The Clutch That Slipped

The next day, with tech being out of the way, we needed to find out about our suspect clutch. The way to do that was to just get out and drive the car. And in doing that, it slipped enough to know that if it didn't get changed , we were asking for trouble. The thought of doing this on jack stands at the ballpark was a last resort, so we started looking for some sort of repair shop while driving around. What we needed was just a place with a lift, we had the tools and the new clutch. Along the main road going North out of Oaxaca there are lots of these places, we stopped at one that did brakes and clutches, but what they did was put new linings on them, not change them. Rick got a twinge of nostalgia there, because the kids were knocking rivets out of truck brake linings, like he used to do for his Dad. A taxi driver, who happened to be there, took us us down the road to a Continental Tire shop, and these guys were the best. No problem using the lift, for a La Carrera car, anything goes. They had a truck to finish, so we helped unload truck tires to pass the time. Changing a clutch is a bit of a procedure, the exhaust and drive shaft have to come off, the transmission has to come out, the bell housing off, and then deal with the clutch. The clutch was changed in a record time of one hour and forty minutes, and believe me, that's quick. The rest of the day was spent getting the Terra Trip working and thinking about qualifying coming up the next day. That night was the first of the driver/co-driver meetings and and it was heavily stressed not to crash during qualfication, very bad form. In 2006, four cars went down before the first day. Rick and Scott decided to turn in early, so I went my favorite taco place in Oaxaca, Taco Roy's and had a late dinner. Things would start to pick up from here on out.

Next Time: We Be Qualified