: ProROCKS at Disney (the Sami story)


okcrawler
06-10-2002, 10:32 AM
Well the ProROCKS guys got an introduction OK rocks this weekend. :)

Jayson Summers was the only Samurai in the field. He flew thru the first course like a pro, but the second course started exposing weak points. :( The Dana 44 front is just won't cut it. He broke an axle on the second course. Not the joint, the INNER AXLE! Looking afterwards, the stub shaft splines were twisted and the ears were twisted. That whole thing gave all it had. I was real impressed with the 760 joint. That was the only part not damaged. I've never been a fan of cutting for full circle clips on the yoke, but I am now.

They got that fixed, then on the next course he snapped a rear control arm. A strange failure, it broke at the end of the truss, and snapped the tube like it had been cut with a saw. He may have to re-think those a bit. Then when the rear end folded under it broke the drive shaft yoke.

So, they drug the truck back to Russ's and welded the arm together and put on the spare drive shaft. They got back out for course 3, half way thu that the ARB compressor started running all the time! The ARB was leaking, and it was inside the axle! :( That ended their first day.

We tore the truck down that night and discovered that one of the plugs in the ARB it's self had blown out. If you've ever seen how an ARB is made, they drill passages thru the housing for the air feed inside. Then they plug the holes with what looks like JP-Weld (epoxy).

Me and Jayson headed back to my house where I could weld the ARB port and Jayson could scrounge another long side spare. I welded up the ARB (it'll never leak again! :) ) and Jayson went fishing in WMS's yard. He found another axle that would work. Since the full circle clips seemed to make a BIG difference, we decided to take the time that night and I cut that axle for full circle before we left. We got the truck back to Disney and the truck together about 1:30 that night. Ready for another day. :)

Day 2, they start out on the waterfall. Home ground for us, Jayson walked up the fall, then up the wall with no problems. He continued on thru the next several stages well. Then, just before stage 4, last minute check reveails another axle joint is gone! They are already lining up the guy in front of Jayson on a 7 min course! We had the axle changed and the truck ready to roll with plenty of time to spare! We're getting to much practice. :)

All is going OK, struggling a bit with the small tires and they are afraid to use the front only for steering, so it's difficult to manuver the tight courses that are left. With one course to go, they realize it's leaking tranny fluid, BAD! The tranny case is busted, too much torque from the dual t-cases has taken it's toll.

All in all it was a tough time but we learned a lot! Jayson finished 18th. Not bad since they were only able to finish one course the first day.

Anyway, there's a couple threads in the general section with pics, and a link to my page with more pics and videos. Check em out....

mudlite
06-10-2002, 11:58 AM
PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

time to switch to Moser axles and CTM's :D

okcrawler
06-10-2002, 12:11 PM
Originally posted by mudlite
PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

time to switch to Moser axles and CTM's :D

Check out the general forum... They have the pics! I ended up getting volunteered to spot for Russ, so I was not able to take many pics.
What I've got is here:
http://www.extreme4wheelin.com/images/prorocks/pictures.htm

I'm hearing a lot of mediocre stuff on the Mosers. The axle joint did not fail on the first one, it broke the axle and twisted EVERYTHING ELSE! The second axle, it broke the caps. No trunion failure (yet). [Note: these were 760 joints]

The real solution is to cut off the D44 ends and run some D50 or D60 ends. We've talked about this several times. The D44 is ok for play, but just not good enough for competition! Of course, the next thing that will go is the Toy R@P or the 30 spline inners!

Shrock
06-10-2002, 04:41 PM
cool info. Thanks for the play by play.

Jim