Saturday, November 20, 2010

Bob Updates: Number 1

I'm dating this for when Bob sent the e-mails. He continues to update me about the car. This was the first one:
I thought I would bring you up to date on the electric car. First, the turn signals haven't worked since the car was painted because the painter crossed the wires on both front turn signal lamps. I bought a flasher relay from a Porsche parts distributor and it was not compatible with the 914. I opened it up and modified it and now the turn signals work. I took the speedometer apart and found where the odometer was slipping. I assembled the slipping part with loctite and it is working for now. If this repair doesn't hold, I will do something more extensive. The replacement key-lock assembly is correct, but not for this early car. I bought a steering lock assembly on ebay and put the lock with it and it works OK but will not fit the steering column. Now I have a later model steering column coming from ebay.
I found a switch under the dash with a broken handle. I replaced the switch and now the antenna goes up and down. I'm going to modify the radio so the antenna goes up when the radio is on.
I found the forward shaft of the Warp 9 is tapped 1/4-20 so I'll be able to mount a cam on the end of the shaft. There is a tapped hole 1 1/4 inches from the center to mount an optical pickup. I haven't built any hardware yet but I should be able to make this work. I noticed the kit instructions had you tie the tach wire to a terminal board for this use.
I have improved the engine bay lid somewhat but have not yet finished this. The kit instructions called for parts which I couldn't find in the box.

After I get the tach working, I'll start shopping for lithium batteries. I'll keep you posted.

Bob


Obviously, Bob is doing the things I was incapable of doing without a long learning curve, so I think the car is in good hands.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Under New Ownership...



Well, I feel like I've done what I set out to do and I felt like it was time to sell the car. Bob (above with his wife Mary as we dined at Coco's in Pismo Beach) is the new owner, a fellow alum of the University of Illinois, a retired engineer and general tinkerer. He plans, among other things, to put Lithium batteries in, which should improve performance significantly. Hopefully, he will keep me updated and I can occasionally add posts this site. Thanks to all those who have followed this blog over the past couple of years. I hope you have found it entertaining and helpful. I will probably take up some new crazy project soon and I'll probably have a blog for it. Until then, I will sign out. Best of luck to all of you electric car converters!
Cheers,
Steve