Mondo Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Went out for a couple hours in the foothills this morning. With earplugs in it's a sweet ride. The car feels tight, the exhaust sounds good... I usally take out the earplugs a couple miles from home so I can hear if something's loose (habit from the shakedown days). Man, this thing can be a rattle trap. I need to change out the racing heim-joints for some teflon lined ones, lubing only goes so far... I think my fiberglass hood has changed some from the heat and now slightly touches the top of the engine adding some vibration/rattling. There may be something loose in my muffle too. Plus I have some work to do in eliminating openings between my footwell and the engine bay. It was cool out but I basically had the heater on. I guess it's mainly an image thing as I hate driving thru town at slow speed and hearing the rattles echoing off the sound wall or car next to me. Then assuming that the driver next to me thinks I'm driving a bucket of bolts. Well no one to blame but me for not getting out there and taking care of it. All a matter of priorities you know. Don't get me wrong. Like I said at the beginning, it's a blast in the twisties.. with my earplugs firmly in place;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrankin Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I spent a great deal of time this past winter taking the car apart and then putting it back together with some upgrades, but mostly I was chasing rattles. Was really confident it would sound, if not like my BMW, at least less like a rock crusher. Should have just stayed inside drinking. A bit better but still has several annoying sounds that I have no idea of their origin. I'm just telling myself "it's gotta be the best you can get a steel suspension car to sound" and focusing on the hunt for better ear plugs, preferably bluetooth, so I can crank some Led Zepplin at about 105DB. That should about cover it. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locost7018 Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Try a louder exhaust!!!! I put a nice quiet GSXR1000 muffler on mine and boy did that ever bring out the rattles! Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihckb2 Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 oh no, I'm in big trouble once I get my 98dba muffler installed. As it is I got told at the local autocross that I was to load and don't come back till the 7 is quieter. Ear plugs are a must on the highway. I'm sure I have many rattles and squeeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m wirth Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 I took a nice little drive on back roads up to Mt. Hood, and after over 2,000 miles the joints are a little noisey but still tight for track days, only encountered 2 cars in 50 miles of driving on a beautiful day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondo Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 (edited) Glad to hear I'm not alone. Since these are bare minimum cars I shouldn't be surprised at all the little noises. Just got to know the normal rattles/noises from the unusual ones. With the earplugs in (had some molded ones made at the Laguna Seca MotoGP races a couple years ago) the thing is addictive! Edited September 4, 2011 by Mondo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderbrake Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 (edited) Man, this thing can be a rattle trap. I need to change out the racing heim-joints for some teflon lined ones, lubing only goes so far... I think my fiberglass hood has changed some from the heat and now slightly touches the top of the engine adding some vibration/rattling. There may be something loose in my muffle too. I was annoyed at the rattles as well, and looked at a lot of heim joints. In a conversation with QA1, they told me that the teflon lined joints will always pound out and get loose, and that I was better off with steel to steel. I went with a slightly narrower joint than that used on the original build, which allowed me to add washer seals to both sides of the joints, which I had liberally greased. That helped the noise a lot. I must say that while the joints were noisy, there seemed to be little or no slop in them. I guess it doesn't take much to get noisy. I used the QA1 joints PCML8-10, PCMR8-10, PCMR10, and from Speedway motors, Heim Seals 910-01504, 910-01503 "Something loose in the muffler" could be a rattle between the headers and collector fitting which some other ultralite owners reported. Once I heard that could be the source, I stopped listening to it. It supposed to be a nice high 70's here in St.Louis today even though it's cloudy right now, so I'm planning a blat this afternoon. In 2008, I stopped at Mt Rainier and Mt. Hood on a road trip to Seattle in my vette. Edited September 4, 2011 by powderbrake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Heim joints are very noisy, not a pleasant noise either, and it gets much worse with use. Altho they provide a small competitive edge, if not competing, mite be worth finding something less rattly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondo Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 I'm going to try the joints the EvilRomeO used. http://usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?t=3624&highlight=EviLRome0 Will be while... have some other projects taking priority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m wirth Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Jerry, if you come up again give me a call. Here is a link of some pics of right where you took the picture at White River Canyon and another pic of the road in 2006, I do a lot of skiing in that area. http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION1/news/photos.shtml/ mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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