Seriously? I bought a big garage for it to live in, feed it cubic money and time, I let it play on the track whenever it wants to, and I don't even push it that hard because I've crossed the line of "too much money in my race car to risk crashing it."

I am now convinced that my car is trying to frustrate me as much as possible.

The latest chain of events: Having synchro issues with tranny in car, decide it's a good excuse to put something different in. Get FC/GSL hybrid tranny from the forum, have a shipping issue (missing a race weekend) but it gets here. Put the tranny in the car, and it shifts like butter. Finish (finally) breaking in my engine just in time for the Autoslalom Nationals in PEI. Drag car to PEI. On day 1, in the rain, girlfriend starts her run, has issues getting it in gear. We get it back to paddock, and 1-4 gear are gone. Shifter will physically not move into place. Leaving 5th and R only. (I backed the car up one heck of a long way to get it back.) Push car on trailer, and bring it home.
Drop tranny last week... as suspected, the pin holding the selector fork on the rod for 1st and 2nd broke, jamming up 1st-4th. (Nobody's fault. Just bad luck with a defective pin.) Order in the new spring pin ($0.96 part) plus a few others bits (i.e. while I was in there I replaced every pin etc.)
Put tranny back together yesterday and put it back in car after checking that we could indeed shift into 1st again.
Finish bolting everything up, put in fluid etc and start rowing between 1 through 4. Perfect.
Just for fun, I go on up to 5th. won't go in.... nothing... back to R.. nothing.. So, I had 5th and R, but now I've lost those, but got 1 2 3 and 4 back. Arrrgggh.

Sorry for venting, but just need to get it out there.
I love my car.. .I really do.... seriously... I really do.. I don't wish I was (trying) to race a Honda or anything, I swear... (I just keep telling my self that...)

 

R-reverse
E=everything else
D=Doesn't Work!
SHFT!............(sorry brain working overtime!)

 

I love my car and my car loves me.....I'm sure of it

 

did u replace the 3rd shifter fork locking pin while the tranny was apart?

 

Sorry to burst your bubble but I heard she was looking for a younger man.

 

Jim: You'll have to tell me your secret to have your car love you. I'm not sure what else I can do....

Syritis: Yes, I did replace the pin as a pro-active measure, even though 5th and R were working fine before. My best guess at this point is something stupid like we moved the shift rod while we were in there and it's not lining up now.
If I can get an extra set of hands this weekend, I guess I'll drop it again and see what I find. Race weekend next weekend, so I have a bit of time, but not a lot if I need more parts that I can't get from my other 2 transmissions.

 

[QUOTE=Redshft;8469722]Jim: You'll have to tell me your secret to have your car love you. I'm not sure what else I can do....

LOL, I let her drink Ultra 94 mixed with Redline......Oh ya, and bags full of money.

 

Your car hates you? Why do you think we named the race car "Christine" lol. Lets see, 3 msd boxes, 20 tires, 6 transmissions, 2 sets of front hubs, 2 engines, apex seals......................I feel your pain.

 

Jim: The bags full of money I have covered. The RX8 is starting to get very jealous. Now I'll probably have to worry about that one acting up on me too.

Al: Yeah, sounds about right. This is my 3rd tranny this year, my last weekend before that because the mounting flange cracked and broke off and my starter fell off in the vicinity of turn 5 etc. etc. The car keeps coming up with new and innovative ways to break... "Christine" about covers it.

 

i cant wait till my "race" car is done...i'll have stories just like yours! (hopefully not)

 

2Fierce: You are closer than you know. It's the transmission I bought from you that had the pin fail. Luck of the draw. Bad pin, and probably would have happened to you in just a few more km.

I haven't got it back in the car yet, but I did drop the tranny today and figure it out. I can't really blame the car for this part. We put it back together with the shift rod for 5th/R stuck in Reverse. So, when we put the tail shaft back on, it didn't get connected to the selector rod.
And, it was kind of in 1st and Reverse at the same time. Good thing I didn't actually start the car.

 

That tranny has been sitting for 6 months, would that explain any of it? I was very careful when driving it to RPM.

 

May as well add to this thread. Today my fuel pump stopped working at the track. Took about 2 hours to diagnose and then spiced in direct power from the battery to get it running again (temporarily). Then the vacuum hose for the boost controller/gauge kept popping off due to it breaking and not having the correct hose earlier in the week. Some twisted wire solved that problem (temporarily). Then later in the day the intake pipe came out of its coupler. I probably didn't tighten it enough due to frustration. First problem day at the track, fun

thewird

 

Nahh... like I said, just bad luck. Pin was probably a weak one from the manufacturer, and it just chose then to let go. Luck of the draw. Nothing anybody could have done, or nothing caused by anybody.
It's been kind of fun (in a frustrating way) actually. I had never even swapped a transmission before, and now I've dropped one three times, and torn it down twice. Learned a lot and not so intimidated by the idea of it now.

thewired: That's the spirit. The more time you spend at the track, the more improvised repair practice you'll get. Nothing ever breaks at home.

 

We were the best equipped team at the Solo Nationals - Brought a welder, and various other tools that any sane solo'er never uses. That sure doesn't help when you have a busted transmission.

We took it all apart last night again (the selector rod was stuck) and put it back together, and it still wouldn't go in 5th/R. Took it all apart again (by my count, this is the 4th or 5th time we've taken it apart), and the little ball/spring in by the shifter wasn't letting it go far enough over and it was actually somewhere between 3/5 when you were trying to shift to 5th. We bench tested it to make sure it all worked when we figured out and fixed the problem. While putting the silicone on it, it exploded on my shirt out the end of the tube, so I was covered in gear oil and silicone by 10:30 last night (something I hadn't planning in my evening), but god dammit, the transmission works. All 5 gears and R.

Now to get it back in the car....