A Basic Maintenance Routine - To Keep Your Program On Track
by Hud Horton

I’ve been at this game for sometime and one of the things that I learned very early on is that there is no substitute for the time you spend prior to a race preparing your car.  Quite simply it can either make or break your on-track performance.  At the track it is usually pretty obvious who has a good maintenance program and who does not.  Just look for the guys that are consistently finishing races and are up front in the points.  What’s most important is that you find the combination that produces results for you.  In this article I thought I would share ‘what works best for me’.  Hopefully there will be a point or two that you will find useful as you consider your own maintenance program. 

One common question that I am often asked is ‘how long should my maintenance program take?’  That is a bit of a loaded question.  The real answer is, it takes as long as it takes.  It really depends on many things—the least of which being just how thorough you plan on being.  Additionally other items like how muddy the track was, how rough the track was and what items you tore up all play into just how much time you allow for maintenance.  I actually like to spread my maintenance across the entire week in short 1-1/2 to 2 hour segments.  I feel that performing maintenance in short spurts ensures that I remain as focused as possible.  This also keeps me from getting burned out—since I’m getting old.  

Sunday:
The first thing I do is to thoroughly wash my race car.  Prior to washing, I remove all the body work so that it is easier to reach all the nooks and crannies on the car.  Before I actually jump in and start using water, I like to use the air compressor to blow out as much of the dirt as possible.  This is a good first step because some times dry dirt and dust is easy to blow off—once the water hits it turns to mud putty which sticks to the car.   Although sometimes it just can’t be avoided, I always try to resist the temptation to use the pressure washer on my car.  A good hand washing with the hose, a scrub brush, a sponge and a rag is much easier on many of the moving components while providing me the best opportunity to really inspect the car.  Don’t forget that there are a few areas of the car that either shouldn’t get wet or are better off if you don’t spray directly.  It is best to cover or plug these items off.  For example the tip of the exhaust should probably be plugged and you might want to cover your electrics with plastic.  I don’t like to spray the chain, birdcages or brake calipers directly.  I use a wire brush to remove any greasy dirt that is clinging to the chain.   I like to WD-40 the chain the get the water out and then spin the sprocket and chain while holding a cloth on the chain to get the excess off.  A good soap or cleaning agent is also a must during the cleaning process.  Schaeffer’s  Citrol is one cleaner that does a good job.  During the process of washing the car I try to examine the overall condition of components and spot loose nuts and bolts and even welds.  I towel dry the car and its components.  It is very important to dry your wheels.  If you don’t, water tends to pool in them and leave dark stains.

It is at this point that I break the wheels loose and get the car up on jack stands.  Rolling chassis stands are something that are not required, but are very convenient.  Getting all the weight off the torsion bars also makes them last longer.  Remember to break your wheels loose before you get the cars up on the jack stands—it’s a tough thing to do once the car is up.  Go ahead and take your wheels off.  It makes it much easier to perform the work you need on the car.  The next thing I like to do is to snug the spacers up and then put the setup blocks back under the axles.  I am careful to record how many turns it takes to get the car back onto the blocks.  This will confirm the changes I made at the tracks.  At this point I will also go ahead and get the battery on a trickle charger.  There are several good battery chargers on the market like the Battery Tender Jr. that essentially bring your battery to full charge and then monitor it until it is unplugged to make sure that the battery is at full charge—but without damaging the battery like a standard charger might do.  This not only ensures that you have a fully charged battery when you arrive at the track, but also lengthens the life of the battery.   

Monday:
I take the day off.  Time to rest.

Tuesday:
One of my next tasks is to clean the air filter and change the engine oil and filter.  While I clean the air filter after every race, I only change the engine oil and filter every two races.  I also start thinking about where I am running next and what gearing will be necessary.  I like to go ahead and get the proper gearing in the car at this point.  Make sure to inspect the sprocket for extensive wear.  I’ll inspect both the gear I am taking off and the one I am putting on.  It never hurts to be overly cautious.

Wednesday:
This whole thing is not supposed to seem too much like work, so I take the day off.  It’s time to go shoot my bow, ride my dirt bike or get myself in some other kind of trouble.

Thursday:
Next I like to get the grease out and go to work.  I’ll grease the king pins and then clean and grease the torsion bars.  I normally start looking at stagger at this point.  I work with tire pressures to stretch the tire to what I want it to be.  For example I want my 76” tire to blow up at least 75-1/2” to 76-1/2” or my 74” left rear to 73-1/2 “ to 74-1/2”.  You might have to work them a little bit to get them to stretch to what you want.  Don’t forget that just because a tire is supposed to measure a certain circumference—that it will.  More often than not tires don’t measure what you would expect.

Friday:
Now its time to really start pulling all the the loose ends together to get ready for the race.  Check all of your nuts and bolts before starting your race set-up.  I set my shocks where I would like them to start.  I also get my wheels spaced where I like for a starting point.  Remember to snug your wheels when working with spacers to make sure they are all pulled tight.  Next I set the torsion stop bolts finger tight.  Get a good coat of lube on the chain.  I then perform a good nut and bolt check.  Remember all of the nuts and bolts including suspension and engine bolts.  Don’t forget about all of your jam nuts.  Finally I put all the body work back on and give everything a quick polish.

You should now be all ready to go have fun.  This is just a basic program.  There are several additional checks that you can make to ensure your car is ready for peak performance.  These might include items like a leak down, valve clearance check, keeping an eye on torsion bar fatigue test, battery analysis, sprocket and chain stretch and more.  We can touch on a little more advanced maintenance program at a later date.  Remember the goal is to do as little work at the track as possible so that you can focus on driving and making the changes required to adapt to that night’s racing surface.   

Best of luck for a safe and successful event.

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