It's official, I'll be at Union Grove Great Lakes Dragaway this Sunday from 9 to 5. Hope to see you there. I'll be taking more video so if you can't make it I'll post some runs for you.
Shift light wired and working. High beam indicator light working (broke down and bought a Haynes manual). 300amp Moroso battery cutoff switch wired. Still need to wire the alternator up to a selenoid to kill the motor, but the switch is all ready to receive the wire from the relay. Here are the pics:
Finally got enough scratch to buy a new driveshaft. I also have added bump stops so the rearend doesn't travel far enough to ding the new one.
I'm currently working on some rewiring. The cutoff switch needs to kill the motor per NHRA regulations. I've ordered a new switch that includes terminals for the alternator. I guess I haven't posted any picturres of the Moroso battery cut off switch so I'll get some of those up soon.
I also bought a shift light which is mounted (pictures to come soon). While I have the instrument panel open to wire the shift light I'm going to see if I can get the High Beam indicator light working properly. It currently comes on when the highbeam is off and goes off when the highbeam is on. I think I must have wired it to the fog lights. Anyone have a wiring diagram that might show the wires from the highbeam switch?
Planning another trip to the drag strip soon...might go to Byron instead of Union Grove. This will be the last trip with the current motor to see what I am gaining with the new rearend (hoping for a 15.5). Then I start working on a new motor for it that will take me into the 13 second quarter mile.
Two steps forward, one step back. I bent the driveshaft which is causing the car to vibrate badly. I've adjusted the springs to raise the rear of the car about 1 1/2 inches providing additional clearence for the driveshaft and will be installing a pinion snubber so it can't happen again. But now I'll have to order a replacement driveshaft which probably won't happen for a while since I blew all my wad on the rearend.
The new driveshaft will be better anyway since the new rearend came with a larger pinion that had to be swapped to the smaller one off the old rearend. I'll have the new driveshaft made to fit the larger pinion. This is a good thing if I ever decide to try running some street/strip tires and get a motor with over 300hp.
12 hours of work with my friends help and we got the rearend swapped. It's still a little dogish off the line but it is a big improvement. I'm trying to arrange a trip to Great Lakes Dragaway for this Sunday. I will follow up with a post later in the week when I know for sure I'm going. I'll post more pictures of it running the quarter mile. I'm hoping for a 15.0 time at around 94 mph.
I watched the guy replace my windshield and for the price I'd leave it to the professionals. It didn't look hard, but the right tools are important.
Get the G-Force carbon fiber hood. Just so I can ask you questions about it because I'm hoping it will work on the V8 Venger so I can replace the cheap hoodscoop I am currently using. I just need to know the dimension of the ram scoop so I can determine if it will allign with my air cleaner.
Glad no one got hurt - good luck with the repairs!
Speaking of gear ratios... I wanted to let you guys know how much thought went into choosing the 3.90:1 ratio over other options such as the 3.55:1 and 4:10. Here is a link to a web page I wrote that calculates the RPM of my motor based on any given rearend gears. It takes into account my wheel diameter and each gear ratio of my Turbo 350 transmission.
I pushed nearly 5500rpm at the track in first and second gear. I'd like to replace the motor with one capable of 6000. If you change the gears from 3.55 to 2.94 and then 3.9 you will see the difference in speed. 3.9 is really pushing it for being able to drive it on the highway for any significant distance. 3.55 gears still doesn't get me into 3rd gear much within a quarter mile which is my current problem (I was barely shifting into 3rd at the end of the strip).
Thought I'd start a new thread for the changes I'm working on. Now that I have a baseline of 15.9 second 90 mph quarter mile I'm going to post each significate change as a new phase.
Phase II is for the rearend upgrade. I just purchased a 1995 Dodge Dakota rearend from a salvage yard in Milwaukee. Here is how the old and new rearends compare
Old: 1987 Dodge Dakota 170K miles Single spin 2.94:1 gears $150 included leaf springs Blown Seal that had to be replaced and rusty internals and made clunking sound when driving
New: 1995 Dodge Dakota 76K miles Limited Slip 3.90:1 gears $295 rearend only Great condition but needs the usaual external rust removal prep work.
The new rearend has the 6 lug bolt pattern axles, but that doesn't matter because I need to use the other axles since I had them machined to fit the factory rims. I am purchasing new drums and brakes since the current drums won't fit the 5 Lug axles and the old drums are just plan crap.
Sorry Darktengu, I couldn't figure out how to send you an IM.
I was pretty close guessing my ET. My best run was 15.9 at 90 miles per hour. The car is a complete dog off the line with the 2.94 rearend gears, but felt really good mid track. Here is a video of that run. The car is very quiet compared to most of the other cars. If you listen close you can hear my second gear scratch. The other guy majorly red lighted so you can't really see much of a race. Later I raced a V6 Mustang but he won with a 15.7. I'm working on getting a new rearend with the right gears this weekend and may make another trip to the drag strip this year. I am pretty sure I can get it down to 15.0 even with the crappy motor I have in it. Also, my friend and I ran some calculations and determined that the motor is only putting out about 140-150 horse which you all know is less then the factory V6 that comes in some of the Avengers. I'll be saving the engine swap to a 350 for this winter.
The moment is finally here! I'll be running the car at the Great Lakes Dragaway (http://www.greatlakesdragaway.com/) this Friday night August 31 from 5pm to 11pm. I'll start the guessing on 1/4 mile time at 15.8 seconds @ 92 mph.
I've driven the car over 100 miles now. The last weekend in July I had the car in a small town car show in Monroe, WI. Monroe is about 22 miles from my house.
I'm going to drive the car to Janesville, about 25 miles from my house, where a friend will trailer it the rest of the way to the drag strip. I'm bringing my video camera and will post clips over Labor Day weekend as soon as I am able to edit and upload them.
Center console gages are in, still need to run them through the fire wall, but they are mounted and wired. The green light goes with the switch that will operate the electric cooling fan. Also some pictures of the exhaust.
Everything seems to take longer then I would hope. Since I am not able to finish everything for a big reveal, I'm back to show as I go. Here are some pictures of the gages mounted in the dash. I still have the water temp and oil pressure to mount in the center console where the A/C knobs where. Gages also include LED turn signals and High beam:
Sorry guys, I had to put the Avenger project on hold for a while to work on a project for my mom. I'm back on the Avenger starting this weekend (got to finish mounting the gauges). Check out this Motorcycle Carrier/Lift I just finished, it is what I've been building for my mom instead of working on the venger:
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