<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><div></div><div>Great performance report AJ.</div><div><br> </div><div><strong><font color="#0000ff"><em>Mad Dawg Antenucci <br></em></font><font color="#ff0000">Team Pantera Racing</font></strong> </div> <div><em><strong>The 1st & still the only vintage race team in open road racing <br></strong></em><font color="#0000ff"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.teampanteraracing.com">www.teampanteraracing.com</a></font></div><div><br></div><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><br><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Asa Jay Laughton <asajay@asajay.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b>
tpr@teampanteraracing.com<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sat, March 26, 2011 7:14:20 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [TPR] Riddle me this... noise, shocks and weirdness<br></font><br>
First day of Autocross was today. Test & Tune, practice and blow the <br>cobwebs away in the head.<br><br>So I know the Pantera needs a new alignment, now I know it even more. <br>But that's not the real concern here. Some of you may recall I was <br>chasing an interesting clunk in my front end a while ago. Well, it's <br>never really gone away.<br><br>The steering rack bushing has been replaced, and it sure feels solid. <br>All bushings and ball joints have been replaced in the a-arms. Now here <br>are the interesting parts.<br><br>When I visited Dennis Quella week before last, I walked through all this <br>with him, Then he asked if I had original shocks on the car, which I <br>do. He then mentioned there are some internal "bits" (as Mike Drew <br>would say) that "break" if the suspension is left hanging on the <br>shocks. This is the position most of our cars are in when we are doing <br>a lot
of work on them for extended periods of time. (listening Frank) <br>I tell him I have original Telecars on the Pantera. He says he can't be <br>sure, but I might want to check that out as a source.<br><br>Fast forward to today. About my fourth run on the course today, I start <br>hearing a nasty thunk anytime I radically change direction, like in a <br>slalom. I'm starting to get worried now. Did I break an a-arm tab? <br>Did I break a sway bar mount? What! (yea.. it's driving me crazy)<br><br>I get home and just got back from inspecting the front end. Wouldn't <br>you know, everything looks -solid-. But wait for it...<br><br>I push down on the front bumper and... nothing. No movement. So I pull <br>-up- on the bumper and get about three inches... and it -stays-. I then <br>do the hip hula with the front fender and can't get any weird noises. I <br>push the bumper
down... it goes about three inches and stays. I do the <br>hip hula on the fender and get all kinds of nasty noises... apparently <br>from the shocks?<br><br>Okay, so I'm Mr. poor boy here, yea yea... you've all heard that sad <br>story. A kind soul sold me what they thought were Konis, which weren't, <br>so I subsequently sold them because I couldn't get them rebuilt in the <br>states (turned out to be a foreign brand). So then some kind soul sent <br>me a set of "practically brand new" Telecars, which looked in worse <br>shape than those already on my car. Swapping a couple of them didn't <br>seem to make the noise go away and I really can't say I'd prefer <br>swapping another set of Telecars.<br><br><sigh><br>so..... does anyone out there have a set of known good shocks they'd be <br>willing to "loan" me for about a month so I can determine if this is <br>really the root problem or not? I'm sure you can probably
get them <br>packed in a Large Priority Mail Flat Rate box (it's how I shipped those <br>off brand shocks). I hate to beg. If I had more Pantera people close <br>by, it probably wouldn't come to this.<br><br>More highlights from today...<br>- I was the first person to "spin" on the course today, it was actually <br>a bit of fun even though I took out a few<br>cones.<br>- I totally -ate- a cone on exiting a bus-stop gate... so much so that I <br>brought it all the way back to grid. On the upside... the license plate <br>is much more aerodynamic now. :)<br>- The car ran -great-! The bit of tuning I did late last summer seems <br>to have made runs a lot smoother.<br>- The new graphics look awesome. Photos to come later.<br><br>Alright, who wants to loan me a set of shocks?<br><br>Asa Jay<br><br>-- <br>Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired<br>& Shelley Marie<br>Spokane,
WA<br>******************************<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.racingagainstautism.com">http://www.racingagainstautism.com</a></span><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.teampanteraracing.com">http://www.teampanteraracing.com</a></span><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism">http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism</a></span><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>TPR mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:TPR@teampanteraracing.com" href="mailto:TPR@teampanteraracing.com">TPR@teampanteraracing.com</a><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://lists.teampanteraracing.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tpr">http://lists.teampanteraracing.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tpr</a></span><br></div></div><div style="position:fixed"></div>
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