1997 Pontiac Firebird

[Basement Paul]

Agreed. Hopefully we didn't mess up the pinion.

-BP

[Fred32v]

I jacked it up a little, could not tell much, but it is the U join that failed.

[Basement Paul]

We'll, that's something...

-BP

[MostMint]

time for a GoPro, a stick and a trouble light

[Basement Paul]

I made a trip to 32V's to assess the damage. We knew the u-joint came loose, no surprise there. But why? Once we pulled the driveshaft out, then removed what was left of the ujoint, we determined that we didn't burn enough of the plastic out of the grooves from the original factory u-joint and the clips weren't seated properly. Although we did do some slight damage to the rear u-joint area from all the banging around, we were able to manipulate the aluminum to make it work safely we think.
Two of the cups were still in tact and attached to the rearend, so 32V went to his stash and found a couple good ujoints. He greased up a couple caps and installed them on our current ujoint that seemed otherwise in tact. After reinstalling the shaft, I took it for a spin and it seemed good up to 90mph. There were a couple small dents in the driveshaft, but it didn't seem to affect it's operation at all. Keeping in mind this is aluminum and not steel, I'm not too concerned, especially after the test drive.
Now we have to re-figure out the brake lights not working again (only the 3rd light works) and I have to pull the blower fan out as something fell into the fan area during the autocross and now it makes a ton of noise when the fan is on. That one will be pretty easy.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

U-joint destruction.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

After some online searching, I only found one guy posting what I thought was a definitive solution to our brake light situation.

https://youtu.be/wgTsvdVAS20

According to him, the multi-function switch is the culprit. I priced one at AutoZone for $29. I figured, if that wasn't it, it was going to die eventually and it would eliminate it as a problem. And after maybe an hour + of screwing around, it was installed and damn if it didn't fix our problem!

Next session will be taking care of the noisy blower motor, but that one won't require much thinking.

-BP

[Fred32v]

The louvered hood has been ready to be painted for awhile.
Well today was the day!

A Little of this & some of that.

Start

Moving up

Typical spray booth

looks good

Ready to assemble & install

During the week it will be reassembled, this louvered hood will be on the TrackBird for Track Day.

[Fred32v]

The false inserts were painted black. The hood is completely reassembled.

front view

VERY Shiny, old hood in background

rear view

Ready to be put on the TrackBird.

[Fred32v]

BP and I installed the freshly painted louvered hood onto the TrackBird.

Driver side view

Front end

Passenger side view

Then it was time for me to test drive the new hood,
it just adds to the fun!

[Basement Paul]

Outside pics.

-BP

[wxo]

It looks too good to be a race car.

[Fred32v]

The TrackBird Team has added Simpson Neck bracing to our safety wardrobe.
So I took some time to practice putting on the helmet and neck bracing.
Then I practiced getting in and out of the TrackBird so I would look really cool going in and out.

Riding Shotgun

Behind the wheel

Sure looking forward to the MostMint One's Nelson Ledges Track Day.

(Maybe been sequestered to long.)

[Basement Paul]

How could you NOT look cool?

The weather is supposed to be really nice.

-BP

[wxo]

Fred, it looks like you might get a little taller after wearing that neck brace.