A broken car again
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AWDC 2022 Round 1
Walters Arena
What happened?
We turned up to Walters with a great deal of enthusiasm and trepidation as this was the first event that we have participated in with the AWDC. Things are generally a lot more relaxed and informal so learning and understanding how things worked was proving a challenge in itself.
Saturday afternoon we took a walk around the course agreeing it looked like it was going to be very interesting and fun.
As we line up for the first lap of the day things are still looking good, again a much more relaxed start routine with no formal start time just line up with the other cars in the same seeding group. We made a good start feeling our way around the start of the course as we were amongst the first cars out (Sweeping the track, something I am not used to) We quickly caught up with the dust from the car in front and not being able to see anything backed of until the dust clears a little. We do catch up with the car in front shortly after this and after a little confusion as t0 the direction the course went, they let us past. Almost immediately after this we took a wrong turn at a junction and had to get back on track losing more time, however, the rest of this lap was relatively uneventful and we finished lap 1 happy.
After short break we lined up for the second lap, as several of the teams had not even started their first run (due to an on track incident) we had to wait for everyone to have there first run before we can line up and start run 2.
The clock seems to take for ever to turn green and then we are off on run 2.
It felt like we were going really well for the first few corners, then on a rough sweeping left hand bend the front steps out and hits something, were still going strong, but it is immediately apparent that something is wrong!. The car is not steering properly and at the next corner I realise we have no brakes to speak of!
Push on, have we got a puncture and broken a break pipe?
Things gradually get worse we defiantly know there is something not going to plan. All of a sudden coming out of another muddy rutted right hand bend, about three quarters the way around the stage. The car spins out without any warning. We try to get going again, now we know something is drastically wrong the transmission is making some really horrible noises and the car will barely move. We limp on to a point where we can pull over and stop (but not an ideal location).
A little later we are forced to "Drive" the car, at less than walking pace to the next junction, after this the car is going no further and without a recovery team our only option is to request that we are allowed to collect the car on the trailer. This takes so long the day is nearly over by the time we are back in service so we pack up and prepare to go home.
Once the car is back at the "Engine-shed" and we started stripping things down, the damage and causes start to become visible.
- The first item that failed (on the initial rough corner) was the front offside stub-axel that has snapped.
- The Wheel is now being supported on the drive shaft and only being held in place by the brake calliper and disk.
- Because the wheel is now "Floating" the drive shaft is not fully engaged in the drive flange and starts machining of the end, at this point I assume we were in two wheel drive at least part of the time?
- Finally the rear Diff has decided it cannot cope and strips the pinion and tears teeth of the crown wheel (this was the horrible noise we heard trying to get out of stage!
Unfortunately the repairs take a long time and we miss the next round at Pickering.
