We-Rock Henderson (our story)

[DSI]

I'm not sure exactly where to start... but here goes.

saturday morning i had a slight bit of a hangover and wasn't thinking nearly as straight as i should have been... i lined Ashleigh up for the wrong set of start gates, then slipped and slid my way up the course, from what i have heard, we were the only Pro Mod rig, and only one of three all weekend to miss the lower cone on gate 2, obstacle B4. then over to B1, missed the lower one/four cone both ways. and saw a fluid leak in the skidplate... i wish i would have never looked!

the t-case adapter was split into several pieces. my first though... i remember a story about Bob Roggy using a ratchet strap to hold his atlas in years ago... so we strapped it in, and made one more course before the front pump seal puked out of the trans.


so Howard from Rhino Industries was nice enough to offer us his shop to work on the rig in. and Frank Johnson helped us get the buggy loaded up and get headed to Rhino, which was 5 min from the event site, Franks wife Nicole helped Ash run all over Vegas to find a few seals we were going to need, and a front pump bushing for teh converter as well.

once we got it all pulled apart, Dalls Nunn from Stinky Fab spent i don't knw how long cleaning and Tig Welding the entire adapter back together!!! While Pete the Australian helped us by smothing the input of the converter on the lathe where it had some scuff marks from the pump bushing seizing to it.

got the converter cleaned up, new pump bushing installed while Frank used teh mill to surface the adapter so it was square again, looked awesome, you couldn't even tell where it had been welded looking at it.

after finally getting the wole rig re-assembled at about 130am we fired it up, only to have the thing start puking out the front seal, again.


to have been 2 point's out of 2nd place at the end of day one, and having to voluntarily 40 one of those courses was the most painful thing i think i have ever done in rock crawling, and to have to go home early after all that work from everyone involved was just a huge kick to the chest.

we are going to get a new trans into the buggy in the next week or so, and have it ready for Globe.

again a HUGE thanks to:

Frank & Nicole Johnson
Dallas Nunn
Howard @ Rhino Industries
Pete the Aussie
and everyone else who happened to come by that night!


here's some pic's of Dallas's work...

[JeepBeyotch]

Originally Posted by DSI

I'm not sure exactly where to start... but here goes.

saturday morning i had a slight bit of a hangover and wasn't thinking nearly as straight as i should have been...

I could go several ways with this statement alone . . .

Maybe if you did more maintenance . . . (ducking for cover). That fully sucks for y'all. Get things fixed for Globe.

[DSI]

Originally Posted by JeepBeyotch

I could go several ways with this statement alone . . .

Maybe if you did more maintenance . . . (ducking for cover). That fully sucks for y'all. Get things fixed for Globe.

[Go2Guy]

Bummer- is that a 999/904? I've got a good core, looks like I'll start carrying a rear adapter. I never blew one off- did you figure out why? If not- it's a bomb waiting to go off again

[allusee]

Daave, that stinks... I know how that feels, we've been there (same situation B 4)

Tell Ash, keep up the great work though. (and you too)

Get that thing ready for Globe too.

AMber

[DSI]

Originally Posted by Go2Guy

Bummer- is that a 999/904? I've got a good core, looks like I'll start carrying a rear adapter. I never blew one off- did you figure out why? If not- it's a bomb waiting to go off again

i've broken 3 bellhousings, but never a tail housing. all the bolt's were still tight...

i have wanted an excuse to take the gut's out of my built trans sitting in the garage and put them in this case for a while, guess i just got my reason

thank you for teh offer Ken, but luckily my trans with the broken belhousing has a good tail section to it. i'm also thinkin i am going to order that rear atlas support from Roarkfab i beleive it is...

[broncolou]

Sound like you guys gave it one helluva try to get back in the game. It shows you how truely unselfish some people are when stuff like this goes down. I am sure you can recover for a great season.

[DSI]

Originally Posted by broncolou

Sound like you guys gave it one helluva try to get back in the game. It shows you how truely unselfish some people are when stuff like this goes down. I am sure you can recover for a great season.

I was and still am just amazed how helpful everyone was trying to get this thing together, and still can't thank everyone enough. though if i was as dedicated as these gu's i'd be outside in the snow pulling that tranny out, again....

[YELLOWHOBO]

Great story, Thanks for sharing!

We would've been there to help as well but we were still competing over on the C courses til about that time !

[StinkBug]

Dude, I was so bummed when Frank told me you guys wouldn't be running sunday after all that work. We gave it one hell of a try though.

What a lot of people didn't know is that Friday Frank found out that his own tailhousing had cracked. He, Dustin and I worked until midnight pulling out his tranny, taking it to Rhino OffRoad, welding it up, and putting the rig back together again. Then Frank did the same thing all over again Saturday night with Daves rig. That nut worked 24 out of 48 hours on busted trannys, plus spotted all weekend too.

Dallas

[snobrder]

Ok, I'm not an expert, but it looks to me like the support for the t-case/tranny is that mount on the bottom of the tail-housing? Looks like if you built a bracket from the tranny mount and have it attach to the bolts that connect the t-case to the tail-housing, you would eliminate this problem because the twisting force of the t-case would be transfered to the mount instead of the tail-housing.

When I mounted my Atlas to the 5-speed, I made a plate that mounts to the same bolts that hold the t-case to the tranny and this plate is where the tranny mount is so any twisting force from the t-case is transfered directly to the cross member instead of the tranny.

[DSI]

Originally Posted by StinkBug

Dude, I was so bummed when Frank told me you guys wouldn't be running sunday after all that work. We gave it one hell of a try though.

What a lot of people didn't know is that Friday Frank found out that his own tailhousing had cracked. He, Dustin and I worked until midnight pulling out his tranny, taking it to Rhino OffRoad, welding it up, and putting the rig back together again. Then Frank did the same thing all over again Saturday night with Daves rig. That nut worked 24 out of 48 hours on busted trannys, plus spotted all weekend too.

Dallas

yea we sure did, i think i am going to put that tail section as a new center piece on my coffee table, just as a reminder of what hard luck can be, and how great everyone in this sport really is.

[ST @ STM Motorsports]

bummer dave

[uroc711]

we broke the bellhousing and stator in jellico on sat. 2 years ago - could not get it up and going for sunday. we rebuilt that one and carry a whole other trans with adapter and coverter/flex plate now. sometimes i think we are carrying a second buggy besides the chassis. we don't have replacement diff assy's or motor - but probably should now that i mentioned it! dog gone it!!

[DSI]

Originally Posted by uroc711

we broke the bellhousing and stator in jellico on sat. 2 years ago - could not get it up and going for sunday. we rebuilt that one and carry a whole other trans with adapter and coverter/flex plate now. sometimes i think we are carrying a second buggy besides the chassis. we don't have replacement diff assy's or motor - but probably should now that i mentioned it! dog gone it!!

i have always beleived in the motto of "of you don't carry tools, you can't break" and it's lasted me 5 years so far

that and i have always followed the driving motto of driving it like it's got glass axles in it. Ashleigh on the other hand is a bit more agressive than I am...

[RedBullJeep]

Dave,
You and Ash were on fire on Saturday and I was bummed not to see you repeating on Sunday...the courses were just as tough!

As for giving props to Dallas and Frank and Nicole...they deserve it so many times a year as they go out of their way to help anyone and everyone. We're proud they are a part of our family!

[DSI]

Originally Posted by RedBullJeep

Dave,
You and Ash were on fire on Saturday and I was bummed not to see you repeating on Sunday...the courses were just as tough!

As for giving props to Dallas and Frank and Nicole...they deserve it so many times a year as they go out of their way to help anyone and everyone. We're proud they are a part of our family!

Thanks Dustin...

i've been sitting here going over WTF went wrong in my head all evening since it's been eating at me since sat night... it finally made sence...

when i put the ratchet strap over the atlas, since the adapter was already broke, it allowed me to force the atlas farther forward, side loading and forcing the output shaft forward in the trans, which makes sence why the splines on the input shaft were galled funny and how the end of the converter had all those weird marks in it. then, after replacing the pump bushing, front seal etc etc, and having milled the tail section down a fair ammount to get it 100% flush again, the tail shaft was jammed into the trans before we even fired it again...

6 friggin flat washers as spacers with a ton of silicone would have got us in day 2, i just know it would have...