Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[RAFster122s]

Good luck to you and your team at Mosport, one of my favorite tra is to watch racing...

[Stev-o]

Full weekend at Mosport

Watch out for the Bog People!  Do they still come out there?

Great article here about the track, I did not know F1 raced there in the old days...

https://petrolicious.com/articles/the-circuit-of-mosport-and-memories-of-canadian-road-racing

[BenelliSEI]

Steve….. the Canadian Tire Corp. has spent millions on the place. It’s every bit as civilized as Watkins Glen or Road Atlanta. “Big People” (all my ex friends) are too old to come out anymore!

[BenelliSEI]

Picked up fuel (there’s another row up front you can’t see) for the weekend!

[BenelliSEI]

Squeezed everything in…..

[BenelliSEI]

“Loaded and locked”. Tim’s wife lends me her massive FORD diesel truck. I have to look in the mirror to make sure the trailer is still there! Weather looks good for the next few days too.

[grcamna2]

Quite a nice rig John. 

[BenelliSEI]

Quite a nice rig John. 

“King Ranch” FORD truck is mind boggling. Inside is nicer than my living room. Tim has a matching Chevy that he uses to pull the 5th wheel RV to the track. They get two new ones every 6-8 months (they have a car lot as part of the business). Usually flip them off to the US when the next one arrives and seem to break even or make a few bucks! Not for everyday, but I love using it on race weekends, such a beast!

[Terry in Australia]

Beautiful truck John. My "Baby" Ford truck gave me the first bit of trouble that I've had with it since I picked it up in May on Wednesday, when it threw the serpentine drive belt (what we used to call a "fan belt" up until a few years ago) only 5 minutes from home. It was 0515 in the morning and pitch black, and without power steering or an alternator, I only just managed to get home before the lights went out. When daylight hit I called the auto club expecting that the "technician" would just pick up another belt and install it for me, but no, he said that the radiator had to come out to replace it, so all he could do was call me a tow truck. Great.

I rang the shop that replaced the clutch in my Subaru to see if they were happy for it to be towed around to their shop, but Naidar told me that the shop was closed down because the bank was throwing all of the tenants out as they had plans to re-develop the site. He said that he was signing a lease for another shop close by and while he was waiting to move his 4 shipping containers of equipment into the new shop was doing "mobile mechanics" work and would come over that afternoon and install a new belt. He didn't show up so I rang him the next morning and he told me he'd be there at lunchtime, but didn't show up again. The next morning he sent me a message saying that he'd give me a call before he came over. Nice guy, but had too many balls in the air, so I told him that I'd pick up a belt and do it myself.

Friday, working from home was pretty quiet, so I drove over to Bursons to pick up a new belt. ($50, or about $35 USD) I drove home, and after watching a couple of Youtube video's I realised that the RACV "Technician" (because he isn't a mechanic's arsehole) was full of sh1t. Only had to remove two 10mm bolts and two self tappers to pull the thermo fans out of the way, giving me tons of room to remove the old belt.

Falcon ute 20 July 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I couldn't decide why the belt had come off, but it looked pretty worn, so no biggie, sh1t happens. I installed the new belt, and fired it up. I then realised that the belt is running out of alignment on the oil pump (smooth) pulley, and is rubbing badly on the tensioner assembly. It was heart wrenching (well, maybe not that emotional, but it p1ssed me off) watching my new 50 dollar belt slowly tearing itself apart. Fcuk.

Falcon ute 20 July 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Turns out the harmonic balancer had let go. Looking at posts on various sites, and the amount of "how to" video's on Youtube, the harmonic balancer on my model Ford is only good for 100,000 miles or so before the bonded rubber "damper" material goes brittle and the assembly starts wobbling, and moving backwards and forwards, causing the drive belt to be misaligned, catching on the tensioner housing, and coming off. Bugger.

I rang the parts place and they'll have a new unit, plus the special puller tool that costs as much as the HB but allows you to remove it without removing the radiator, a new belt, and a new front crank seal (which apparently is a good idea to change while the HB is removed) by Monday afternoon, and the guy I spoke to was nice enough to give me a 20% "trade discount". Honestly I could have bought them cheaper on Ebay, but Bursons sell good quality non-OEM parts and stand behind their warranties, plus I need my little truck back on the road ASAP, so couldn't wait a week or more for parts off Ebay.

Drove the little twin turbo Subaru beasty yesterday and today and still love it, but don't trust it to drive to work in the city even in winter, as it has the occasional bad habit of boiling on me, particularly if it's in a traffic snarl, like it did a few months ago, when admittedly it was a lot warmer than it is at the moment. (one of my retirement jobs is to pull both heads and get them machined, then install new head gaskets, but as there's no oil in the coolant, or coolant in the oil, I'm not in any rush, it just drinks coolant like I drink booze) I did give it the beans in second gear yesterday with 10 psi boost and I thought it was going to wheelie, it is a fun little license loser........    

[Don R]

 I put the new Holley fuel pump on the 40 chevy today, I needed the holley so I could index the inlet and outlet to miss the frame. It started right up, but still won't idle I may need to replace the old points distributor.

[70CB750]

I did a brake job on a car and put in one brake pad the wrong way.  I feel like an idiot. 

[Don R]

 I found the top of the workbench, it was right where I left it. Under a bunch of stuff from my non-motorcycle vehicles. 
 I have a wiring job to do on my magnetic pickup distributor and then get the old one parked on #1 at 6* before TDC. I usually get the timing really close.

[Kelly E]

I did a brake job on a car and put in one brake pad the wrong way.  I feel like an idiot.

Hey, I have done that before 

[Don R]

I did a brake job on a car and put in one brake pad the wrong way.  I feel like an idiot.

Hey, I have done that before 

  I remember on a GTO my nephew owned we realized we had the short shoes on one side and the long shoes on the other side.

[RAFster122s]

My vstrom has two different design brake pads on the front and  a third for the rear brake pads. So buying brakes for it is a first for me, having three different sets of pads for a bike.

[Tintop]

For those wondering what Mosport is like, a couple of videos from my sidecar back in 2013.  What is really a shame is that the money wasn't spent to upgrade the track to F1 standards, and the move to Montreal.  Note that on the 3rd lap my right clip-on started moving.  From that point on I was driving with my left, and had lost the use of my front brake.  They say brakes only slow you down, just used the gears.  Finished 2nd
part 1 -

part 2 -

[BenelliSEI]

Great video Timtop! We ran well on Saturday, 5th in class and eighth or ninth over all. I started in the cool of the morning and after about 30 minutes the race was red flagged for about 20-25 minutes to clear oil from a blown motor in Corner Two. Spent over 2.5 hours in the car and set the fastest lap for the Team. The guys gave me a hard time as we got moved up a class as a result of those laps. Had a great BBQ with wives and friends that dropped in late in the day (our farms are 15 minutes from the track). We had a blast.

[BenelliSEI]

Sunday ended four hours in…….. The LF stub axle parted company from the main hub flange on the exit on Corner One. Alan managed to “grind” to a halt without any major damage. This corner has had a couple of good hits (last time at Mosport in the rain that’s the one I hit too). Looks like it’s been cracked for a while and it finally let go. Will order two new ones, next week for sure.

We raced off to Tim’s shop and managed to press together a used replacement with a new bearing and got back to the track in about 60 minutes. When we put the upright back in place we discovered  BOTH the tabs that secure the caliper had been bent sufficiently to misalign it to the disc, when the wheel/tire tried to escape. Attempted to straighten the top mount and it cracked. No spare upright (Toyota Supra part). Got it together enough to drive around the paddock and get it loaded….. Sometimes you have to know when to call it a day.

[grcamna2]

Thanks for sharing your track time John 

[dave500]

wow lotta fun for sure!

[RAFster122s]

Glad everyone came home safe and you had some fun. Sometimes things don't work out. Hopefully you can get the new parts and they will hold up. Might want to go through that corner with a fine tooth comb and use some dye on parts to check for other parts for cracks.

[BenelliSEI]

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish. A few of my laps on Saturday morning were the quickest we’ve ever been at Mosport, in the LEXUS, so all good. Upright, ball joint and tie rod end will all get replaced, for sure! We have a nice, long break to the next event, so the car may just sit for a few days…….

[Stev-o]

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish.

I'd say all in all a good weekend at the track  [I miss my weekends at the track]

BTW - The "King Ranch" Ford truck edition is named after the King Ranch in South Texas, one of the largest ranches in the world at 825,000 acres.

Tintop - great video! Thx for sharing

[HondaMan]

I did a brake job on a car and put in one brake pad the wrong way.  I feel like an idiot. 

That's OK: I just took that one out of my motorhome's front brakes. I can't believe I drove it over 10k miles with someone having done that to it before I got it?!

Next, I have to figure out why putting the RIGHT amount of tranny oil in my Explorer makes it throw a P0715 alarm (bad input RPM sensor), but putting almost a quart more in it will STOP that alarm.

[Tintop]

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish.

I'd say all in all a good weekend at the track  [I miss my weekends at the track]

BTW - The "King Ranch" Ford truck edition is named after the King Ranch in South Texas, one of the largest ranches in the world at 825,000 acres.

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish. A few of my laps on Saturday morning were the quickest we’ve ever been at Mosport, in the LEXUS, so all good. Upright, ball joint and tie rod end will all get replaced, for sure! We have a nice, long break to the next event, so the car may just sit for a few days…….

Tintop - great video! Thx for sharing

Thanks Stev-o it was a lot of fun racing the sidecar.  Something I never thought I'd do.  I wonder how many other people can say they raced both cars (70 Lotus Mk2 Cortina) & a sidecar at Mosport.