Ken Leiker MotorSports // Track // 07 SS/SC Donor

KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
AWESOME trip to the birth place of the Goblin today! Thank you Adam and Lonnie for the hospitality and spending all the time showing me around and working with me on my race version...you both are a huge reason I am going with DF Kit Car!

#126 is officially on order!

Ken
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KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Gettin through the donor parts! Tranny out this week to get gone through and subframe off to get powder coated....fun stuff!

Can’t wait to pick chassis 126 (all stages) up first week of April!
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KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Great trip to Summit Racing today in Tallmadge Ohio to get a lot of the race parts on the list..Kirkey seat, fuel cell, Tilton pedal box, some AN hose and fittings, and other odds and ends...can’t wait to pick up Chassis #126 in April and get to work! Spoke to Swap Specialities as well on stand alone engine harness to get that ordered...for those that may be doing a race only Goblin, these guys are awesome!

Going to be a blast and can’t wait for the Red Oak trip in April! Thanks for all you do Adam and Lonnie!

Ken
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Ken, I will be following your build, since it will be several months out before I can purchase my kit. It is great to see that this will be a purpose built track car and should be very interesting to see how it all comes together. Tim
 

KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Ken, I will be following your build, since it will be several months out before I can purchase my kit. It is great to see that this will be a purpose built track car and should be very interesting to see how it all comes together. Tim
Awesome! Look forward to sharing all my lessons learned!
Ken
 

KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Lonny just sent me some pictures from the DF shop on the first mock-up of my F40 sitting in a frame. They are going to build a frame without the transmission mount and sit it in there and see what needs to be done. Looks promising to me and excited to see what they can do!

Thanks Lonny for all your help on this....much appreciated!!

Ken
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KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Well, back tracked a little on my choice of parts, but all good. After talking with Lonny and doing some research, going with LNF Turbo axles for my race build...way beefier than the LSJ axles. ZZ Performance taking the LSF axles I ordered with the F40 kit and will get the LNF Turbo axles. Have a few other things to get (Turbo ball joints, hubs, Knuckles, etc), but very glad this occurred now while I could take a step back with little cost!

Thanks Lonny and Adam for the insight and advice...and for working with me on this custom build! You guys are awesome!

Ken
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Ken, great progress, this should be an extremely durable drivetrain for your car.. As more photos come up, please provide so we can see how things are shaping up. Depending upon how The DF team works this with you, I will most likely be asking for the same F40 transmission mount modification. It is good you have the ability to work this directly with them and are able to share this information with the rest of us heading down the F40 path. It will also be interesting to see how the shifter connections will be made, hoping it is not too different than the standard DF setup already being offered and can use the same push-pull cables.

I do have a question: the black bracket/plate that is at the transmission end of the halfshaft, is that a cover or seal plate or ??? Can a photo or two of this be provided showing this detail? I'm in the process of pulling parts together and need to be sure I have everything before I start wrenching .

Interesting changes being worked with ZZP, are they able to swap out the axles (LSJ for LNF) and not cost you too many $$$? Also can you provide some photos of the new axles and spline count on the transmission side - drive axles and halfshaft? I'm still working on the modification for the LNF axles that can mate up to the F40 - possibly using Regal GS axle ends - while still using the stock TC axles to mate to the SS hubs.
 

KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Definitely hoping the work done on mine benefits others that want to go down this path of the F40. I am beyond stoked for all this to work and see how it performs!

Not sure what the plate is on the end of the Intermediate Shaft. This is all down at DF and I am in Dayton, Ohio, so no way I can snap pics...will upload plenty of the completed work once I pick it all up next month.

ZZP has been awesome to work with....30 day return policy no questions, so they just credit my CC back. So glad I caught this early and can run all the beefier stuff.

Ken
 

KLMOTORSPORTS

Well-Known Member
Update from Adam at DFG on my F40 install....really appreciate their fab work!
================================
Status Report
Sorry it has taken so long for us to give you guys an update. We're really trying to get this right the first time unlike when we rushed out our first parking/spot brake brackets.

Just like with many projects, this project has expanded in scope way more than we had predicted and a lot of hours have gone into it. Here's a rundown of the project so far:
  1. We did a very rough mock up on the floor. The transmission looked like it could fit but was going to be tight.
  2. We took an old chassis, cut off the old trans and engine mounts and welded on a new engine mount.
  3. We pulled that chassis from the jig and attempted to fit the F40 into it. We tried it in the stock location, 1 step forward and then 5/8 lower. It wouldn't fit. We put that chassis back in the jig and welded on the regular driver side mount and that chassis will become a shop Goblin A/T since it looks a little butchered where we cut the old mounts off.
  4. We welded out KLM's chassis the same as any other except for the new lower cage tube and driver side mount. We then made a new lower cage tube with a slight bend right where the transmission would hit. This moved the vertical strut tube out on the bottom so that needed a little work as well. We put heavy tacks on these new tubes to hold them in place for a test fit.
  5. We pulled KLM's chassis from the jig and bolted the engine and subframe to it.
  6. We were able to install our regular solid rear transmission mount but when we went to install the front mount we found that it wouldn't work.
Next Steps
Upcoming steps for just this one chassis include the following (at least this is what we can predict but you never know what you are going to run into):
  1. Modify an old driver side transmission mount upright to match the height of the F40 transmission.
  2. Use the upright and the F40 aluminum mount to design a new top plate.
  3. CNC machine the top plate on the mill.
  4. Test fit the top plate and weld it in if it looks okay.
  5. Figure out where to attach the front mount to the transmission and then design the mount. Our old mount was a simple plate with a tube welded to it. We aren't sure yet what this mount is going to look like for this particular F40.
  6. CNC out the new mount and give it a shot. The way it is going to have to mount there is a chance there will be a couple of revisions.
  7. Design a mount to relocate or eliminate the F40 shifter cable mount. It won't work for us the way it mounts up now because our custom cables mount further from the shifter arms than the Cobalt and Buick cables.
  8. Test fit the shifter to our tunnel cap and try to connect all of the linkages. Looking at it, there is a chance the hardware will have to change. We might also have to change where the bellcranks and cable mounts are on the tunnel cap.
  9. Once we get the shifter to where it can be installed we'll then find out if our current shifter cables will work. This is based off the distance between the bellcranks at the front and the cable mount on the transmission. We think it'll only be a problem if we have to move the bellcranks forward.
Where we see this going
When the F40 conversion looked to be possible with the same Goblin chassis with a different driver side transmission mount it seemed possible to offer it as an option. We would only have added a single item to the order database and to our chassis build sheets that Ray uses to build each chassis. We would have added 1 new driver side transmission mount upright and 1 new transmission mount top plate.

Now it appears that we will have to keep track of the option to go with an F40 and also which F40 is being used so that we know which mount to use up front. It is a small change but our databases and paperwork have to track the new configuration somehow so that the correct chassis and parts are pulled.

We also have to add the two new driver side trans mount pieces along with a new driver side lower cage tube, strut upright tube, upper gusset and front mount (which could be made out of up to 4 pieces). Every new piece comes with some development time and up front cost getting the pieces plasma cut, laser cut, welded, etc. There is also a cost to adding new pieces to our manufacturing lists, packing lists and shelves.

(Also keep in mind that we haven't got to the cable mount, tunnel, shifter and cables yet)

The up front development cost wouldn't be a big deal if we thought every fifth Goblin would ship with the F40 option but we are thinking it will be more like 3 to 4 F40s a year (we think the up front cost of the trans and kit from ZPP + our cost will keep most people away). At that rate we would have to charge over $2,500 just to break even over a two year period.

So what we are thinking is that the F40 kit will be a special order item that ends up being more "hand-made" than our normal products. We're not going to alter the ordering process or database. The special order will just be a note that is manually added. We aren't going to spend time up front making batches of parts and organizing them on the shelves. We'll just make those special pieces as they are ordered.

We will have a final price after completely finishing KLM's mock up but so far the price will be at least $1,600 for the F40 conversion. This does not include the $3,200 transmission and kit from ZZP. If you are piecing the parts together you might be able to save some money but based on the ZZP kit, you will need a new shifter assembly, ZZP's rear trans mount adapter, flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, intermediate shaft with reluctor wheel, speed sensor bracket and axle(s).

Short version of all of that: The F40 conversion will be a special order item at a price of at least $1,600 plus you'll need ZZP's F40 kit for $3,200.
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