Maintenance program

[Crash101]

I realize everyone nuts and bolts and checks the normal things on a race car like we all have been taught over the years. But the lack of parts failures from the touring guys who run as much as they do is crazy. Is it just as simple as putting new stuff on all the time? Has anyone traveled much with these teams to understand the secrets and how its done. Take Pierce or Erb for instance, who race more than anyone on the planet and have as small a crew of most teams. Night after night, the traveling, cleaning up car, and tire work is enough for a normal team, now add in motor maintenance, bolting, shocks, set ups, and what not and somehow remain successful with minimal parts failures. One of the biggest untold stories to me has always been not how Erb as been close crew-less forever but how well he does and how everything from motor to axles, to shocks never seem to fail him. Just a beyond interesting thing to me. For instance do they run a rack for so long and just sell it, because most guys seem to wait til the night it goes bad? Do they replace entire front suspension over one wheel hit? Do they throw away everything after a really rough track?

[zeroracing]

Erb sells used parts on here a lot, I've bought from him and the stuff was like new.

[Matt49]

I once heard Bloomquist say that every part on the race car has a countdown clock on it. If it gets to zero before you replace it, that becomes a failure. I think that these guys race so much and know so much about the equipment they are using, that they know when that clock is getting close to zero and reset the clock, so to speak.
I think it was Smokey Yunick that said all mechanical failures are rooted in human error (I'm paraphrasing). It was either improperly designed (by a human), improperly used (by a human), or improperly maintained (by a human).
Quality control of the parts you bolt on to your car is also important. Say you receive a birdcage and it comes completely assembled. Quality control there means checking every bolt that holds it together. Same goes for starters, fuel pumps, 6th coil assemblies, etc. Pretty much anything that can be assembled improperly "at the factory" needs to be checked by the racer before it gets bolted to the car.

[Lizardracing]

I've always thought races were won at the shop, not at the track.

If one were to take any part or assembly off, clean it, visually inspect it, reassemble and re install said part, you'd discover a lot more things worn out out or damaged before even getting to the track. If one were to put together a program so that every part was treated as such on a regular basis than I would think errant parts failures would be next to nothing.

For example, I HATE parts failures so I go through my car, every nut, every bolt, every wire, every connection, every zip tie, each assembly including the engine, trans, rear end, I MEAN EVERYTHING! is taken apart fully, cleaned, inspected, lubed, etc. If anything even looks not perfect I'll try to either improve it or replace it. I even keep notes to how long any part on the car has been used and if it was involved in a crash or not. I only race 10 or 12 times a year so for me this is every winter. Other than crash damage, I don't have parts failures cause I really hate beating my self.

If your lively hood is on the line, it's much more than just race night, it's a 80 hour work week with track time just a smallish part. I'd imagine the touring guys to have a overly detailed program for everything.

[zeroracing]

Matt or Lizard, do you guys ever go as far as dye testing or anything on parts?

[talclipse]

I personally will go through and dye pen/ magnaflux components after a crash (chassis welded components, as well as suspension components). I have caught things that were on the verge of failure that you couldn't see with hte naked eye. If you don't have those tools at your disposal the single biggest thing you can do is to get EVERYTHING clean and put an eye on every single component and check every single nut/ bolt.

[thinkstomuch]

I've read about the "part dating" system or idea. Tracking when each part was installed and therefore how many races it's been to. Then replacing it before its time is up, kinda like Matt49 said. Trick here for me would be how long can a part go to get its complete useful life and not discard it to early. Discarding early all the time would get expensive. But it would depend on the team doing it if that even was an issue.

[Lizardracing]

Matt or Lizard, do you guys ever go as far as dye testing or anything on parts?

Cost prohibitive for no more than what I do. If for any reason a part is suspect, I change the part or I don't race.

[Matt49]

I've not done any dye penetration testing. I've wondered if that works on anodized parts or if it needs to be bare aluminum.

[CCHIEF]

Wow, dye test, haven't done that to parts since 30 some years ago! Not saying it's dated tech, just haven't done it. I recall dye testing hubs. I also recall, in my dirt stock car days, having the machine shop check rear axles , often. Speaking of part failures, I recall 1 bolt shearing on the LRF shock mount, which was limiting hike @ that time on a very early Rocket. Allowed the cage to cam over, 2 hook ride to the hauler. I guess that falls under improper design, use and maintenance by a human!

[talclipse]

Matt, ideally you would want any coating removed but as long as the indication has broken the anodization you would be able to pull the penetrant. With aluminum what you have to be cautious of when stripping the anodization/ powder coating is that you don't use anything that could 'smear' the aluminum and cover an indication.
We use dye pen every day in the refining industry. Its still a good test.
I also recall a TV show several years back where they were touring one of Ganassi's indy car shops and they had a non-destructive testing facility within their team where they would check all of their parts.

[billetbirdcage]

Most have a set time or laps they run certain parts, it varies greatly between teams and their budgets and if they have ran on a really rough track. Many national touring guys will only run a rear end as little as 1000 laps and sell it to a smaller team and replace them, some run them longer but 1000 to 1500 laps is generally what I see the top teams doing on rear ends. Everything has a certain life in their eyes, some only run 400 laps on rod-ends and then replace them.

[ALF401]

Step 1 - Great Cleaning Program
Step 2 - Damage Assessment & Repairs
Step 3 - Lubrication & Check Motion Ranges
Step 4 - Checklists and Inspections

[Matt49]

The national touring guys always have a spotless car inside and out. Are most of them using a steam genie or something like it?

[CCHIEF]

Hotsy..incredible on tires! http://www.hotsy.com/ Destructive in the wrong hands, removes decals/wraps, penetrates starters,dizzys,etc.

[lindsey97]

I use an Alkota 3500 psi hot water washer on my tires. put them in shop to dry off, sometimes they are stuck to floor the next day. Literally. ^^^^^good choice of washers, we have 3 at work.