Maybe Not So Ready

This is a post from my old “All Aluminum Tour” blog about Peyote—my race car and Nero, my Airstream-based car hauler and some crazy stuff I did in 2006-2007

May 7 2007
I was washing Peyote this afternoon and started the motor to dry it off. While I sat there revving the motor to repressurize the accusump I watched the water pump inlet hose squeeze itself down flat. Okay, that needs replacing. Then I looked down at the motor mount and noticed it looked funny–broken of course. The engine sounds sweet though.

Obviously, I’m not quite as ready as I thought I was. And I whacked myself in the face when I was winding the hose up on the rack. Nice cut and a potential shiner. What a klutz.

I made a new set of motor mounts for Peyote. I took stock ones and ran countersunk bolts through them into nuts that I welded into holes I drilled in the opposite face of the mount. I wound up with a reasonably flush surface. The idea is that the bolts can still wiggle to reduce vibration but the mount can’t tear. In reality, I don’t think I’m getting much vibration damping–the car is noticeably buzzier. Oh, well, as long as it doesn’t affect the engine. I don’t really like all the stress that soft mounts place on the transmission case anyway.

I loaded up Peyote late in the afternoon. Not much room left in the garage once the car is in. Today I’ll be finishing up little things, checking the tongue weight, and fiddling. Tomorrow I’m going to go have the trailer weighed to see where we came out. Thursday morning I hit the road for Seattle and the trip begins. Four months on the road.

Should be interesting.

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