We’re in great shape for the Olympus Rally in Washington this weekend. The front end has been welded back on. *hehe No, seriously, the sub-frame broke all the robot welds and was hanging on by the automotive equivalent of a paper clip. The front skis (as we call them) were warped and bent and also needed to be replaced.

Harry’s buddies Todd and Mike told me that they were up to the task of rebuilding the front skidplate mounts (seen on the right zapping some steel together), but not able to weld the front subframe bits. I went to another local shop and had the work done. I’m still having some issues with one of the control arm bolts as the nut is welded INSIDE the unibody and is starting to break free of its mounting point. I’m not entirely sure how to go about fixing that one, but it’s strong and safe for now as I managed to thread it and get it tight one last time.

Crisis averted #381: The car was leaking oil pretty good after Rim of the World and Harry and I both had a good look at it and determined that it was coming out the oil sender plumbing. Yesterday I reached up and felt that it was actually a little loose. I twisted it to see how loose it was and it sheared off in my hand. Easy as that and I’m holding the dummy light sensor, the Autometer sender and the brass T. Oil shooting out the back of the motor = bad. This brings me to my next point…

Ground School: When you learn to fly aircraft (I flew a little after High School, maybe 20 hours. It got too expensive.) one of the first things you learn is how to do a ‘walkaround inspection.’ You don’t just hop in the Cessna, crank the prop, and go! You spend 30 minutes looking over the craft. Really looking! Is that grease coming out of the rudder? Are the tries worn too much? Is that a crack in the engine cover? Can I move the flaps without any resistance? Fuel status, oil status, instrumentation check, etc. You do this because any sort of failure in the air is a problem. A big problem. A rallycar should be treated the same. Are the lugs tight? Do I have fuel? Is the suspension making noise? Is that a new rattle? Are the hood pins in? Are they in? The pins are IN right?? Oil pressure, engine status, rally computer, etc. We use a check list that I created for our first rally and it works pretty well. Pre-Flight Checklist.xls Some of the information is Dodge Neon specific, but good to have on hand, like capacities and torque settings. Let me know if you use it!