SMSP GP

To start with, we've recently purchased a new family/tow car, a Mitsubishi Pajero NW 2013 ~ 3.2L 4 cylinder diesel turbo! I've dreamt of owning my own trailer + tow vehicle for 10 years, and we are finally here. I really look forward to towing to the track, kitting out the Pajero and trailer to make the overall experience as seamless as possible. More to come in the future!

Having done our MWSCC Morgan Park double day last year in August, then having Honda Nationals be troublesome with the steering rack falling apart meant I've barely driven the car in ages.

We've done a bunch of things since, gearbox out and replaced the diff bearings, fixed the steering rack, new seat mounts, oil cooler setup, new boots + high temp grease in shafts, intermediate shaft bearing replaced, fuel tank out and much more. What the car really needs is a proper run down, see what sticks, see what breaks. Fix then get on with it.

I also haven't really tested my custom race dash I've been building on the track, only with the car idling at home. There's so much development I want to contiunue with, but need to do some initial testing on the track to see how things refresh, so keen to do that tonight as well.

Everything felt really rushed in turning on the GoPro's timing on phone, checking over the car and even down to getting my gloves on driving down pit lane. All a result of barely doing any track in over 2 years, it's all on me. Definitely need to improve all this.

And now it all goes downhill...

Unfortunately the night only went downhill from here.. To start with, the loud rotational noise came on instantely after leaving the pitlane which kinda gave me the shits, the issue clearly wasn't the diff bearings in the end.. Lap 2 T2 I turned in hard left to the hair pin and felt something break, started knocking from the front left through the steering wheel. I creeped back around the track slowly, it would come on at different points regardless of speed or direction, even slowing down to 10km it goes worse at a few times. I managed to get back into the pits and just felt so deflated knowing this was probably the end of the night. This is what we came for, to see what broke, but I wanted a few sesions atleast.

With Myles here in his yellow EK race car, he said jack it up and lets check the shafts. Maybe the shafts is also this loud rotational noise, because it's the only thing I haven't checked. Upon Myles inspecting the passenger shaft, he essentially said yep it's the shaft. There was a loud knocking noise as if inside had shattered into many pieces.

In addition, BYP Racing were in a pit area with a customers car and we asked if they could check as well as their here, which to they confirmed it's most likely the case. We then discussed about the shafts, what may have caused it also with the loud rotational noise in mind. They suggested the shafts as well as being the original DA9 ones could also be too long, causing the bearings to bind up. The car is a lot lower now since installing the Honed Development kit as I went ahead and lowered it to a desired ride height. The noise was already here prior to that, but maybe it contributed to the failure now.

With my homework assigned to me to check the shaft length once home, I then asked would they have the correct length shafts. We then also discussed what to do going forth, and they mentioned from their RnD they've found the old B series square styled tripod bearings to bind up more often than the circular K series ones. They've found swapping K series inner joints onto the B series shafts to have greater success. This would require me to change the intermediate shaft to the newer style with the male end on it.

After the professional photo's below from the 2 laps I was on the track is my whole adventure of measuring the shafts and having BYP Racing make me some new custom shafts.

Some professional photos from the evening atleast..

Driveshafts

Disclaimer, the axel length photos are taking with the hub jacked up to ride height

I measured the old shafts, then took them into BYP Racing with the plan of using the measurements I took to see if they could modify the current ones, otherwise do a new set at the correct length with the K series inners.

Huge thanks to BYP Racing for looking at the car at the track, and sorting out the new shafts but also the knowledge transfer and being happy to answer all my questions. They are in, it drives. Lets go to the track!

The old shafts

Here they are

Inspecting the current broken passenger shaft, yeah I see the problem.. The square casing on the tripod bearings shattered.. Result of binding?

Drivers side shaft length = +10mm

Passengers side shaft length = +8mm

Intermediate shaft gearbox inlet OD = 35mm

The new shafts v1

New shafts v1, they look awesome. The shafts consist of:

• K series inner CV joints
• New aftermarket B series outers
• High temp grease
• Breather tubes
• K series accord spacer on drivers
• Newer style intermediate shaft with male end

Now to fit them and measure. If incorrect length, I'll take back to BYP for them to try another combination, just because the car is at my house. Otherwise they'd obviously be able to do it on the spot if at their shop.

Drivers side shaft length = -10mm

Passengers side shaft length = +16mm

Intermediate shaft gearbox inlet OD = 40mm. As this uses a 5mm larged OD shaft I needed to get a new axle seal for the gearbox as shown below. I have 2 photos on my phone which is misleading, I'm 99.99% sure the below one is the correct seal. Otherwise it's a "91205-PC9-711".

The new shafts v2

What happened was the drivers sat in 10mm which is border line as far as you want to push it, but the passengers sat out 16mm. I took them back and they shortened the passengers which seemed to be in even more than I thought we'd want, but they assure it'll be fine. They wern't able to use a OEM shaft combination to get a level with hub length. There is an option to get a custom shaft made, but it'll be an additional cost.

Passengers side shaft length = -15mm

I also managed to cuck the drivers seal when removing the new shafts to take them back, popping the spring out of the seal. People usually say once this happens it's game over, but I wasn't gonna order a new seal and wait, so I refitted it very carefully. Writing this in the future, it hasn't leaked yet!