Yokohama 962 Daytona Prep
September 14, 2012

You all probably saw this in the RM Auction in Monterey, CA.

The new owner lives in Florida and needed someone to give it a good looksee because he wants to start racing it in vintage events.

Like all used cars and especially racecars, they're always better when they sell them. The problem is, the poor guy buying the car, finds out the opposite of the last statement. The alternator wouldn't charge because there was a giant short in the wiring harness, which is actually what the picture is (sorry for the quality).

We removed anything that needed to be serviced. The new owner doesn't want to have any problems his first time out with this very cool car. We don't have X-ray vision, but we have worked on these since their inception so we have a pretty good idea of what needs to be looked at.

Waste-gate diaphragms look okay!

One of the shock bolts was broken so we're having to make two new ones. We will install a new shock brace, which is an item that we used to make because this happened all the time. We'll show you the picture when it's installed and how it works to keep from breaking studs.

Luckily we're able to get the broken stud out.

This is interesting... The Chapman tub has a honeycomb floor (measures 1/2 inch thick), which is way better than the Factory floor (0.40 aluminum panel). Not only is the aluminum not as strong as a honeycomb, but anything can punch through it. Problem with the Chapman car is that because of the thickness of the floor, a tall driver needs to have more ass room, but can't get it. This is what normally happens, the bottom of the seat gets cutout. I actually never saw the seat cut this much. I also have never seen a new seat bottom remade. This is kinda unsafe so we will remake the bottom half of the seat so that the driver has a little more protection in case of an accident.

In re-gearing the transmission for Daytona, I noticed a surface imperfection on the pinion gear tooth. There's only one and it's probably been here for awhile. As long as the transmission is checked once a year, this will probably make it 2-3 more years without a problem.

The transmission does have the Salisbury limited slip diff. This takes the strain off of the axles and makes the car a lot easier to drive.

Here is the gear pack after it's been re-geared.

Note the serial #113. This transmission comes from the Sebring winning Bob Akin Coca Cola car. The cool thing about it is that the center housing and the end cover have the serial #102 on them... 102 means 962-102... We have that car here. It gives the Yokohama car more credibility, because the transmission parts came from other Akin cars. The owner of this car should make a deal with owners of the other two Akin cars that are missing these serial # parts.

The gear box is all back together and the suspension is all re-hung with axles rebuilt. We are waiting for brake pads, bolts for the shocks and some tires.

The car will do a test at Daytona before the HSR event in November.

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