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Wrench Scramble 2015: Two out of Four Ain't Bad
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Have you ever met someone with extensive knowledge of the minor engineering changes made within a model or brand? Someone who can say “oh, this is an early ’82 car, so you need the EA44517 starter, not the -524″ or “don’t get the Moog part for that bushing, their book is wrong”? You know how…
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Wrench Scramble 2015: Don't Do Cage Me In
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LeMons is all about cutting corners, be it in build quality or literally in driving technique. I’ll admit that the cage I put in The Uberbird was very much My First Rollcage® grade fabrication, likely to help in the event of a big crash, but not something you really really trust. Which, of course, defeats the…
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Wrench Scramble 2015: You Know it's LeMons When…
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When you score a good deal on a heavy-duty transmission with the rare bellhousing and clutch configuration you need, you put up with it’s non-matching stubby tailshaft. When you have a transmission with a non-matching stubby tailshaft, you find yourself having to add about 9″ of length compensation between the existing transmission mount and the…
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This Axle Shaft is a Metaphor for the Ranchero Build
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Things were going so well this weekend. I borrowed a tow rig, brought the car home from being caged and we got the engine in relatively quickly. Given that gas tank crude is the #1 hobbler of old LeMons cars, we pulled the gas tank. Thankfully, it doesn’t look too bad in there, just minor particulate…
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Wrench Scramble 2015: Project Axle Hell
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I love drop-out 3rd member axles for how much they ease parts swapping and fabrication. Most famously Ford’s eight and nine-inch diffs, as well as most solid axles from Japanese truck manufacturers allow the differential to be removed and swapped with simple hand tools. Find a lower-geared, limited slip example in a junkyard or on eBay?…
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Hooniverse 24 Hours of LeMons: Halloween Hooptiefest is a Clean Race for Idiots in a Buick
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Four “idiots in a Buick”, as Jay Lamm once famously called us, car number 451, finished third in class and fifteenth overall at the 24 Hours Halooween Hooptiefest in New Hampshire. We made no contact, did not go off-track, did not speed in the pits, had no black flags, and made just three pit stops…
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AER, Jalopnik, and the Art of Racing in the Rain
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Racing takes skill, knowledge, and experience. A slow racecar at a 24 Hours of Lemons event is a great way to gather those. American Endurance Racing (AER), like 24 Hours of Lemons, is another cheap-ish car racing series that has recently started up. You may have seen it, as the series seem to promote themselves quite…
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Wrench Scramble 2015: Playing Musical Engine Stands
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I have three engines, three transmissions and a spare head in my garage right now, none of which are bolted up in the right combination. We’ve got a kinda/sorta “built” 200ci six, the original 170ci that came with the car and a donor 170ci I bought only for the transmission attached to it. Our original…
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Wrench Scramble 2015 is Underway!
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Five years (to the exact day) ago I wrote about learning to avoid getting stretched so thin that project cars are more stressful than fun. Apparently I unlearned that lesson because as of tonight, all four of my cars are in need of services ranging from routine maintenance to a complete drivetrain swap. I’ve gotta get cranking,…
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Three Pedal Mafia Citroën SM – A Closer Look
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At the August 2015 24 Hours of Lemons race in Thompson, CT, Three Pedal Mafia debuted their Citroen SM racecar. Along with it they had an awesome SM theme going which featured a mistress and gimp, among other things. That alone earned the team the much coveted Organizer’s Choice award. Since I am not very familiar with…
