Ultrasonic Cleaning Of Your High Performance Parts

The Very Best Way To Clean Your Small Parts

Ultrasonic cleaning systems send high frequency sound waves riping through an ultrasonic cleaning/degreasing solution, leaving superheated  bubbles in the waves wake.  When these bubbles (cavatations) colapse (decavitation), the heat and energy of the their implosions work  with the cleaning solution to remove dirt, oils, resude, and oxidation from the the contaminated item.  This type of cleaning is ideal for carburetor components, non-electrica ignition parts, and a variety of other automotive items, as well.
We are now offering the best, and least abrasive way to clean small automotive parts, as a mail order service. You can send us up to 12 small items, which we will clean and return to you, within 3 to 5 working days. This is the same way jewelery stores, opticians, clean what they repair,  but we use a degreasing cleanser, to remove any and all grime, from your parts. The cost for the service is $39.95, which includes return shipping, within the 48 states. We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Paypal.

http://www.gearheadzproducts.com

 

 

 

 

 

ASA LS1 Race Car Won't Start Is Sometimes The ECU

When the gremlins come to call on race day, they love to find places to hide, in your LS1 electronics system.   The last two times out, we have been "pestered" by the little buggers, that move around like cock roaches, in the wiring system.  Six laps into the most recent SCCA Majors race, the car just decided to come to a dead stop, going around turn number  two, at Gingerman Raceway.  After considering everything, we plugged our code reader into the car, when back at the shop.  Our crew chief, son, and full-time bread slicer assembler, "GT" had a great idea.  The kid is sharp, and simply decided to erase all existing error codes, in the GM factory ECU unit.  The car that would not go anywhere, quickly fired riight back up again, after the weekend was done.
Since we had already seem some burned wiring, and also smoked a brand new "pay it off monthly" racing battery, it stared to seem that we had a problem coming from only one place.
The alternator was removed, and tested for output.  Our local electrical shop rebuilt it, and put in a new regulator, for a mere $85.00.  The unit is back in the car, and we are pretty sure, that this was the issue causing the (most recent) problems that we faced.  The moral of the story, always look for clues, that will lead you back to the root of the problem.  Stay "tuned", for futher developments.
Or stop by at the track if you are there.  You can also visit us at our web garage.  We can easily be found at:

http://gearheadzproducts.com/

ASA LS1 Race Car Won't Start Is Not Always The ECU

We recently drove up to the grid and parked, to go out for the first race of the new SCCA year.  At two minutes, they blew the whistle, and the same car that we just drove up to our spot, would not start.  No way, no how.  The tendency is to blame the ECU right away, especially with these cars.  But the folks up a Schwanke say they rarely if ever see one go bad.  At lease not with out a good reason (attaching a welder ground for instance)  It's real simple, you have to have spark, compression, and gas.  In our case, the fuel pump was not priming the system, and there was no go juice, up at the inspection port we installed, on the engine fuel rail.  After tracing the  dual fuel pump circuit back, we found a slightly unexpected burnt (to a chrisp) four prong wire connector, which kind of ruined the day, and the weekend.  Allstar makes a replacement OEM style four prong unit, PN # ALL76269, rated at 20 amps.  Our very small packet arrived in a very large box, with a couple of air bags, to reduce the chance of damage (?). 

At any rate, we were glad to pay the $13.50 in shipping for this $3.75 shipment, to get after fixing the problem.  Make sure you order extra individual male and female connectors, because there is a reason they sell them seperately.  We ended up building a whole new harness, on the switch side of the system.  There was very little extra wire to work with anyway, so we made sure it will be easier to deal with, in the future.  The LS-1 burped to life at the frst spin of the Tilton, and we are back in business.  See the seperate blog, about the time the pump connection vibrated loose.  These cars are fun, cheap, but somedays, an electrical challenge.

http://www.gearheadzproducts.com

Taylor Switches Have A Great Reputation Because They Work

We have a cool suit panel in our race car, that has switches that look like tooth picks.  Obviously they break, and usually at the worst time ever, on race day.  They are part of an expensive cooling system for the driver, and they might be good for use by a doctor doing heart surgery, but they have no business, anywhere beyond the people who make you sign the race track waivers.

We like Taylor all the way, for serious electrical work.  They are big, well built, and made for racing.
With all the things coming out of China now days, it's great to have a key component that you can rely on, to keep your speed buggy going.
We stock what we use, and use what we sell.  Take a look, you will be glad you did.

 

 

 

Taylor Switches Are  The Only Way To Go On Race Day 

 

 

 

http://www.gearheadzproducts.com

Dude Is That Your Jerico Transmission Over There In The Weeds???

Our team purchased one of the many used Howe ASA cars that had been raced down in Florida a few years ago.  It had already been converted from roundy round to both way action.  Overall, the car was in good shape, had a few leaks, but could be made race ready for much less money than a new one.  During the intial inspection of the underside, we noticed a loose 3/4"  bolt, where transmission bolted up to the aluminum (standard issue) Quartermaster clutch housing.  As it turned out, three of the bolts were stripped out.   It would take a lot more that a strong arm to destroy the threads on one of these bolts, so we suspected that there were other issues at play here.  A plan was implemented to develop a "root cause analysis" investgation.  In words, we decided to try and figure out what was really going on.  There is a lot of vibration going on at full speed with one of these cars, so we fabbed up a simple support bracket, for the back part of the transmission.  A "used" transmission bracket from a NASCAR team was found for sale on the internet, and we tacked together the rest with our wender, laying underneath the car.  Simple, effective, cheap, and we still have our transmission, in the vehicle, and not somewhere else.  The bolt on brackets that attached to the car frame are Allstar units, and come "ready made" with mounting holes drilled and tapped in them, from the good folks over in Coloma.  From there, it was just a matter of stitching everything together.  Helicoils were sunk in at all four corners of the clutch housing, and the box of gears was once again ready fer beating.

 

 

We talk cars, especially GT-2, GTA, TA-2.  If you have a question, feel free to give us a call.  Our garage is always open, even if we can't get to the phone.  Stop by over on the new cyber highway at:

http://www.gearheadzproducts.com

Some Basic Chassis Repair Work On Our Road Race Thunderbird

When the T Bird arrived in our shop, we knew she was in need of a little special attention.  The wounded chiicken was fresth from a "slide and bounce", off one of the Road America guard rails, which drove the right rear tire into the frame.  This former ASA race car is well built, but there was no choice except to replace the section of damaged frame that had been bent.  In the photo below, you can see where we took a Sazall, and a set of torches, to remove the bent  piece of 2" x 3" mild steel.  There are also a couple of welds that cracked in the crash, and we will deal with them at the tail end of the process.  Right now, our job is to set about fabricated a direct replacement frame unit, based on some simple measurements that were taken in the shop.  The right side mounted remote oil tank had to be removed, for the work to start, and is not present in the photos. 

 Old Frame Section Removed From The Right Hand Side

 

Old Frame Section On The Floor After Being Cut Out.

 

End View Of The New Frame Section Tack Welded Together

 

Side View Of The New Frame Section With Watts Linkage Mounting Holes

 

 http://www.gearheadzproducts.com