Holy Cow Tractor Pulling Team

Monday, July 23, 2007

Noblesville Crank Update
While I spent most of the weekend getting my spare ready, I pull the oil pan off the broken motor. It turns out, I twisted the snout off of the crank, and it did not break at the #1 rod journal. This is somewhat good news in that none of the rods were damaged and there is no metal in the oil, making cleanup for reassembly easier.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Phone Service
In January, we switched from a traditional wire-based phone service to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) which carries our phone calls via our DSL connection. With a few exceptions, the service have been flawless and gives us many cool calling features, free long distance, and a cheap rate. I researched all the providers at the time and we went a company called Sun Rocket. They were highly rated and economically priced. Early this week, we started experiencing problems including poor call quality, random inability to make calls, random ability to receive calls, and random access to voice mail. Finally, on Thursday, we got an e-mail that Sun Rocket was in the process of closing their business.

So, we switched to a different VoIP provider, Packet8. They require new hardware and it should be in route to our house. There will also be some delay in having our number transferred from Sun Rocket to Packet 8. This may take a couple of weeks to get sorted out. In the mean time, if you need to call us, try our cell phone or business line. Because we don't have a lot of minutes on our cell plan, we may not answer, but may call right back on our VoIP line, if it is still working.

Noblesville, IN
We always enjoy this pull because they really pack the fans in and it is close to home. The dirt is not the best, but the track crew is run by pullers and they always make the best of what they have. With the rain this week, it should prove to be a good track. We drew 4th hook in a class of 7 pullers. Feiss was test hook, lost a blower belt and turned it down. Bionic Buzzard make a good looking pass, but the sled was really heavy and he stopped in the 250 range. Don Deane made a good pass out to 258 putting him in the lead. Since the track doesn't bite that well, I typically pull in a higher gear. I came out of the hole hard, but there was a pop almost immediately in the front left engine. I saw a bit of fire come out one header pipe, and Stacey saw some white smoke. Whatever it was, it cleaned up and the engine "appeared" to run fine after that, but the tractor just layed down. We pulled 217' and that was all. My first instinct on the track was that we just were in too high a gear for this good track and heavy sled. I didn't see Krider's run, but he would win with a 263. Stahl made a good looking run, but, as has become the norm for that tractor, it kept going right and he had to back out of the throttle to avoid a DQ.

Once back at the trailer, we noticed the front belt seemed a little loose and confirmed we broke a crankshaft. Hindsight being what it is, the crank broke when I saw and head the little pop. Though I don't have the engine apart yet, I will guarantee that the crank broke at the front of the #1 rod journal, which means not only did the blower stop turning, but the cam gear did as well, which stopped the fuel pump, the oil pump, and the mag.

So, I will assume I bent most of the valves, bent a hand full of push rods, probably severely damaged the #1 connecting rod, and possibly head damage from the valves, plus, of course, the crank.

My plan is the rebuild my spare and get it on for Ionia next weekend and get this engine rebuilt for Bowling Green.

While it is a shame to blow up a motor at a state hook which is a non-points event for us, it was better to do it now, than on the first hook at Ionia.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Greentown, IN
After talking with Bob Jostock at Jerseyville, he said he pulled at Greentown the year before and it was a decent track. We left Jerseyville after our pull and made it to a rest stop near Decatur, IL where we spent the night. The next morning was a quick trip home. We checked out the tractor in the trailer and left for Greentown where we needed to switch from 4 to 3 motors for this state hook. My thought was if they were still using a steel roller and packed the track like concrete, I would just run my 4 motor gear. When we got there, we saw a rubber tired roller and the track looked decent. The challenge for any track builder in this area this year is getting enough water in the track, since rain has been nearly non-existent.

Come pull time, the track doesn't look bad. Ed Stahl was first up, and bounces really bad, so he turns it down and drops to last. Bill Ratliff was next up and pulls a 307. Historically, Bill is bit off of mark of the rest of the HSTPA tractors because he also pulls with BMTPA which has a little more restrictive rules. But, I haven't pulled with him since 2005, with the exception of Arcola last weekend, where he had a bad run and DQ'ed. My though was they needed to tighten the sled, because the rest of us, with the exception of Schoeneman would be out. The word was a sled reset, and then it was changed to keep Bills run as the first official pull. Next was Bionic Buzzard and they lay down a nice run, but 3 feet behind bill. Buzzard is a fairly strong running tractor, so maybe I was wrong about Bill. Krider is past 310. Schoeneman is in the low 200's and Deane is past 310. We hook to the sled and make a picture perfect pass also past 310. Stahl is last, bounces a little, but recovers and makes a nice pass, but just clips the right line for a DQ at about 300'. Wayne broke a blower cover and can't come back.

That left Deane and I in the pulloff. Deane makes a nice pass out to like 305. I come back and, right out of the hole, I think I hit a hole in the track or something and bounced once, and then made an outstanding pass, but about 6" behind Deane. I think I would have gotten him without the bounce. Anyway, it was a good pull and no breakage for us, so that will make for a relaxing week and a chance to get caught up on non-pulling projects around the house.

Jerseyville, IL
Jerseyville makes Kendallville look like a power track. We pull on a banked horse track in front of the grandstand with the track sloping from right to left. Jostock was first up and blew it out the gate, and the tightened the sled. Wayne Purse was next up, and blew it out the gate again, but they kept the sled setting. Wayne had probably one of the slowest runs I have ever seen, probably 20 seconds in length. The tractor was set up right and was running good, but there was just no ground speed, something that would be seen in all of the tractors in this class. From there, the distances really started to fall off. Most drivers chose to start on the right side of the track and drift down to the left, getting a little help from gravity as well. By the time I pulled, the starting line was really going away, so I chose a sled spot more in the center of the track, hopefully in harder packed dirt. As I started backing to the sled, I was too far left and the sled guy motioned me to the right, which I did. With the roll cage and the seat belts and the helmet, it is really hard to see to back up. I think he said I was straight, so I straightened the track and started backing up straight. About 4' from the sled, I noticed he motioned me right again, which I did, and left the tractor point to the left.

Whether the sled guy gave me the right signals or not, or whether I correctly saw what he was doing or not is immaterial. At this point, I knew I was not straight and I should have pulled forward and taken another try. I didn't. The thought in my mind was that I was going to leave the line a easy and I would have time to straighten it out. Bad decision. They hooked me up, and I took off, but never got the tractor straight. I personally think that the old Hagar Yellow Ironsides sled is hard to turn couple with the fact that I was going downhill didn't help any. I was aimed right out of bounds. I was set up well and had a good, albeit slow, run going, but I had to back out of the throttle to set the front end down to steer towards the right. As soon as I lost momentum, I was pretty much done.

Bob Jostock came back after me for attempt after the reset and made a good pass out to about 280, good enough for third. Joker made their first pass after damaging the chassis at Tomah. They made a good run and finished well, but in my opinion, that chassis is still too flexible, especially since this was a sandy track. It will be interesting to see how it runs on a better track. Bruce Slagh came out and had a really nice run going, but like me, had to pedal it to keep straight. As soon as did that, the tractor started rocking from side to side, but the front and rear wheels were 180 degrees out of phase, so the LF and RR wheels would both be up, then the RF and LR wheels. It was ugly, and he quickly and wisely shut it down. Last hook was Ken Veney. He has had a tough season so far and with the track obviously going away, I figured it would be another uncharacteristic low finish, but he had an outstanding pass out to 285 or so and finished second. I didn't think there was any track left, but he found it.

Bob Jostock continues to lead GN points with a nine point lead over Wayne Purser. We move from 11th to 8th mainly because manly because non-precommit tractors that pulled at Tomah weren't at Jerseyville. We are stating out in a pretty big hole, and at this point, it is going to be tough to even make the Enderle. But, with most of the season still ahead of us, anything can happen.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Kendallville
We leave Arcola Sunday morning and drive to the Noble Fairgrounds. Brad and Shannon meet us there and we go to Maria's. That is a reason to go to Kendallville, just to eat at Maria's. The vent fan was out in the bathroom in the hauler, so we went shopping for one of those and headed back to the fairgrounds to install it. We didn't hurt anything the night before, so other than routine checks we were ready to go. Shannon beat us all in a game of dominoes. And then, time for a cook out. This time BBQ chicken. Mmmm.

Kendallville is a sandbox. There were only 2 SS tractor, about 10 FWDs and 6 mods. We were last class, but looked like we would get to leave early. The odd thing was, some of our tractors needed more nose weight to pull on the sand, while others needed less. Surprisingly, everyone carried the front end, even though there wasn't much to get a hold of. Feiss had the first official hook and blew it out the gate, partially because it was a great pass, and partially because the track hadn't been torn up. Deane babied it to keep from blowing away the tires and only managed 290. We made a nice pass, again to 297 and good enough for 2nd this night. Krider rounded out the top 3 at 292. The sun was still out as we left and we got home before midnight. What a nice weekend of pulling.

Next up - switch to 4 motors for next weekends GN class in Jerseyville.

Arcola (session 2) - A day with Mickey
We start the day with a benefit breakfast for the Arcola Fire Department. Mmmm, donuts. It was a fine spread we enjoyed with 4WD pullers Andy Bear and family, Chuck Eiller, and Dale Bryant. Next back to the tractor. We didn't really tear anything up, but I spent Saturday fixing many little issues. Around Noon, We had an impromptu cookout with Barga's. Wow Doris, that Zuchini relish was fantastic. We need to get that recipe. Let's do it again at Bowling Green, OK? A few hours pass, and since Brad and Shannon are from that area, we decided to a have a cookout for all of their family. Mmmm food. The Budweiser BBQ sauce that Brad won at Tomah was fantastic as well. As we get cleaned up, Stacey is changing into her Crew clothes, and a mouse runs out of somewhere, right pass Stacey, and under the bed. For some reason, our hauler came with a mouse trap, and for some reason, I never moved it. Just add cheese!

We pulled a different sled on Saturday. This time I pulled at the top of the class. The first few tractors bounced, but they did last night. I hooked to the sled and had a nice hole shot, but then started bouncing, not violently, but bouncing none the less. I made it to 297. Every tractor except Miller and Krider bounced, but they babied so much, they never got the ground speed to go very far. Feiss was near the end of the class and made a sloppy looking run, bouncing L to R and up and down, but crossed the 300' mark. Deane also had some bouncing, but made probably the best looking run in our class also past 300'. We would end up in 3rd. Dean made a monster pass in the pull off, still bouncing a little, but better than his previous one, while Feiss bounced worse and finished in second.

Back at the trailer, we still had a trap with cheese. I moved it down into the kitchen area and we went to bed. Then next morning, the cheese was gone, and Mickey was a goner.

Arcola (session 1) - The weekend of food.
Since Arcola is a close pull, I chose to work 1/2 a day at Delphi, so I drove the Semi to work, dropped Stacey off at Best Buy and parked the big truck in the engineering lot at Plant 10. I amuse some of my co-workers :-) Then, at lunch time, I headed back up to Best Buy to get Stacey. A coworker passed me on US 31 in his '73 Jensen Healey. As I look down from my Freightliner, it was an amazing contrast.

I get to Arcola, no problems there. Arcola starts us out on the weekend of food with a fantastic hospitality tent, Delicious fried chicken and all the fixens. Mmmm. They play the national anthem and start the SS class. I am last hook in a large class of mods following only 6 supers. So, we attempt to warm up and realize we can't get one engine to start. The most common culprit is ignition, so we check timing and change points boxes, but that didn't help. Next we look at fuel. I suspected the fuel pump, so we changed it. Again, no luck. Next we checked the barrell valve and sure enough it was out of adjustment. With the help of Lee Swift, we got it running and warmed up. The whole time we are working, I was keeping one ear on the track. I don't know what all happened, but it took an hour to run 6 tractors, with 4 in the pull off. There were sled resets and some breakage. I don't really know what was going on, but I was happy it was.

Feiss was first up and made a killer pass out to 310+ and broke a planetary. It was one of those perfect passes. Then we start in with the bouncing. There were two groups of tractors tonight, those that bounced and those that didn't. I can't explain why some bounced and some didn't, but obviously the non-bouncers placed much higher. Both Barga tractors made nice passes, but shy of the 300' line, Schmiesing made a good looking pass in the Buzzard, but with the class nearly over, it looked like Feiss may win, which is good because it was doubtful he would make it back. Deane made a great pass out to 304 and we followed out to 305, just as they announced Feiss was fixed and ready to pull. What they didn't say is that he had different gear ratios in the the L and R planetaries. He didn't know if it would work or not, but Todd was there to entertain the crowd. Well, it didn't work, but congratulations to Todd for at least trying. I can't believe you got done what you did is such a short time. Deane came back stronger in the pull off to 317 I think, and we bettered out distance out to 310 for second. It was a great night.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Our condolences to Crew man Brian VanZweeden.
Brian lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan and we met at a pull on Berlin, MI where he was working as an EMT. Brian helped Doug Downs in the past and offered to help us when we were in Michigan. Brian has a gift for reading a track and has been a big help.

But, today, Brian's Dad, David VanZweeden, passed away after losing a battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with Brian, his wife Kelli, and their daughter Alexis.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Tomah (session 3)
We started the morning watching Jokers truck leave the grounds. I didn't personally get a chance to talk with them, but apperently they wrinkled the frame and when the driveline let go, they motors were sky high, so they were on the way home to put in new rods and patch the frame. We read the data recorders and all looked well. There is not a lot of time on Saturday morning. By the time you get up, get unloaded, grab some breakfast, it is nearly time for the drivers meeting. Then you have about an hour before driver intro, and then it is time to get your game face on so to speak. So, there wasn't a lot of time to do much, but we checked it over and apart from a couple of valve covers that didn't get fully tightened, it all looked good. We drew a number towards the end of the class. Saturday proved bloody for this class as did Friday night. Terry Jostock couldn't get his back together in time after throwing 2 rods in the pulloff the night before. Doc Christiansen was waiting on a bearing that would show up too late. Wayne Purser had a clutch problem and shut it down early in the pass.

So, when I hooked to the sled, all I needed to do was make a half way decent pass and I would be in front, points wise, of a lot of last years top tractors. It is like riding a bike, it all comes back pretty quickly. I came out of the hole hard and it hooked hard, and I took off flying down the track. I tried the right side of the track and was shooting for the center at the big end. The tractor started to drift left, but that was OK, for now. Then I saw a sudden cloud of alcohol developed over my front left motor. I glanced up and realized I most likely broke a port fuel injection line. When I looked back at the track moments later, I was really close to the white line. I pressed hard on the right brake, but it just wouldn't turn. I just couldn't get out of the throttle fast enough and DQ'ed. Bummer.

Back at the trailer, I pulled the spark plug and found that I had burned the ground electrode completely off, so I knew what condition the piston and head were in. I was leaning against pulling in the unlimited class that night, and this just sealed the deal.

When I got home, I pulled the head, and sure enough the piston had started to melt as did the head. I welded up the head and replaced the piston, looked over everything else and realized the damage was minor compared to what it could have been. So the lingering question, why wouldn't it turn? I decided to pop the tires off to inspect the brakes. I looked at the left on first, and it looked fine. Then I went to the right side. I first noticed that the tire was hard to turn and when I got it off the hub, it was basically locked. I removed the brake caliper and found that the hub was now free to turn. I then found that the rotor was warped into a saucer like shape. Unlike a car, it didn't become wavy from heat, but bowed into a bowl because the center of the brake is twisting relative to the OD, and that causes the ID of the rotor to get smaller because of the way the cooling slots are cut. (It looks kind of like a camera shutter). So, I machined the ID of the disk, flattened it out, and remounted it. It was straight this time. I don't know when it warped, probably not all at once, but what happened is this. The calipers are dual-piston type, so the caliper is rigidly mounted to the chassis with the rotor centered in a slot between the pistons and pads. When the rotor warped, two things happened, first the rotors started to drag on the inside of the caliper, and more importantly, the brake pad surface was not parallel to the rotor surface, so only a small portion of the pads was actually rubbing against the rotor. We will know this next weekend if the changes were a success.

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