Billet Steering Sector

I worked on upgrading the old Pinto style steering sector to a billet aluminum steering sector manufactured by Strange Engineering. It is a very precision unit and saves a few pounds of weight.

I am trying to get every system upgraded for the capabilities of the car. This should be the last major fabrication item on the car.

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It has been a while

It has been pretty busy around the Harvey household lately so it has been a while since my last update.

Traci and I had a lot of fun at the races in Dallas but our friend Mike Janis went out in the first round. His main competitor went out in the second round so Mike is still leading the points.

I have been working on miscellaneous stuff on the car and continue to make progress a little at a time.

I learned a lot of stuff by looking at Mike's car and have been rethinking some of my placement of equipment, systems, etc.

I received my new billet 3rd member (rear end drive gears) and it is a work of art. It is super strong and should stand up to the abuse my engine will put on it!

"Billet Porn" 3rd member carved out of a solid piece of aluminum. Very strong and a work of art.

I also fabricated a new parachute brackets which spread the parachutes out and directs them into the air flow so they open quicker when I release them.

New parachute bracket and air cylinders to push the parachutes out of the packs

The stop sign shaped pieces sit inside the parachute packs (not on the car yet) and push the parachutes up and out of the pack so they open quickly. A late parachute opening will make you take a trip through the sand traps.

I also moved the location of the magneto to the front of the engine for two reasons. One is to get the magneto tucked in underneath the hood to reduce wind resistance. The second reason (which I learned by watching Mike Janis service his car) is to make it easier to prime the engine oil pump after servicing the car between rounds. When the magneto is in the stock location, you must pull the magneto out of the engine to prime the oil pump. This is because the engine oil pump is driven off of the same gear and shaft as the magneto. If you pull the magneto off between rounds to prime the oil pump, the magneto must be put back in exactly the same position to ensure the spark plug firing is at the right time. This leaves more chance for human error!

Magneto mounted on the front of the engine

Last but not least, I am starting to lay out all of the wiring and air lines so that I can weld tabs on the chassis to hold the wiring in place.

Air bottles, regulators and hoses hooked up. The car has 3 different sources of air to operate the shifters, transbrake, torque converter lockup, and parachutes.

Air distribution header and air filters to make sure the air supply is clean.

Air manifold and filters

Pretty boring stuff but forward progress!

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From one extreme to another

I am doing this update because Traci and I have experienced yet another interesting weekend.

We have owned our lake house in North Texas since 1994 and it has not flooded since we bought it until two weekends ago. This is our 3rd major flood in two years! Yes that is right, The two houses that we own in Magnolia flooded two times each and now the Bonham house flooded.

I lived the first 55 years of my life and never had anything destroyed due to flood water. Statistically, we should have had all of the floods we should have for the rest of our life!

The house in Bonham wasn't as bad as the Magnolia houses but the two garages in Bonham got a LOT of water in them. Luckily, we were up there when it happened to do yard work and to have some relaxing time. We never made it to the relaxing part, ha! It was nothing but work cleaning up after the flood. Thank God it did not destroy the house like the two Magnolia floods.

This coming weekend we are going to offset that bad experience, we hope! We are going to see our friends (the Janis's) race their ProMod in an NHRA national event in Dallas. For those of you that don't know the Janis's, they are the current points leaders for the NHRA ProMod National Championship. They are also the guys who are helping me get my car put together. They are a good family and have worked hard for this championship. They deserve to win it. Traci and I have been praying for them to win this championship and I am sure they would appreciate everyone's prayers!

I cannot think of a more deserving champion. I know how hard they have worked for it!

Traci and I are taking our motorhome and will be camping right on the track. It should be a lot of fun seeing the Janis's and being able to just hang out in our motorhome while watching world class drag racing.

Please pray for Mike Janis to be safe and do well in the race to stretch out their points lead for the championship! Mike, God is in control!

Also, please pray for my cousin Deana and her family. Her daughter has recently been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatments as we speak. Please pray for her healing and strength during the treatments. Again, God is in control!!!!!

Here is a picture of Mike Janis racing.

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