Hey everyone I'm Charles with Speedway Motors Tech Talk and we're here in the shop today
with Frankie Galusha the general manager of EMI and our local micro sprint expert
we're gonna talk a little bit about drivetrain maintenance today and some of
the important things we need to remember. Perfect thanks Charles
yeah no I think it's extremely important that this is something we share with
customers and and micro sprint drivers across the nation because the drivetrain
components are obviously critical to getting power to the ground right so.
Anyways once you get your drivetrain components taken apart off the car the
first thing you want to do that's it's probably one of the most important is
check your chain for straightness. What I like to do is dangle it and look down
you know just kind of right above and what I'm looking for is any bent links
or anything that indicates any type of damage to the chain you don't want to
put a damaged chain on your car because it could potentially risk ruining
sprockets it could break. Come off. Yeah it could come off and inflict damage on
other components that are obviously important in that area. Yeah so you're
checking for probably side to side bend and also if like a link isn't free.
Exactly make sure as you go through and you check it you make sure all the links
are free and they are not bound up anywhere but you'll kind of be able to
tell if that's gonna be the case because you'll be able to see when you're
inspecting your chain whether or not one of the links are bent. Alright well we
got it checked this one straight ready good to go now I say we clean it. So with
the chain specifically one of the things I like to do is put it in a small pan
and I'll just fill it up with the with the solvent here from the parts washer
that way while I'm scrubbing it it's soaking well too to help kind of break
some of that grit and grime loose. Now what if you don't have a parts
washer? Brake cleaner just mineral spirits anything that can get a lot of
the grime and grit off of the chain one thing I like to use is wd-40 when I'm at
the racetrack but literally just get in here and scrub the links real well. It's
really important to get that thing good and clean so you always go back and
rinse it off a couple times make sure you get it good and clean. Same thing
with the sprockets we've got a couple sprockets here just go through scrub
them off rinse them well rinse them well with the with the solvent. So once you
get these components clean and your gonna rinse them off with water and then
let them air dry just gonna let them air dry wipe them down? Yeah so typically
what I do is once I get it thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed off with the solvent
I just literally pull it out and and I'll just wipe it off with some towels.
You could always use compressed air once you're done with that but just to make
make sure you wipe it good and clean once you got it scrubbed. Okay so once we
got it clean the next step is to lubricate the chain so so one of my
favorite things to do is just let it soak and oil all week this is this is
one of the first things you should do when you unload your car that way you
get it clean because it's important that this change soaks in oil for a few days
right. So what I like to use is chainsaw bar oil something like that and
literally just fill a pan up you can see over here I've got some other chains
that have been cleaned they're just sitting in oil. It's important that not
only before you put the chain on the car it's well lubricated but even between
races you continue to lubricate your chain because when your chain gets dry
it can get hot when it gets hot it can get weak this is going to help with
performance obviously when everything's free it's working better it's easier for
the engine to pull the chain but also longevity wise you know when it when it
gets overheated multiple times it's more apt to break or fatigue so. Right and
this is something that we're gonna do weekly week in and week out it's not a
once a month thing it's. Correct I literally do this every time I race so
when I get home from a weekend of racing and unload the car into the garage the
first thing I do is take these components apart get them cleaned up get
the chain in the oil. So I've got them clean we've got them in the oil
do you just take them out of the oil put them out on the car do we let them drip
dry a little bit? This could get messy once you pull it out of the oil right so
one of the things that I recommend and then that I do every time I I get ready
to put the chain on the car as I actually I hang it up and let it drip
some of the excess oil off of it so. And it looks like it drips just right back into
the tray that way you're not wasting any. It can make a mess but I try to keep it
quarantined and hang it right over the pan of oil so we're not getting it
everywhere all over our shop floor but maybe let it hang for 30 minutes or so
it'll drip all the extra oil off and then once it's done dripping you can
go ahead and put it on your racecar. Well thank you so much for showing us a
little about drivetrain maintenance today and thank you guys so much for watching.