Posted on: May 14, 2013 - comments

I'll be the first to admit, five weeks of evening work sessions to assemble and swap out a drivetrain AND test a new engine control system on a Saab 900 was a little ambitious. However, with a sparse number of northeast events, TeamRemmers made the decision to get the car back together and go for it. Plagued by small problems that turned into big problems, we thought we had the formula down enough to get the car back together and run the 24 Hours of Lemons "Loudon Annoying" event held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

A toasted bottom end from a blown turbo required both swapping of turbo units, doing (another) head gasket job as well as mating it to our somewhat fresh transmission, now with power-steering-pump-driven-transmission-oil-cooler-and filter.  What could go wrong?

Apparently, a lot. Our prototype Trionic5 flywheel setup needed a few tweaks before we were running code free and with some boost. No time for testing or troubleshooting before the checkered flag dropped.  Even under low boost, El Capitan, Tim Remmers set a blisteringly fast lap time of 1:27 very early in the race that showed the car's potential. All we needed to do was stay out there. That, of course is what everyone says at LeMons and unfortunately we could not follow through despite enormous effort.  After only 47 laps, Tim radioed in with possible axle or transmission problems. A quick diagnosis of the car showed one of the transmission cooler lines had split and dumped most of our remaining fluid over the course of the morning. The transmission had sheared its input gear. Another gearbox failure. Things were not looking good.

All of this sounds fairly depressing and frustrating (it was), but here is where the SAAB and LeMons spirit shined through. Many teams at this point were in a similar predicament. Broken pistons, warped cylinder heads, differentials being (re)welded. It was early enough in the day to fix the problem and get back out there.  One of the other SAAB teams "Darth Baller" headed by Joshua Menke just happened to have a spare motor/transmission in the back of their truck. We assessed that we had most of the tools needed (we had to wait in line to use the engine hoist) and got to work. In a few hours we had our car, "Stormin' Norman", all hooked back up with a few minutes left in the day to do some test laps before the checkered flag. Meanwhile, we lent a hand to "Rust in the Wind" a Nissan 300ZX with a SAAB 9000 Aero engine, to source a head gasket and radiator hose.

Confident that we could all get some great seat time Sunday we kept a close eye on the fluid levels and turned some more laps. The radio buzzed again with the words "no drive" which we immediately chalked up to a clutch problem. We buggered it up a bit not having the proper pressure plate removal/install tool. Turned out we were right... and wrong. The clutch had indeed lost some pressure from a loose bleeder valve from the massive overheating of the primary drive system. No fluid in the front cover sheared off the input gear---again.  I was positive there was another cause for two identical (and uncommon) failures in two totally different transmissions in a short period of time. Sure enough with head-smacking realization, it was a simple design error in the routing of the transmission cooling system. We were pumping out more fluid to the front of the case (where the input gear lives) than could flow back into it effectively running it dry and generating lots of heat. We were done. Lesson learned. My bad.

But that doesn't mean we go and cry in a corner. It means we help out the other people who were probably in the same position because of a dumb decision and an 89 cent part failure.  

Darth Baller at this point had a radiator leak that cause the motor to overheat so badly it melted the water seal in the pump. Surprisingly the engine still hummed along, albeit a little hot and a little smoky. A spare water pump and radiator were fitted....which then also leaked. Now Norman was essentially a parts car that we were able to offer up whatever was necessary to keep the other cars on the track as long as possible. In the end Darth finished out the day a little uglier than it started, running cool and given the ad-hoc "Uncle Buck" award. Also, with a the slow-but-steady (but not without incident) strategy the Suzuki powered SAAB 96 "34 Later" of Eric Nelson had completed yet another event whole just behind A-class cars with 3x the horsepower.

In the end, the attitude of working together under less than desirable circumstances is what LeMons is about. You see a similar camaraderie in performance rally. Overcoming large setbacks become a unifying force for all who thought spending all your time, money and patience on this is a good idea. Which is why we'll be back next event, and all we need to do is stay out there.