box problems, have you found this to be the same with your bike?
Dave Shaw the rider likes the manually opperated clutch i think i told you once before it has like a VPC pressure plate but was told its a barnett variable pressure plate, dave works the clutch leaver, his best time to date is 7.6, but is not compeditive as we have *** bikes running 7.3's, two or three new teams are coming in with G-2 bikes next year but they will have to learn the ropes.
congratulations again!
cheers Lakes
Hey Lakes
Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I have a pinched nerve in my neck and spent 5 days in the hospital. Finally got it calmed down so I can get back to work next week on Monday.
Ther tranny is the weak spot on the Sportster based motor. We have to keep a very close eye on the main drive gear bearing. There is one that has 14 balls and the stocker just has 9 so go with the 14. I keep the chain pretty tight. If it is loose when you launch it is harder on the whole thing due to the shock. We use Red Line Shockproof Light oil-but found out the hard way that you MUST shake it up before putting it in. The base oil and the additives will seperate into 3 distinct seperate fluids if the oil is let to settle over time(a few months) but it just takes a few minutes to shake it up before pouring it in. We use 16oz for a full fill. Drain and refil after each weekend. We also remove the tranny after each weekend and give it a close look-over. Pay close attention to the shift cylinder-make sure it bottoms out just as the gear shifts. I put a roll pin in the adjustment for the clevis on the shift lever. Alll that shift stuff is always safety wired after I adjust it. Also on the shift shaft- make very very sure it is adjusted properly. and scribe a line on it so you can tell if the extended(in our case due to the belt drive)shaft is twisting. But if you have paid close attention to everything in the shift system it should not be twisting. Make sure all pieces in the shift system are very free and not bound up in any way. Your kill time is important here. I won't tell you in this forum what we found out but kill time is of utmost importance. I keep the rear chain adjusted perfectly perpendicular to the axle. It takes sometimes 20 minutes work with the dial indicator to get the chain adjustment right and the axle square in the frame. Mark likes it though as it makes the launch predictable and he has plenty surprizes happening when he lets the clutch fly-don't need it to be going sideways too! Hope this helps, Friday
Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I have a pinched nerve in my neck and spent 5 days in the hospital. Finally got it calmed down so I can get back to work next week on Monday.
Ther tranny is the weak spot on the Sportster based motor. We have to keep a very close eye on the main drive gear bearing. There is one that has 14 balls and the stocker just has 9 so go with the 14. I keep the chain pretty tight. If it is loose when you launch it is harder on the whole thing due to the shock. We use Red Line Shockproof Light oil-but found out the hard way that you MUST shake it up before putting it in. The base oil and the additives will seperate into 3 distinct seperate fluids if the oil is let to settle over time(a few months) but it just takes a few minutes to shake it up before pouring it in. We use 16oz for a full fill. Drain and refil after each weekend. We also remove the tranny after each weekend and give it a close look-over. Pay close attention to the shift cylinder-make sure it bottoms out just as the gear shifts. I put a roll pin in the adjustment for the clevis on the shift lever. Alll that shift stuff is always safety wired after I adjust it. Also on the shift shaft- make very very sure it is adjusted properly. and scribe a line on it so you can tell if the extended(in our case due to the belt drive)shaft is twisting. But if you have paid close attention to everything in the shift system it should not be twisting. Make sure all pieces in the shift system are very free and not bound up in any way. Your kill time is important here. I won't tell you in this forum what we found out but kill time is of utmost importance. I keep the rear chain adjusted perfectly perpendicular to the axle. It takes sometimes 20 minutes work with the dial indicator to get the chain adjustment right and the axle square in the frame. Mark likes it though as it makes the launch predictable and he has plenty surprizes happening when he lets the clutch fly-don't need it to be going sideways too! Hope this helps, Friday
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