After a long battle with the desk clerk about my reservations at the Rainbow Casino/ Motel, we got our five rooms on the same floor next to each other. Had a good nights sleep. The next morning we all ate breakfast at the truck stop which is at the entrance road to the flats. John MacDougall and I made a quick run to the salt bed entrance to check out the course and salt conditions. The salt was great and the forecast was good for the next four days, "no rain". There was some minor things that had to be checked on the liner and one thing that had to be fixed. When we off loaded the liner at Deer Lodge, the canopy wouldn't open. There are two 100 lb. gas cylinders that lift the canopy when the latch is released. The gas cylinders are in a horizontal position when closed, which creates a 200 lb. force trying to push the canopy aft. The canopy was designed to be adjustable, giving it the ability to close up the air gaps between the canopy and the portion of the body which is in a stationary position. The hinge, which is at the front portion of the canopy has milled slots with bolts which allow both fore and aft movement as well as up and down movement. The vibration from the trip loosened the bolts, causing the canopy to move aft, making it impossible to open the canopy with it's latch, as the design intended. The fix was to drill and tap 1/4 20 stop bolts to take the strain off the slotted portion of the hinge. Next I wanted to check the valve lash, as the valves had not been run since the bent valve ordeal three days prior to the liner's departure to the N.A. Rally. One other thing I wanted to check was the chute deployment. The new body was reshaped at it's tale and the chutes had never been fired to see if they would exit the new tail section properly.

There's a large parking area adjacent to the truck stop, so we off loaded the liner and set up the tents and commenced with the task at hand. One other thing that had to be fixed, which I forgot to mention, is that the air intake box mounted to the injector hat, has a flat lip around it's circumference that supports a piece of foam weather stripping, the kind used on old house doors and windows. When the body of the liner is in place. the fiberglass portion of the airscoop intake marries itself to the foam, forming a seal to prevent the hot ambient temperature inside the shell from entering the air intake. Also the seal allows the airscoop to do it's thing, i.e., at high speeds providing a positive pressure to the blower intake side. In an effort to form the lip on the aluminum box, I hit it with a hammer, breaking a portion of the welded lip. John fixed this with a little J.B. Weld.

We fixed the canopy problem (we thought) with the two alanhead capscrew stops. Tested the parachutes, they exited just fine. I had brought three boxes of shotgun shells and assigned Tom and Berni to take the shot out and fill the shot cavity with hot glue. This is required for the powder to burn and go bang--needs back pressure. No back pressure--no bang. We checked the valve lash and found two slightly bent push rods. All of the rocker covers had been relieved on the lathe and numbered. I had inadvertently put a couple of covers on in the wrong spot. We had spare push rods, so not a problem. We also discovered that one of the adjuster screw cups was broken, one side of the cup was gone. Had a spare screw adjuster, so not a problem. Next all the oil was drained from the duel primary cover. Found aluminum filings in the front engine oil tank. Rear engine O.K. Secondary primary drive O.K. Transmission o.k., Found filings in the breather catch can. What had happened was that the blower drive chain was too loose and the chain was rubbing in it's housing. As the front engine crankshaft is lower than the rear engine crankshaft and all of the cavities which had aluminum filings are married together due to the crankcase breathing system employed. The blower drive housing shavings found their way just about everywhere. The front engine oil tank was removed and flushed. The blower drive housing was flushed, as well as the catch can. The oil filter was changed on the front engine. The blower chain was properly adjusted, the primary was flushed, and all received fresh oil. With that taken care of we got word that the owner of the truck stop didn't want us in his lot. I offered him $200.00 for rent for one more day and he declined. He said, "You salt racers think you own the place!" H-mmm. Nothing to do but breakdown the tents and move.