The night I had to load up and leave for UMI King of the Mountain 3.0, I discovered the real reason for all the smoke. The rear seal on the T56 was leaking really bad on acceleration, and the driveshaft was throwing trans fluid onto the exhaust. I didn't have a new seal, but I loaded up anyway and headed to Pennsylvania. Thinking about the problem on the way, I realized I'd be driving right past Summit Racing in Talmadge OH, and would have no problem getting a new seal on short notice there. I replaced the seal at UMI Motorsports Park, but also discovered another problem. The lower brace connecting my 3-link upper frame mount to the lower mount was starting to buckle. I had made it out of too thin of metal for the stresses I was putting it through, and braking into T5 at Road America from 135mph had pushed the driveshaft too far into the trans, wiping out the seal.
It was too late to fix the brace, so the decision was made just to replace the seal and run it for the weekend and weld in a new brace when I got home.
I finished 14th of 33 in the vintage class at KOTM among some really fast competition, being the fastest A-body there.
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