[Fot] Beaten by equipment

[Bill Dentinger]

Wow! That’s a revolting development!

One time when I still thought there was something to be gained by ‘speed shifting’, I busted off the selector ball at the base of the shifter handle going into 5 at Road America. With my family cheering at the fence...I went by (and off) waving the gear shift lever in my hand above my head.

Bill Dentinger

Sent from AOL Mobile Mail

On Sunday, June 3, 2018, Mike Harmuth via Fot <fot at autox.team.net> wrote:

I had a new failure this weekend at Lime Rock with the Spitfire. 1st lap of the weekend, doing a sedate warm up around the track under full course yellow. When I start down the front straight and put it in 4th gear, there's a big vibration and ugly noises (short video attached). I was flat towed back to the paddock and when I took the tranny hump cover off, I found the shifter had snapped (see picture). A little more poking around and I discovered the aluminum bell housing was cracked from side to side and two bearing caps were missing from the tranny end of the driveshaft u joint (replaced over the winter).

I'm going to pull the tranny, driveshaft and diff to see what damage has been done. In the past, at the same spot at Lime Rock, I had a problem with the diff that 1st broke the tranny output housing. I didn't realize the problem was downstream, it locked up again (broken tooth inside floating around) and took out the rear  1/2 shaft u joints putting me in the wall.

After rewatching the video, many times, I suspect the broken shifter was the cause of the problem, (2 gears at once?) not a result but I'm pretty sure disassembly of the tranny will confirm this. My question is, has anyone had the shifter beak like this and if so, was it caused by something else or was it just metal fatigue? 

Other related info, new engine (1296) , more power than the old one, less than an hour on it. Zero track or dyno time, this was the 1st time the car saw 4th gear. All drivetrain fluids changed over the winter. No disassembly but cover off inspections and hand turning tranny and diff felt normal, last used in October 2017 with no issues, with old, worn out engine.

I will get this going for the K Cup, see you there.

thanks
mike h

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 Front.mp4​
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