Serious Maintenance for Serious Race Cars

Serious Maintenance for Serious Race Cars

by Evander Klum

Car racing has always been a serious matter. Extreme agility is needed when racing -- and the car used for racing must also always be seriously maintained.

The car maintenance tips discussed here are only for those very knowledgeable on their cars and those who feel comfortable while doing a car repair. In other words, these are for those who really take car racing and maintenance serious matters.

Cars are machines. They are subject to any wear and tear. Frequent usage of the car contributes a lot in this deterioration.

Cars are composed of integral parts and all of these are essential. Examples of those essential things are the plastic bulkheads. As car ages, these get looser and weaker. However, constant tightening and loosening of the screws that go into these bulkheads will greatly contribute to their severe breakdown. Buying new plastic bulkheads is the best remedy to this car problem. This would prevent the wrecking of the chassis while racing.

When tearing some car parts, the hinge pins, shock shafts and king pins should be checked. A flat glass or counter top will help in determining any unwanted tears. Roll those aforementioned auto parts across a flat glass. If you notice an unsteady rocking motion, it means you have to replace those parts. If this is not immediately resolved, this might result to the binding up of the suspension movement. Is it also advisable to put the hinge pins in a rotary tool before a race. A polishing compound will make the hinges work better.

The plastic parts of the ball cups and shock ends need to be replaced in order to get a more efficient suspension set up. Car owners differ in the way they maintain their cars. To get a tighter fit on the ball ends, some race car owners build up layers of CA glue inside the ball cups.

A scratch on the ball ends will mean their replacement. If not replaced immediately, the scratch will be caught on the plastic ball end. Consequently, it will cause the binding of the scratch.

To maintain the ball bearings, completely clean out the thick grease from the bearings before a race. This can be done through soaking the bearings over night in a grease solvent. Then, spray the bearings with motor spray or any brake parts cleaner. To end the maintenance, put some very minute amount of miniature bearing oil to the bearings. Nonetheless, other racers do the alternative. To remove the extra friction, they sometimes remove the side shields from the bearings.

Shocks need to be rebuilt more often. The most important thing on race cars that racers must keep in mind is to assure the shock's total length is exactly the same from left to right. This is to make sure the car is not jerked to make sure the shock's overall length is the same from left to right. Different shock lengths in the front and in the rear must be trimmed properly. To know the total length, measure it using a set of calipers. And to adjust the lengths, simply turn the plastic shaft end. If you want to replace the shocks, Bilstein shocks are among the best options.