Getting her road ready

I put the seats in and the hoods on today, then filled the tires as best I could with a bicycle tire pump. The electrician set up a dedicated plug with a higher amp threshold for the circuit breaker as a dedicated "fueling" station for the car, so it was charged up and looking sharp. I took her out for another test run, still in the neighborhood, and snuck it up near 40 mph (don't tell my neighbors) without it breaking a sweat. The front end is still bottoming out, even with extra air in the tires and I discovered the reason. I had thought that the Cal Poly guys who did some work on it had put in the new heavy duty front shocks that came with the kit, since I hadn't seen those around, but they were buried behind the hoods leaning against the wall. I'll try next weekend to put those in and I think the car will be highway ready. For now, I might try to take it to the gym a mile from my house tomorrow, but I don't want to overstress it without those shocks.

On the road! (sort of)

I was out of town this week, but Jerry "The Car Doctor" (pictured to the left) was on the car all weekend and when I got back today, he had it off the jack stands. I turned her on and rode her around the block a few times. My initial impressions: The car ran pretty well, comparable to when it had a gas engine, although I was limited to about 30 - 35 mph in my neighborhood which I achieved easily in 3rd gear. I think it will go highway speeds quite easily when I put it to that test. At this point, I need to get both seats in and the two trunks and there are some minor finishing touches Jerry will do after Thanksgiving. The suspension is a little tight and the car bottomed out up front at the bottom of our street where it met the cross street. The front tires are a little flat, so pumping those will probably help with that and I'll see if I need stronger suspension there. It was getting dark and I don't have a camera yet, but hopefully I can get some good film of the ride soon. The other issue involves charging. The charger worked for awhile, but then tripped the garage electric circuit breaker, so I can't recharge it until I can get a 20 amp breaker put in there.

Wheels are Turning!

We had a good-sized rainstorm this week, so I wasn't expecting Jerry to drop by. Imagine my surprise when he was waiting in the garage with a smile on his face. With the car still on jacks, he started it up and ran the wheels forward and backwards. It's only a matter of time before we'll have it on the road, now! A few finishing touches with the electrical system when Jerry is back in town and I'll put the seats and hoods back on and make a run.
Jerry had run into a few problems getting the controller to work and eventually called ElectroAutomotive. He actually spoke with Mike on the phone and Mike talked him through the wiring, so apparently the customer service of EA has improved. If anyone still checks out this blog, I hope to be on the road with the car in the next couple of weeks and will try to film the occasion (I don't have a movie camera at the moment, but this might be just the motivation I need to buy one).

Could it happen?

As anyone who has been following this blog knows, it has been a bit dead in the water for some time now. So it's time for an update. Jerry the "Car Doctor", in a flurry of inspiration has made some serious ground on the car and hopefully it will be running in the next few days! I will keep you posted. He called me over the weekend and said, "Let's get the batteries and finish this." So the batteries arrived today and he loaded them in.
(I know the blog started out with easy instructions for the beginner and I apologize that I haven't had the time or talent to complete the job myself, but below are a few updated pictures).


This is the front with the charger folded up. Jerry plans to run the wire to the front behind a flip-up license plate to attach the charger.


This shows the charger folded down. The charger is very different than the one found in the EA instructions and was easier to install (according to Jerry)




And this is the rear loaded up with batteries. The suspension seems good. It's a little tight in the back with the replacement coils from EA. I can't wait to see how it runs. This blog now reminds me of an old comic strip someone had hanging up at their desk when I worked as a computer programmer. It showed a complicated flow-chart all leading to a step that said "A miracle happens" before getting to the finished program.

The Doctor is in...

The "Car Doctor," that is. Jerry, a local auto mechanic took an interest in my electric car project and offered to put in some time on it. Jerry has worked on electric cars in the past, mostly industrial vehicles, so he has a good knowledge base. He has come here a couple of days and has made more progress than I could have in 10. I had almost sold the car off, but this breathes new life into it. I'll post pics, soon. Obviously, I won't be able to give as much detailed instruction, but I will be happy to field questions to Jerry and will leave a link for him.

New Year: Resolution

No takers on the car and I have a little more time these days (not much), so I'm going to give it another go. I looked things over today and put in a few grommets. There are some parts and tools that I can't find, but I will do as much as I can. It's a little difficult, because I've been away from it so long and I don't have much momentum or continuity, but I'm at least feeling a little motivation. Anyway, Happy New Year to all and hopefully I'll be back on here with posts of my progress. For the record, I'd like to thank the people who e-mailed me and encouraged me to get back in my garage and finish this puppy.

Anyone interested in Finishing this Project?

I am overwhelmed with a new business and don't have the time in the foreseeable future to work on this car. If you are interested in buying the car or if you have some expertise and would like to work on it for a fee, let me know.

Lifeline!

Since I have not had time to work on the car myself and don't anticipate being able to anytime soon, I decided to try and enlist some help. A few engineering students from the local university have agreed to help finish the car. It is nice to have some new blood and enthusiasm for the project. These guys appear to be quite capable, and they work fast. I'll try and post up some pics as they come. I should note to anyone that has the new engine mount for the warp 9 with the dual shaft from ElectroAutomotive, the mount and the transmission adaptor did not line up properly, leaving the mount an eight of a turn from the bottom. It would appear that this problem was fixed on my end by the students noted above, by drilling a couple of extra holes in the mount. I'll notify EA so they can fix future mounts.
Anyway, I'll try to post pics as much as possible, but I will often not be around while these guys are working on it.

Sorry for the slackery...

I can't blame it on ElectroAutomotive. I have been sidetracked the past couple of months. My wife and I just acquired a yoga studio and it has taken up all of my time. I hope to get back at it in a couple of weeks.

Step 15: Attaching the Engine/Flywheel/Clutch to the Transmission

Description: Attaching the clutch disc and pressure plate to the flywheel/engine.

Tools Needed: Wrenches, the two old bolts that connected the gas engine and transmission, starter block-off (from kit), Chain?

Estimated Time: 1 - 3 hours.

Caveats: None.

Purpose of this step: This is the fully connected engine/flywheel/clutch/transmission, similar to what was pulled out of the car. This all goes in in one piece, then will be mounted where the old engine/tranny was mounted under the car (Next Step).


I had the engine/flywheel/clutch assembly on one furniture cart and the tranny on the other. The ridged opening hole in the clutch has to match up in height with the shaft in the transmission and as you can see in the picture, I was off by a couple of inches. Figured that if the engine sat on some 2 by 4's on the cart, it would just about make up the difference. Also take note of the hole on the right side of the transmission where the starter used to be. That will be covered by a "starter blockoff" from the kit, since an electric starter is unnecessary with an electric engine.


This was pretty close (balanced out with some cardboard under the tranny and I tried to slide the clutch spline onto the transmission shaft. I had a lot of problems getting this on. The shaft from the transmission would only go in part way. I spent a long time trying to get this on and finally took a break, at which point my neighbor happened to come by and told me some things about the Island of Malta, that intrigued me and I made a mental note about looking at it for a possible vacation destination in the future. Then I had some lunch. By that time, I was feeling pretty good, so I headed back out to try again. I also sprayed a little WD40 on the transmission shaft. Then I tried to connect the two again and:

Voila!
Either that break reinvigorated my determination or the WD40 did the trick. I'll never know for sure. Anyway,there are 4 bolts for the attachment. The two top bolts are the ones used to hold the gas engine to the tranny and two new ones supplied in the kit. Note also the starter block-off attached and covering the hole where the starter used to sit. There really isn't much else to it. Now, the manual suggests that you first bolt on a chain to use to lift the transmission up onto its connections under the car, then take that off and rebolt. I am going to try to hook it up without doing that. I think that the two furniture carts should help me set everything up. I am still waiting for the mount that was supposedly sent out by ElectroAutomotive, so I'll let you know how it went without the chain once I get the chance to try and hook it up.



After finishing, I headed out to a ranch in beautiful Cayucos (the last of the surf towns 30 miles south of the Big Sur coast), to see Elizabeth Kucinich speak about her husband's run for president, impeachment and other subjects. She is an eloquent speaker (a Brit) and a beautiful woman. I hope her husband is successful with his current proposal in Congress.

Step 14: Attaching the Clutch (clutch disc and pressure plate) to the Flywheel

Description: Attaching the clutch disc and pressure plate to the flywheel/engine.

Tools Needed: Torque Wrench (13mm socket), Clutch pilot tool.

Estimated Time: 30 - 45 minutes.

Caveats: None to mention.

Purpose of this step: The clutch fits on the flywheel, which is already attached to the electric engine in the same way it was set up on the gas motor. This is the last step before hooking the engine/flywheel/clutch to the transmission.



This was actually fairly easy. The clutch pilot tool fits into the hub from the previous step to hold up the clutch disc until you have the pressure plate mounted to the flywheel.




The clutch disc is set with the hub facing out (I believe) as pictured here.







Next you put on the pressure plate. You use the same bolts (hopefully you saved them) to attach the pressure plate to the flywheel with the clutch disc between them. You might need to tighten the bolts a bit to get the pressure plate to pop over the dowels on the flywheel.





The bolts are tightened to 18 foot pounds. You need the flywheel lock on to effectively tighten them.







That's about it. Pull off the flywheel lock and take out the clutch pilot tool.









Next up is attaching the engine/flywheel/clutch assembly to the transmission. In preparation, they recommend taping over the "headbands" so that any particles from drilling will not get inside of the engine. I'll probably do the next step next weekend. Supposedly, my motor mount is going to be sent out next week, so I will hopefully have all of this installed under the car soon.

Step 13: Attaching the Hub and Flywheel

Description: Attaching the hub, bushing and flywheel to the electric engine.

Tools Needed: Allen ratchets, torque wrench, red loctite.

Estimated Time: 2-3 Hours (Once you have the parts).

Caveats: Could not do it as presented in EA manual, so I'll discuss what I had to do.

Purpose of this step: The flywheel attaches to the engine and will interface with the clutch as it did with the gas engine. The Serrated edge was only for the starter, so that is no longer necessary (Some people have had it lathed off to decrease overall flywheel weight and make the engine more efficient. I didn't bother).

As noted, the motor key was a bit too long, so I needed to hacksaw it down so it would be flush on the end of the motor shaft and not hanging over. This was imprecise on my part, but I don't think it needed to be perfect.
The motor key sits in the groove and I need to put the hub and bushing on over the motor key.

First, here is the hub. This baby is one of the reasons that ElectroAutomotive has a bit of a monopoly on the electric car conversion set up. You need a specially designed hub to mimic the old interface between the engine and transmission. It is different for every car and EA has a "library" full of different designs for different cars that Mike designs with a CAD and a digital camera.

This "bushing" fits inside the hub and then both fit around the engine shaft, then the flywheel attaches to that. Note the groove in the hub where the motor key fits.

The next part required me to stray from the EA instructions. They tell you to put the hub and bushing on just tight enough to allow it to slide on the motor shaft and temporarily place on the flywheel so you can set the proper length, then pull the flywheel back off and tighten the hub/bushing fully on the shaft, before putting the flywheel back on. At least in my case, this couldn't be done. The hub fits too snug in the flywheel and if I try to slide out the flywheel, the semiattached hub/bushing come right out with it (WD40 was no help). I thought this was going to be too much of an obstacle, but I believe I found a way around it. I figured out how far into the the hub the flywheel goes, then I added that distance (in my case it was .230 inches) to the 1.790" recommended. I tightened the hub/bushing loosely onto the shaft so that it could still slide and held the flywheel just flush with the hub (not inserted). Then I slid the the hub until the total distance was 1.790 + .230 = 2.020".
At that point, I tightened the hub/bushing all the way (this is an allen wrench procedure on five provided little bolts) so it wouldn't move on the shaft. For the record, tightening the hub pulls it back in from 1.790" to 1.769" according to EA. Then it's time to add the flywheel. But before that, I took the time for a little prayer to the flywheel gods.
As far as I can determine (and I'm willing to be corrected on this), it is good enough.
Of course, make sure when you put the flywheel on that the bolt holes line up with the ones on the hub. In order to get the flywheel all the way in, I had to screw all the flywheel bolts in tight, so I needed to use the flywheel lock. Again, this is different from the instructions, because I couldn't just slide the flywheel all the way in (also, don't forget the little washer plate that fits in the flywheel before you put on the bolts. Once I determined that the measurements were adequate (by my standards), I pulled each bolt out, one at a time, put red loctite on them and screwed them back in, then pulled the next bolt, etc.. The EA manual recommends tightenting the bolts to 80 foot pounds. I can't say that I was exact on that. I screwed them in about as tight as I could without rolling the engine off the crate. I think this is about as precise as an amateur like myself will be able to do this, so I hope it's good enough. Next up is the Clutch.

I posted a picture of my dog Whitman here in the past and my other dog, Finny got a little jealous, so here's Finny enjoying some girl talk:


Finny is a Westhighland White Terrier (Westie). We got him when we were living in Seattle (much to the dismay of his brother). Finny is the quintessential terrier, in that he is a pain in the ass. I love the little guy, though.

A little bit of progress...

After hacksawing the motor key down to size, I was able to attach the flywheel to the electric motor today. I was going to go for the clutch, too, but decided to end the day on a successful note. I'll have pics up when I get the clutch on there.
ElectroAutomotive actually e-mailed me back yesterday, saying that they are sending out a new motor mount adapted to the Warp9 dual shaft engine. They said they were sending it out next week (I wish they said they had already sent it, as a bird in the hand is far better than two in the bush with this project). They also claim that my battery boxes are coming in the next couple of weeks. I haven't gotten batteries yet and will hold off until the boxes arrive.

California's Latest Power Plant: My House!

Our solar panels are now up and running. So far we have generated more electricity than we use, indicated by our digital meter going backwards.* I think that trend will definitely continue, at least until I get the electric car running. For some particulars, we generated 19 Kilowatt Hours yesterday, with a peak of 2,906 watts. It's starts up with a few hundred watts at about 8 AM and by 10:30 or 11:00 it is over 2,000. It peaks at about 2 in the afternoon and starts to decline from there. It should do even better in the summer with the longer days.
Interestingly, the wildfires in California put a haze over us here on the Central Coast today, even though we are 200 miles away. You could actually smell smoke.
Because of that, we generated a smaller maximum of 2,457 watts today (Compared to the previously noted 2,906 from yesterday). So assuming that yesterday was a clear day, I can create my own haze index for the amount of sun blockage: 2,457/2,906 = .845, so that's about a 85% of what we maxed on a clear day. That's a 15% loss in efficiency, which is quite significant and that's 200 miles away from the source of the fire. It gives you an idea of how smog must effect L.A.
Anyway this is like a new toy for me and I'll update with more factoids as they come. Hopefully, that will be the worst of the fires, but I'm not optimistic, as it is still warm and dry and the Santa Ana winds are expected for the next few days.
I wish I had a better car update. I hack-sawed my motor key to the proper length and I will try to attach the clutch and transmission to the motor this weekend. I'm stuck after that until I can get a motor mount from EA, who are again not returning my e-mails.
*For the record, California doesn't reimburse you if you make more energy than you use anymore, so consider it a donation to the grid...

Solar Panels Up!

We have the solar panels installed! They still need to hook it up to the electric and it has to be approved by the power company before we can use it, but that should happen quite soon. I had a neighbor hinting that he was concerned about the possibility of "glare" from the panels. I figured this was just one of those concerns people bring up that turn into a big nothing and I think my assessment is correct, as I noticed no glare in the afternoon sun from the street above ours. They look quite nice, in my opinion, and when they are running I'll have more details about energy production, cost, etc.

Still Waiting...

I just ran into an old friend, Mark, who said that there was a talk in town today about electric vehicle conversions, which I missed. Turns out it was Mike and Shari from Electro Automotive. I'm happy to see that they are spreading the good word about electric cars, but it might be nice if they could focus on the orders that are already in rather than looking for more business. Uh-oh, I'm getting grumpy... On a lighter note, I took a weeklong sailing course with a friend of mine down in Santa Barabara last week and I'll post pics when I get them developed (I forgot my digital camera). Our solar panels should be up early next week and I'll have some pics of that, too. Now if I could only make some progress on my electric car, I'd be in business (grumpy again).

Step 12: Attaching Heavy-Duty Rear Shocks

Description: Replacing the old shock and strut springs with a heavy-duty variety.

Tools Needed: Strut Spring Compressor (If you're game - see caveat), Wratchet and torque wrenches. Two 10 inch plus adjustable wrenches. Rubber spacers (or homemade varieties). New heavy duty strut springs and shocks.

Estimated Time: 3 hours.

Caveats: Electro Automotive warns against doing the struts yourself, instructing you to bring them to someone with the right tools - skip past this part if you take their advice. I did it myself, so I'll go through how I did it, but accept no liability either. Also, make sure you jack the control arm up before removing the shock, as it is the only thing holding the control arm up.

Purpose of this step: Since the addition of the 20 lead acid batteries will add well over 1,000 pounds to the car, heavy duty shocks are needed to handle that extra weight. The same is true for the front shocks, which I will add later.

This is probably a good time to do this step, although the manual has it later on. It allows you more breathing room under the car. Here is a picture of the old shocks and strut springs still in the car:

The whole shock and strut unit can be removed in one piece. The first thing to do is jack up the car and remove the tire.
The reason for this is to give you access to the nut holding the spring in. You can then turn that nut while holding the bolt head on the other side. You need two good size adjustble wrenches (or the right size regular ones if you got 'em).
You can unscrew and remove the nut and washer, but do not remove the bolt UNTIL YOU'VE JACKED UP THE CONTROL ARM. Otherwise the control arm will just drop when the shock is not attached. I would also stray slightly from the instructions here and suggest loosening top bolt before removing the lower bolt if you are doing this by yourself, as you will need to remove the shock from below. The top screw is under the rubber bumper in the rear trunk:

Once you have the top screw and the bottom bolt out, you have the whole strut and shock in one piece.

You will then need some nuts, washers and rubber bushings from it for your new shocks, along with the top and bottom spring retainer. Here is where it gets a little tricky. You can't just remove them from the old shock, because the compressed strut spring would fly off, potentially causing serious harm to person or property. You can take it to an auto shop and let them pull off the parts needed and attach them to your new strut and shock and skip the next part, but I decided to give it a go.

I got a strut spring compressor from AutoZone. They sell for 40 bucks, but you can take one out for free with a deposit. I believe a coil spring compressor would also work.

This will compress the spring so you can safely remove the spring retainer and other needed parts (you need to compress both sides or the spring will bow). After removing the spring, you can loosen the compressor to remove it from the extended spring. I should note that the spring actually extended farther than the compressor, slightly, but I was able to remove it with a slight bit of manual compression on the spring.

Here you can see the difference between the old (black) strut spring and the new (cool blue) strut spring, which is shorter and has thicker coils.


They can be added to the new heavy duty shocks with the same compression technique and the screws and retainers from the old shocks. Because the shock is shorter, it didn't need much compression. (If I did it right) It should look something like this:

One problem is that the bottom two sides of the shock would seem to require rubber spacers before attaching them to the control arm. They were not supplied with the shocks, presumably because they assume you would use the ones from the old shocks, but those aren't compatible.

I ended up trolling the local auto parts stores. There is no standard rubber spacer. At Napa I found something I figured I could fashion into a spacer by cutting off the ends and carving it a bit to fit.



Here's what I came up with in the end. I think it works alright. I guess sometimes you have to improvise.
Finally, I put in the new strut, screwing the bottom bolt and nut and then the top nut (they give you a new top nut for some reason). Here it is in the car:

It is the same procedure on the other side. I should note that these are not adjusted with the precision needed. Once I get the car running, I will need to go to the shop and have them balance them precisely, although I should at least be able to drive on them to get to the shop.

Step 11: Mounting Spacer and Adaptor

Description: Attaching The spacer and the adaptor plate to the electric motor.

Tools Needed: Allen ratchets, torque wrench, red loctite.

Estimated Time: Open

Caveats: Got a rear shaft?

Purpose of this step: The electric engine needs to be attached to the engine in much the same way the old motor was. It sits in front of the transmission, on the old motor mount and the adaptor allows you to to attach it to the transmission. The spacer gives you the correct distance (the electric engine is a bit shorter in length) so that the transmission still sits in the same place it did before.

Above is the front of the engine and the spacer. The crate that the engine came in is different than the one for the ADC, so you have to use your imagination a bit when deciding how to move the engine around on the crate to work on it. You basically need to turn it upside down when doing this (which I assume will have a reason later). You then attach the spacer.

It fit snugly on the engine with some gentle tapping from my rubber mallet. You can then screw it in using the allen cap screws provided with the kit. Before you put them on, though, you put a little red loctite on them.
This is some kind of goop that keeps the screws in there tight. There is also a blue loctite (don't be fooled by the blue bottle - this is red), which is not as strong. I don't know when you'd use the blue.

The bolts are put in using a torque wrench to prevent overtightening. This is my first time using one and it was fun. I got one that you set in advance, so you can feel it slip when you get to the desired torque (in this case 35 ft. lbs.).

The next thing they ask you to do is put the motor key in the slot on the shaft.

This is a bit of a problem. The slot or groove on the shaft is curved in the back. I assume the ADC groove was a straight cut, so the motor key, which is a little piece of rectangular metal that comes with the kit, doesn't go all the way back into the curved groove and juts out a bit. I discovered later that this is a problem when attaching the hub, which needs to be flush on the shaft. I have e-mailed Electro Automotive about it (I'm not holding my breath for a reply). I'm considering just sawing off the excess, but if they have a better remedy, I'll wait.
*Note: I address the motor key issue in Step 13, when I attach the hub and flywheel.





Now it's time for the the adaptor plate to be attached. The EA instructions say to mount this with the "flat edges of the plate should be on bottom and to the left when viewed from the drive end of the motor." This tested all of my spatial coordination and I found myself still lacking. Eventually, I held the adaptor to the transmission and I think I was able to establish witch way it should fit on the engine by matching the adaptor plate to the transmission. This is attached using some flathead bolts and red loctite, with the same 35 lb torque.

I hope this is correct, but I suppose I'll find out eventually.

***This is where I was originally held up. I was going to have the flywheel and clutch attachment as part of this step, but you can see that at step 13 and 14. While waiting, I did the rear suspension in step 12, but you can hold off on that until after steps 13 and 14 if you want.

Bon Voyage: Engine Going to Wyoming

I was finally able to get that engine out of my overburdened garage. My friend Charlie's self-proclaimed "redneck" brother-in-law was in town visiting from Wyoming and has been coveting the old engine since he heard about my project (I am kicking myself for not getting his picture). He plans to use it in a dune buggy and intends to keep it as a fuel injection dune buggy. I wish him well! He has promised to send a pic when he has it going. I picked his redneck brain, which seems to have that genetic understanding of all things car, for some tips on my upcoming attempt to change the suspension and a few other things. He, Charlie and I were able to lift the engine and put it in the pickup truck cab without too much trouble.
I was also able to do some of the wiring I had on hold, as Electro Automotive has come out of hibernation and sent me a part that I was shorted. I'll try and get that step up this week. There is a bit of a gap where I couldn't understand the instructions, but most of the step, which involved some spaghetti wiring (a type of spaghetti for which this Italian is not fond) is thankfully over. I should be getting to the suspension next weekend, while I wait for the new engine mount.

Ground Control: We Have Contact

Electro Automotive has finally gotten back to me. They say that they were thrown a curve by the Warp9 rear shaft engine (the original Warp9 didn't have it and was supposed to have the same mounting holes as the ADC they used in the past). They are now working on modifying the engine mount to fit the rear shaft Warp9 and it will probably be a few weeks (I'm guessing that's optimistic). I think I will go a little out of order on the manual and start working on the suspension. The car needs a heavy duty suspension upgrade, which is part of the kit. This is because of the extra 1,000+ lbs. of weight added to the car from the lead acid batteries.
Also, someone is coming by for the old combustion engine this weekend, which will free up a little space in my garage.

Earth to Electro Automotive

Another Porsche 914 EV'er, Ted, e-mailed me and I'm thinking I might be able to work around the shaft issue and maybe even make some use of the rear shaft. I would feel a little more confident about it if I could get in touch with Electro Automotive and discuss the problem, but it has been well over a week and they have not responded to my e-mails. This project could be done in a few weeks if it weren't for these delays that require me to contact the ever-elusive Electro Automotive.

Arrrggghh...

I have been working on some of the mounts for the electric engine, but I've run into a problem. My engine has a shaft on both sides. Here is a picture of the unneeded rear shaft:



I should have noticed that this is different than the picture, but the manual is for the ADC model rather than the Warp 9 that Electro Automotive currently uses in the kit and I figured I would work around it. As I write this, it occurs to me that the rear shaft might be separate from the front shaft and perhaps is removeable. I'd go open it up and take a look except for the ominous warning in the EA instructions not to undo any bolts from the engine or you'll damage the coil. So I've written EA and the Warp 9 people and will wait for a response before going any further. The engine is quite heavy and would be tricky to reship if I have an incompatible engine. As it stands, I can't put the engine mount on because the rear shaft is in the way. One possible advantage of the rear shaft is the addition of a tachometer, but that is certainly outweighed by the possibility that it won't fit under the car with the tranny attached.

Step 10: Clutch and Flywheel Removal

Description: Removing the clutch assembly (Pressure plate and clutch disc) and Flywheel from the combustion engine.

Tools Needed: Socket wrench and 13mm, 17mm sockets, flywheel lock.

Estimated Time: 1 - 2 Hours

Caveats: May require some torque. Careful when removing pressure plate that clutch disc is also secure before you pull it off.

Purpose of these parts: Okay, I needed the flywheel after all. One of its functions is to work with the starter (that's where the serrated edge comes in). That function I don't think I'll need, but the other more important function is as a rotating connection to the engine. The clutch disc (via the pressure plate) is pushed flat against this to engage the transmission to the engine, causing the transmission to spin and the transmission, in turn spins the axles.


This is the clutch assembly sitting in the engine. We can see the outer half, which is the pressure plate. That needs to be removed along with the clutch disc as one piece. The Flywheel is behind that (you can see its serrated edge)and will be removed after we get out the clutch.
The Hayne's Manual says to make a magic marker line from the pressure plate to the outer shell of the flywheel for alignment when you put it back together. You can just make it out in the picture (incidentally, removing the transmission, clutch and flywheel are not in the ElectroAutomotive manual). In the left of the picture you can see one of the bolts, I think there were six, that need to be removed. they tell you to loosen each one a little bit at a time so as not to distort the pressure plate. I don't really see why it would matter, but I did it that way. The bolts were a bit tough, but came off with some elbow grease. Again, when pulling off the pressure plate, be careful to get hold of the clutch disc which is no longer connected by the bolts to the pressure plate.

Here's a look at the pressure plate. I think it looks pretty good. If anyone knows differently, let me know. I think it's a keeper.






And look at this clutch disc. A little airbrushing and it could be a model for the Pelican Parts catalog, I think. It's just beautiful to look at in the afternoon light. Sorry, I'm getting a bit carried away...






Next up is the flywheel, which is held in place by 5 very angry bolts. I could not budge these bolts. To make things worse, anytime I tried turn a bolt, the flywheel would turn, killing my torque. I tried a number of different things to keep the flywheel from moving (screwdriver, plastic vice, my hand, etc.). I figured they must have been put on by a machine. Then I got the idea to use my drill to turn it. I figured there must be a bit that will take a socket and got one at the local hardware store. That didn't work, either. My drill smoked up, but not the slightest turn. I was about to give up, when I remembered that my kit came with a "flywheel lock".



I had seen it sitting around in the box and had no idea what it was until that moment. I was able to fit that on one of the two bolts just below the flywheel (perhaps that is their purpose?).




I then got one of my jack handles and put my socket wrench in it to give me some more serious torque. I finally had a stationary flywheel and some serious torque. The bolts all gave easily at that point.




The flywheel also looks fine to me, so unless someone can say otherwise, I'll stick with the same pressure plate, clutch disc and flywheel.

Step 9: Removing the Transmission from the Engine

Description: When the engine is dropped, the transmission is still attached. The transmission will be removed and later attached to the electric engine (along with the clutch).

Tools Needed: Various wrenches and ratchet wrenches (metric). Also some sort of support will be needed to put the transmission on. I got another furniture cart for 20 dollars at Home Despot.

Estimated Time: 1 hour

Caveats: None

I spent a lot of time worrying about this, and it turned out to be a very simple procedure.


Here is the transmission and engine mounted. The top left black cylinder sticking out of the transmission is the starter motor. It took me awhile to figure that out. It appears to hook up with the flywheel to spin the gas engine to get it going. Presumably, I won't need it for the electric engine, so will give it to whoever takes my old combustion engine. There was also a little plug leading leading down to the side of the transmission (not pictured) that I believe is used for the reverse light indicator. I'm not sure if I'll need that or not.
Removing the starter was a simple matter of unscrewing a couple of nuts and bolts.
Next, the exhaust has to be removed in the back, as it impinges on pulling the transmission from the engine.

First the rear part of the exhaust can be unscrewed (3 nut/bolt combos on each side) and removed. This almost clears the way, but we still have the transmission mount to the exhaust.









This is just two bolts on the tranny and two (already removed) from the exhaust. Once you have that out, you are clear to detach and remove the transmission.

This involves removing two bolts from up top (one was already part of the motor starter mounting) and two nuts from below. the one pictured is a little tricky as there isn't much access, but I finally managed to get it out of there. The transmission can then be detached from the motor. It is heavier in the back, but one person can move it. As mentioned, I moved it onto another furniture cart to make it easier to move around the garage as needed.

Here is the detached transmission. I will also drain the transmission fluid, which I haven't done yet and put in some new stuff (It requires a whopping 17 mm hex wrench, which is available at most auto parts stores).

The clutch casing is still attached to the engine. So far, I think it looks okay, but the next step is to pull it off and take a look at the whole thing. Before I started this project, I didn't really know that a clutch and transmission were two different things, so I am certainly learning!

Lastly, a lot of bloggers put up pictures of their pets, so I'll leave you with a picture of one of my dogs, Whitman. I got him shortly after I met my wife ten years ago. We picked him up at the pound in San Francisco. He was a stray found in Golden Gate Park, presumably a cocker spaniel mix. He definitely cemented our relationship and I sometimes wonder if he was the real reason my wife married me.

Step 8: Installing the Compartment Wiring (Incomplete)

*This step is still in progress until I get a part from EA, but I want to get it up now so it is in the proper order. I'll add the rest when I get the part.

Description: Attaching various electrical relays (Main Contactor, Potbox relay, battery negative terminal block, guage/fan terminal block, and interface terminal block) and spaghetti wiring utilizing some of the old wiring for the car.

Tools Needed: Drill, rivnut tool, rivnuts, screws provided...

Estimated Time: Pending

Caveats: Make sure you have all the parts. The holes for rivnuts need to be drilled bigger than 1/2" as described in the manual.


Purpose of this: This is a somewhat tedious procedure, with smaller parts and a lot of wiring. The basic idea is to have a relay station and electrical cutoff for ease and safety. It is mounted to the left side of the engine compartment. It will hook up a lot of new stuff, like fans and guages and will also make use of the original wiring of the car. In truth, I'm not all that sure what some of this stuff does, but I'll update as I figure it out.

Here is the workspace. The two metal supports in the picture used to hold up the fuel injection "computer". I tried to remove them, but I broke a needle nose plier and screwdriver and gave up, deciding to work around them. If necessary, I'll take them off later, but I'm hoping not. The colored wires are original and will be hooked up to this stuff. The brown wires attached to the screw I believe are the ground wires.

The first step is to install the Negative battery terminal. This is done using rivnuts and just screws in (I suppose this is obvious, but the negative terminal is the black one - I must admit I put the red one on first by mistake). I don't know whether this will hook up to the standard 12 volt battery or will be for the the other batteries or what.

Next the Main Contactor is mounted (although it might have to be removed to add the other stuff). They describe this is a safety cutoff for the electric engine, so what else it does, if anything, I don't know.










This is mounted with two rivnuts as shown here and the included mounting hardware screws into those. The taped wire in the background was getting in the way, so I taped it against the wall. I don't know what it is for, but it goes to the back trunk, so may be to open the trunk.
Anyway, here is the main contactor mounted. It is slightly off of where they mounted it in the manual due to the previous mentioned metal supports getting in the way, but I think it will be alright as is.


Next up is the guage/fan terminal block. Thi will presumably be a relay station for wiring of some of the guages and fans. It is mounted above the main contactor.
This is the mounted terminal block. The missing part is the other terminal block, but I use it twice to set up the mounting on the right for the other terminal block (the interface terminal block). It is probably a 3 dollar part and I hope it gets here soon (EA is in their usual casual delivery mode).









Next is the potbox relay. I'm not sure how this interacts with the potbox, but I believe it allows a cut off of the potbox if the acceleration needs emergency stopping. I'll update if that turns out to be wrong.

That's it for this step until I get the other part and begin the spaghetti wiring.


I'm back....

The second terminal block arrived in the mail and I begin the spaghetti wiring:

The next step is to remove the multi-plug that used to hook up to the relay board. You are then left with these connectors, which then are clipped off and stripped to add standard connectors.




These are crimped on with a crimp tool (you can't use the big crimp for the larger guage wiring). No glue necessary, but it takes a little practice to figure out where to crimp. These are then attached to the interface terminal block as seen here. Only some of the wires are used from the original loom. They include things like the oil pressure light, so I assume they will have new purposes when all this is done.


I should point out that I skipped a few steps right here involving some of the wiring that I am just not able to understand in the EA instructions. I am hoping that they will make more sense when I do the second part of the wiring later.

You then hook a few more wires to the main contact and potbox relay, before moving on to the new loom provided in the kit.

This loom is inserted into a piece of "flexguard, which is kind of an eerie material. I found that the recommended 54 (or 51) inches is too long for the loom, but I leave it attached for now. this first hooks up to the controller, then the potbox, then to the terminal blocks where you've been doing the rest of the work. I am still not sure which terminal on the controller is the key switch input terminal (I'm assuming the front of the three) and the two potbox input terminals, since they are not marked. I also don't know whether it matters whether you have the black or white potbox wire connected to a specific terminal (I guess I'll find out).


Anyway, this is where I'm at with the wiring to date.

Goin' Solar

Well, we put down a deposit for a solar panel system for our house! We probably won't have it installed until later this year, but we wanted to lock in on the current California rebate amount. Solar is not particularly cheap, but it is working its way to cost effectiveness. Here is a view of our house from above:
The panels will be installed on the upper flat roof (the one above the 4 little windows). For aesthetic reasons, I told him I won't put up with more than a 10 degree tilt of the panels, which will lose a little efficiency, but so be it. We also have a Homeowner's Association in the neighborhood and I don't want to piss them off. However, the rep informs me that there is nothing they can do about it if someone puts up solar panels and they would actually be fined if they tried to stop us (that kind of appeals to me, ha ha). The panels would only cover about half the top roof, so there is room for more if we decide to add on later(*Update: They will actually cover most of the top roof, although I can still add more on the other roofs in the future). I should note that the system works with the regular power grid, feeding any extra power generated back to the grid, but your power bill only reflects the amount you use over the total amount you generate. They give you a wireless monitor that tells you how much electricity you are using at a particular time and how much the system is generating. If a cloud passes over head, you will even see a drop in the amount generated.
If you live out in the sticks and want to do a solar system off the grid, you would use battery generators rather than hooking up to the grid and the power created during the day and put into the batteries would be drawn out at night. That is a less efficient way to do it, so most people opt to tie in with the grid if they can.
There are still a lot of decisions to be made as to the size of the system. My wife and I aren't really big electricity users - there is just the two of us, we don't watch television except for the occasional DVD rental and we also have gas for heat and cooking top. Also, we live near the California Coast and we don't really need air conditioning. However, fingers crossed, we will soon have an electric car, which will probably double our electricity usage.
The company we used is called Rec Solar. They put together two separate options based on our estimated energy use. One would cover about two thirds of our electrical use and the other would probably cover all of it (it's difficult to say for sure, since I don't know how much electricity the car will use, but this is a reasonable approximation). Rec Solar, I think, likes to push for the two thirds option. The reason for this has to do with the way the electric company bills you for electricity (at least in California). The unit price for the electricity you use goes up in gradations. The first $40 or so you get a lot of electricity for your money, but then the unit price continues to go up as you use more. So their strategy is to provide enough panels to cover all but the low cost electricity. This would be the most cost effective way to do it. In their lower cost proposal (using the term "lower cost" in relative terms), we would have 16 solar panels, creating 3,000 Watts of DC power, which will be converted to 2,500 AC watts for household use. We would get a rebate from California of about $6,000, giving us an upfront cost of $17,000 dollars. Then we would get another $2,000 tax credit from the feds, making the actual cost of the system around $15,000. That's certainly not cheap, but would probably pay for itself in 10 years or so. If such systems were built into mortgages, people might even save money while using only as much electricity as they generate, but that is an issue for another day...
As I mentioned, the second more expensive proposal would likely cover all of our electricity use, but would not be as cost effective. I have to admit, though, that the idea of generating as much electricity as I use appeals to me. That would involve 22 solar panels with 4,200 DC Watts or 3,500 AC watts and would provide an $8,500 rebate from California with the same $2,000 tax credit from the feds, making it a $20,500 total. I am leaning towards this option if I can make it work. I would very much like to say that my house and car electricity use is entirely met by our solar panel output. Anyway, I don't have to decide for a few months, so I'll keep you posted.
By the way, if you end up making more electricity than you use, the power company does not send you a check at the end of the year (they used to). I have heard some people say that they have a "Power Party" at the end of the year and try to use up the difference. If I generate enough to run my car and house and still have some left over, I would probably get a little hot tub.

Minor Delay...

I am putting in a few electrical parts and was shorted a part, so I will finish that step when I get the new part from ElectroAutomotive (or run off to Radio Shack if it takes too long). I was dreading this step, because there are a lot of little wires to hook up and other tedious tasks, but it is going okay, so far. I notice that the next step is to hook up the electric engine to the transmission. Wow, I wasn't expecting to be doing that for awhile. As soon as I get that done, I'll order the batteries, as it will free up some space in my garage.
I have a solar guy coming by this week to give me an estimate on putting up solar panels. I'm not sure that we can afford it at the moment, but this will give us an idea of the price, the number of panels and where they would be placed. I'll put up a post with all the details when the estimate comes in.

Oops - Forgot a step

Someone e-mailed me recently and mentioned removing the battery tray. I realized that I had forgotten to pull that out of there. I have added a step and fudged on when I did it (today), renumbering a couple of steps to put it in more logical place. You can go to that step (now step 5) here:

Step 7: Installing the Potbox

Description: Mounting the potbox onto a mounting plate on the front of the engine compartment (Driver's Side).
Estimated Time: 2 hours.
Tools needed: drill, Rivnut tool, various wrenches, flat-head screwdriver.
Caveats: Your vehicle, like mine, may vary from that pictured in the instructions.
Purpose of This Part: The purpose of the potbox is to work as the go-between for the gas (accelerator) pedal and the controller. As noted in the controller installation, the controller controls the electrical amperage that is sent to the engine. The potbox signals how much more or less amperage the controller should put out. When you push on the gas pedal, it will pull the accelerator cable as it always did, but instead of telling the gas engine how much gas to burn for increased acceleration, it will pull on the potbox lever, causing the potbox to signal electrically to the controller how far the pedal is being pushed. The controller increases or decreases the amperage based on whether you push or let up on the pedal. In other words, when you step on the gas pedal, the car goes faster (just as always).

Stuff Needed:




When I looked over the work space, I knew there would be a bit of a problem, this time. This is simply not the same configuration as that shown in the instruction manual picture. There is less room and the ridge used as an edge for the template is in a different location, so the template could not be used.



Here is their picture. The black object (I think that's the brake cylinder) is much higher and closer to the center. This forced me to make a couple of modifications. First, since it is sitting lower, the drilled holes (top and bottom) don't go through to the passenger compartment and I needed to use rivnuts for all four mounts.


Secondly, I needed to drill two new holes in the mount in order to to get it to line up in a place where I could put rivnuts (due to the donut hole indentation on the sheet metal, right where the pre-drilled holes on the left would be placed for bolting).
I don't know whether this will be a problem, but I did get it mounted with the modifications mentioned. I might use a few different sized screws and remount it, but here is how it it mounted to date:

For comparison, here is the installed potbox in the manual.

You can see that it sits much higher. I notice, by the way, that they had a couple of unused holes drilled right where I did mine, so obviously, they had it set up in the past for that modification and lost that plotline at some point.

Step 6: Installing the Controller

Description: Mounting the Controller and shunt to mounting plate on the front of the engine compartment.
Estimated Time: 5 - 6 hours.
Tools needed: drill, hex wrench, hammer, Rivnut tool, various wrenches, wire cutter, wire stripper, heat gun, crimper, anti-corrosion compound, heatsink compound.
Caveats: Patience required.
Purpose of This Part: The controller controls how much electricity is put into the motor at any one time. The shunt measures this electrical output and will connect to a guage in the car so that you can always tell how much electrical amperage is being put out by the controller. This will, among other things, tell you when to switch gears if you have reached max output from the controller (presumably used in the same way a tachometer is used in a combustion engine).

It was nice to really get started on the installation. This part took a long time for a few reasons, but mostly because there was a bit of a learning curve for several things. I am sure I could do it again in less than half the time.
From this point forward, I am using the ElectroAutomotive instruction manual for the conversion and I won't just rehash that on here. I'll just stick to the highlights and anything I think needs more explanation.
My initial impression of the manual is that it is generally quite good and detailed. It could use a little elaboration in places, though. For example, they have you bolt the controller onto the mount, then they tell you to take it off, again. They could explain that you are just doing it temporarily to set the correct orientation for a particular wire. Anyway, if you just plod through the instructions, things make more sense while you are doing them, even if they seemed a bit confusing when I read them over beforehand.

Here is the place where the controller is installed. It is the front of the engine compartment, directly behind the passenger seat of the car. A mount is set out from the wall so that the controller can fit snugly. Note the little piece of metal ribbon right in the middle, there. I ended up chiseling that off.
ElectroAutomotive provides templates to tell you where to drill the holes for the controller mount. They suggest you use a center punch, but I just marked through it with a magic marker. I made back-up copies of these templates in case I screwed up. Once you have the holes marked, you drill through to the passenger side, using progressively larger drill bits.
This requires safety goggles, which I didn't have, so I ended up using my swim goggles. Okay, that's kind of dorky and they fogged up a lot, but they did provide a nice blue tint to the work environment.



The bottom drilled holes are not accessible from the passenger side, so you need to set in rivnuts to screw into the blind holes. What are rivnuts, you might ask? A rivnut has a small thread with a bit of soft metal above that. When you use a rivnut tool on it, it causes that soft metal to collapse on the other side of the sheet metal, preventing it from being pulled back out, while still keeping the screw threads. It basically allows you to screw something right into sheet metal or other spaces where you don't have access to the other side to put in a nut and washer.
Here is a pre and post rivnutted rivnut (post is on the right). These rivnuts are for one of the mounting standoffs, which is used to set the mount out to where the controller can be attached. Here it is attached to the wall, with the two rivnuts in the outer arm. The instruction manual doesn't make this clear, but you will need to drill the outer standoff holes bigger to fit the required rivnut.




You then install the left standoff using a similar method and eventually the mounting plate that the controller will be mounted on. This is a little out of order, because you first need to set up the wire that will run from the controller to the shunt. For that, you need to cut of piece of wire, strip the end, put on a lug filled with anticorrosion goop and crimp it to the wire. Then you use a heat gun and cover up the lug/wire attachment with some heat shrink tubing. Here is a photo collage of that procedure:








































































































Finally, you put the controller on the controller mount (First you add some heatsink zinc to the back to protect it).













This is the completed project. The slanted piece above the controller is the shunt. The wire connects the top left negative terminal to the shunt. One thing I should point out is that the instructions just say to screw the mounting bolts in and they do screw in tight, but I added some locking nuts to the bottom bolts to make sure the bolt mounts are kept in place (I'd do the same for top, but they aren't very accessible). Also, the "high performance" 1231C controller (which I am using), has 5 bolt mounts rather than 4.


I even had time to do a little fishing. Here is the catch of the day. I finally got that fuel pump and filter out of there!

Puttin' Stuff In

I finally got the nuts and bolts I need to start putting electric vehicle parts into the car. I had run out of stuff to take out a long time ago (although I found the hiding place for that fuel pump today and will remove the little rascal shortly). I started putting in the controller today and I'm about halfway through. I should have that first task completed with pics sometime later this week. I'm not 100% sure what a controller does, but I will try to discuss the function of each thing I install to the best of my understanding.

Step 5: Removing the Battery Tray and Tray Stand

Description: Removing the battery tray and tray stand where the old 12 volt battery used to sit. There will still be one regular car battery (in addition to the 20 golf cart batteries to be installed), but it will be in a different place.
Tools Needed: Hammer and Screwdriver or chisel.
Estimated time: 5 to 10 minutes.
Caveats: See note below.

Note: I actually did this after putting on the controller and potbox, but it would be better to do it before, so you don't have to worry about getting your controller all dusty, so I let's pretend I did it here. This is at the point where you jack up the car and get it ready for installing parts. This makes it easier to get at the tray from inside the engine compartment.

Not much to this step. The tray is riveted in and you can just pount your screwdriver in to pull it from the engine compartment. I pulled off the tray first, then the stand. Quite easy. Here's some pics:


This is the battery tray. Like with most old Porsche 914's, this is the rustiest thing in the car.








I removed the tray first. Good riddance to that rust trap!








This gives good access to the tray stand for removal.











Here it is without the tray or tray stand. This needs to be done to make room for the battery containers.

Dashboard Repair

Like most old cars, the dash on my '71 Porsche 914 is quite cracked and faded. When I bought it, there was a "dash topper" on the dash, which is basically a synthetic looking cloth material that was velcro-ed on to cover up the cracks and didn't look much better than the old dashboard.
I bought a dash/vinyl repair kit for it and tried to cover up the cracks. They give you a miniature iron and some sort of goop to apply. Maybe this requires a skill that I don't possess, but it ended up looking worse after the "repair."
I thought about buying a new dash, but I don't know if they are even for sale. I looked for old dashboards on ebay and found a few, but they are old and usually have a crack or two of their own and they are bit expensive anyway. Then I found a company that makes dash shells for Porsche 914's (and probably a lot of other cars) and decided to try that.
Basically, it's a thin plastic/vinyl shell that fits over your regular dashboard. I tested it out and after some initial wiggling, it fit like a glove, so I put the included glue on the back of it (goes around the outer edge, about a half inch in from the edge) and fit it back on the dash.

You need to put something on it to hold the glue in place until it dries. I used some 4 X 4's and duct tape. The instructions recommended bungy cords, but I didn't have any.
Anyway, I think it looks alright. Here is the finished product.



Not quite perfect, but a big improvement, I'd say. The purists might scoff, but I'm turning the car into an electric vehicle, so I'm not a purist.

Step 4: Removing the Seats and Backing

Description: Removing the two seats and the vinyl backing and center cushion behind the seats.
Estimated Time: 30 minutes
Tools needed: One phillips head screwdriver
Caveats: None to mention

Okay, this was an easy one. No tool is even needed to to remove the seats. They come right off the rails. I started with the passenger seat. Just pull up on the loop that adjusts the seat forward and back. At first I couldn't get the seat all the way off. There is one little trick for which I consulted the 914 Club website. The Seat has a release for the rail nearest the door. If you pull the seat almost as far forward as you can (leaving maybe a half inch), you can feel the rail release on the seat preventing it from coming all the way off the front. Just reach in from the front and depress that rail release and the seat will come off.





This is a close-up of the rail release.








Here is the full bottom of the seat. Note the loop to adjust the seat on the front of one track and the rail release on the other track. The same technique can be used for the driver's side seat. In my case, it was a little sticky and I ended up using a pick ax handle as a lever to help me push it forward. I will take the advice on the 914 Club site and grease the rails before I put the seats back on (if I remember).

To remove the backing behind the seats (which is necessary for drilling on the controller and pot box, you simply unscrew the 4 bigger screws and 2 small ones in the center. They are all near the bottom. Up top it fits into a couple of connections, so once you have pulled out all the screws, pull down on it and this will almost remove it completely (it is all a single piece):


I say almost because the little latch for the engine compartment release prevents it from coming off completely. Rather than mess with that, I've decided to leave it as is. I'm pretty sure I can access that area by just pulling it back when needed and I'm running out of space in my garage for all this stuff.

Anyway, here is the car without the seats (ignore the sledgehammer).


I finished this quickly enough that I also decided to do a side project: a quick and dirty dashboard repair job. The glue is drying, but I'll post that up tomorrow. I am going to label my side projects not related to the EV conversion as "side project."

Nuts 'n Bolts

I was just talking to someone about the "nuts 'n bolts of life," probably inspired by my electric car conversion. There is the idea of having an electric car and cruising around town and feeling all "green." Then there is the process of putting the thing together, the occasional screw-up, the frustrating delays, etc.
I wanted to get started on some of the installation this weekend after retrieving a large pile of parts from EA. I went through the instructions for installing the pot box and controller and realized that I don't have the little bag of nuts and bolts to attach the parts to the car, or the paper templates to tell me where to drill holes. Without those, I can't put anything in. Shari assures me that she will send them down shortly.
In the meantime, I notice in the manual that I will have to remove the two seats from the car to get access for that installation. So I at least have a project for this weekend which will be to remove the two seats. I'm hoping it's not that much harder than removing the hoods and engine compartment. I believe there is a how-to in the Haynes Manual and I'll try to get some pics and add the removal as a technical post while I wait for the nuts 'n bolts.

Second Driveway on the Right

So I headed up to Electro Automotive yesterday. The idea was to get some of the parts so I could get started on the project and to make it a nice road trip. Sometimes I forget just what an aesthetically unpleasing drive 101 can be from here to Salinas. It is a windy, desolate strip of highway that offers little in the way of sightseeing. We decided to stop for lunch in Soledad, so that we could see their Mission. After a few wrong turns and a break for lunch, we did finally find it. It is a quaint little mission. For those of you not from this area, there are a string of missions along the California Coast, each within a day's ride by horse and carriage from the next one along a trail that was (and is) called El Camino Real. We have our own mission right here in San Luis Obispo.
Electro Automotive is north of the city of Santa Cruz, so the fastest way to get there is to cut through Castroville, a town which I now know has it's own claim to fame: Artichokes! Apparently, it is the "Artichoke Center of the World," an honor which may or may not involve a lot of competition from other artichoke-based towns. I used to fear the artichoke in my youth, but I have now come to terms with this amazing, three-dimensional geometric creation and we were tempted to stop off for a some fried artichoke hearts, but miles to go...
Eventually, we hit Route 1 and the trip became more scenic as we cruised north along the Pacific Coast until, of course, we hit the narly traffic of Santa Cruz. Electro Automotive is about 10 miles North of Santa Cruz (off Bonny Doon Rd. for those who know the area). It is in the mountains along a scenic twisting road, through forests that have a few scattered Redwoods. It is a nice drive up there. When we arrived, I realized quickly why things move a little more slowly than I might like.
This is quite the "Mom and Pop" place in the country. There is no sign indicating that you are arriving at a business. The only clue is that there are several cars of various levels of wear and tear parked out front. The "mom" is Shari, who greeted me at the door. She was casual to the point of barefeet and I was instantly envious of their little place out in the country. Shari was busy with one of their two employees putting my parts together, so in the meantime I was introduced to the "pop" of the mom and pop, Mike, who gave me the "nickel tour." Here are the two of them in Mike's office: The place is small, constituting two rooms and the small office where Mike has his computer. Mike handles the technical side and Shari the business side from what I could gather. I spoke with Mike for awhile. He is originally from Nebraska and came to this area in 1964. He worked as an auto mechanic for Volkswagen for many years. He chatted about Volkswagens for awhile. He was a fuel injection expert and I told him about my crazy old '72 Volkswagen 412, a strange car that never really took hold in the U.S. He informed me that the Porsche 914 has a very similar engine. I once took that 412 across the country, running into some trouble in Minnesota, where the Volkswagen repairman said he hadn't seen or worked on one in 10 years. I kept it my parents' garage for a year while I was in medical school, until my father called me one day and said "get that piece of crap out of my garage." I finally sold it.
Mike went into the electric car business in '79, and has been in 3 different locations in this general area since that time. He explained that one of the primary functions of the business is to create interface plates between electric motors and the transmission of just about any car. He uses a high quality digital photo and CAD software to design this for the transmission and was working on a transmission while we were there. If you want to convert a standard car to an electric engine, this is crucial. Mike is a bit of a pioneer in the field of electric cars and I doubt there are many people more knowledgeble on the subject. He noted that they have been swamped with orders of late. I don't get the impression that this is driving them to expand the business or hire more workers (I don't know where they'd find them out there). They seem content where they are and don't seem to be pushing for more customers. They both seem very passionate about electric cars and they really want to put together a good quality product, but expect some delays...
Shari got all of the parts they had ready for me (I might have to make a second trip later this summer for the rest unless I'm more patient and willing to wait for them to ship). This should be enough to get me rolling on the project.
On the way back, we decided to go further down Highway 1 to Carmel before getting back on 101. I was tempted to cruise the Big Sur Coast, but it was getting late and I know from experience that it isn't much fun cruising that highway in the dark, so we stopped in Carmel and had a nice Italian dinner, then took a walk to the beach.
Hopefully, I can get started next week on the installation. I will start with the controller and pot box and I will explain more about those in another post (when I figure out what they are).

IF THE MOUNTAIN WILL NOT COME TO MOHAMMED...

MOHAMMED WILL GO TO THE MOUNTAIN!
Waiting for something to happen is just not my style. Rather than sit around hoping for a package of parts to arrive in the mail, I've decided to head on up to Electro Automotive in Santa Cruz and get the parts myself. It's also an excuse for my wife and I to take a road trip up to Santa Cruz, which should be a nice 3 to 4 hour drive. I'm also curious to see the mythical Mecca that is Electro Automotive and I will try to take some pictures. Stay tuned...

Communication...

I e-mailed Electro Automotive again yesterday and finally got a reply, so it looks like I might be in business soon:

I apologize for my lack of communication. We got slammed with a load
of orders just as my office assistant went out of town for two weeks,
and my packing and shipping guy just stopped showing up.

I will get a load of parts packed up for you tomorrow, which will
include suspension, adaptor, motor mount, controller, DC/DC, potbox -
most of the major components. I am still waiting on racks and boxes
from the fabricators.

I am also getting backordered on the Netgain WarP 9 motors from the
factory until mid-July. (I am hearing similar stories from all my
suppliers - they are buried in orders.) I can get the Advanced DC 9"
motor (which was the standard in the kit until recently) more
quickly. I wanted to let you know the situation and let you decide.

I have a feeling that the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is causing a bit of a rush for this stuff, when they used to only get the occasional order. Anyway, that e-mail sounds promising, so I hope I'll get the stuff in the next week or so. I'm not sure about the engine change and wrote back asking if there was a substantive difference between the two. If not, I'll switch. Anyone know anything on this subject? If so, leave your opinion in the comments or e-mail me.

Out on the Yard

Since it appears from what I'm reading from other electric vehicle builders that Electro Automotive is in no hurry to deliver my goods, I'm trying to catch up on my yard work. After 2 years away in New Zealand, I returned to a veritable jungle last year. My "dwarf" lemon tree was 12 feet high, the rosemary bushes had overwhelmed the front yard, etc. I really spent much of the last year just hacking away and now I'm trying to set up something that isn't so high-maintenance. I'm using mostly drought-resistant plants and ground cover that can also choke out weeds.

Here's the left side of the house. I'm going for a kind of "desert dream" effect.


Things need to grow in more before I can tell whether I am pulling it off, but I think this is a good start.




Here it is from back to front. I recently added some solar powered lighting which makes it visible at night, mostly in a kind of shadow effect as the lights are not overly bright.


I'm staying with a desert motif on the other side, but more of a mediterranean/desert look.


I just planted some Giant Bird-of-Paradise plants that get 10 feet tall next to the palms (The big leafed plant you can barely make out behind the brown flax). As the palms get tall and more distant from the rest of the landscape, I think these will keep a tropical feel to it. I got the idea from the prison where I work. The landscaper there has a real talent (I'd take some pictures, but of course they aren't allowed). The bougainvillea against the wall is starting to make a comeback. A lot of it died off in unusually cold spell this winter. I'm planning to put a wall fountain between the two cacti. I'm thinking a Mexican tile fountain, but I haven't found anything that I like. Maybe I'll make my own, but that's yet another project...

The Waiting Game

Electro Automotive said it would be 4-6 weeks before I get most of the parts for the electric engine, but it would be nice to get some sort of status report from them. I have e-mailed and called them a few times over the past few weeks and have not heard a single thing from them. Looking at other blogs, they are not known for being quickly responsive to inquiries, but when I send a $12,000 check to someone, it's a little disconcerting to hear nothing from them. The tone of my phone messages and e-mails is getting into the angry range, which is probably not productive. I think if I call again, I'm likely to lose it a little on the phone, so I'll hold back for now, try to keep it out of my mind and get working on my yard. I'll keep you posted.

Back From the Home of My Ancestors

This is not really on the topic of electric vehicles, but while I await my parts from Electro Automotive (with whom I left a polite message today by phone and will also politely e-mail), I thought I'd do a "what I did on my Italy vacation" post.
One thing I will say about electric vehicles is that Rome could certainly benefit from a change to electric scooters. The crazy streets of Rome are filled with the gas powered variety and they are quite noisy and polluting.


We started our trip in Rome and hung out for a couple of days near the Roman Forum, which was the center of ancient Rome. The ruins are quite amazing. Roman Emperors each would try to top their predecessor and build a new addition to the forum, which served as the main meeting place for Romans for markets, baths, religious ceremonies, important speeches ("Friends, Romans, countrymen' speech of Shakespeare fame) shopping, etc. It leads all the way down to the Colosseum and it's worth spending most of a day seeing all of that. We also managed to see the Vatican. I doubt there is a finer museum than the Vatican's. It ends with a tour of the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's famous ceiling. Pictures are forbidden, although I was one of the few who followed that and the "no talking" rule for the Sistine Chapel.


After 2 days, we headed down to the Amalfi Coast, where we stayed in the seaside town of Positano. If you head down that way, I recommend making this the base for your stay. It is a great little seaside town (albeit touristy), with an adequate beach, and easy excursions. We made two. The first was to the island of Capri, which is reached by a ferry. This is an amazingly picturesque island, but is absolutely jammed with tourists. Lisa and I quickly tried to run off on our own to get away from the crowds.


In one quiet little spot, we ran into this couple. We soon realized that he had just proposed to her (she answered in the affirmative). It was kind of embarrassing, but a nice moment.


Here, a cat lounges in the Garden of Augustus on Capri, licking its paw and seeking a moment of solitude before the onslaught of more German tour groups.

Our other excursion was to Ravello. I was quite excited about this, not only because Ravello is known to be stunning, but because I had rented out a scooter for the day and was going to ride the winding Amalfi Coast all the way there, with my wife holding on for dear life! I found out that morning that there was going to be a bike race along the coast and they would be closing the road for several hours. I was quite annoyed and tried to get through before that happened. Unfortunately, I had to stop at the town of Amalfi, just before the turn off to Ravello. This turned out to be a blessing, though, as Amalfi is a nice town for a break and a stroll.


Pictured here is the cafe we stopped at, which you could call the cafe with nothing. In the background is our waiter, who I think is the hardest working cafe waiter in Italy. The usual reason to stop at such a cafe, in addition to coffee of course, is to use their bathroom and get something to eat. This place didn't have a bathroom and very little to eat. The trick for the waiter was to get you to sit down and order something - anything. The American couple on the left asked him before they even sat down for "due prosciutto e fromaggio panini" (Basically, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, which I'm sure they were quite proud to order in Italian). "Si, si," said the waiter, seating them. The woman then asked to use the bathroom and the waiter came out with a key, handed it to her, and directed her to a bathroom across the square. She walked off, dazed. My wife and I then watched as he ran over to a nearby panini place and apparently purchased two sandwiches. The couple didn't even notice when he brought them back in wrappers, went inside and put them on two plates, coming back out as if he got them from the back. I will say that they made my wife a great cup of hot chocolate (hot chocolate there is more like melted chocolate with a little milk thrown in).

After a nice walk through a local market, where I was able to buy 4 pair of very cheap underwear to make up for a packing oversight, we walked down to see if we could catch a little of this bike race that was delaying our trip. As it turned out, this was the "Giro d'Italia", which is one of the biggest races in Europe. It was quite a production, with corporate sponsors and a huge crowd lining the street, just like you see on TV.

If you look at this picture squinting your eyes and count to 10, you have a pretty good idea of what the race looked like as a spectator. It's hard to figure what all the fuss is about, but it was fun to experience this little slice of Italian sporting life. With that, we were off to Ravello. Ravello is a picturesque town in the mountains with a view of the sea. It used to be a real hangout of for the rich and famous. I don't know if that is still the case. The highlight is the ruins/museum/art gallery/garden called Rufolo.

Here I am in the gardens of Rufolo. If my smile seems a little forced, it was because I had just confiscated my wife's scooter helmet after she dropped it on the cobblestones for the second time.
I believe this is the best part of Ravello, although our trip was cut a little short when it started to sprinkle and we hustled back on the scooter back to Positano.
After 4 days in Positano, we were very sad to be leaving, but it was time to head back to Rome. This time, it was a very different experience. I was meeting family, new and old. My father wanted to celebrate his 70th birthday in Rome and he came with some of our family and friends. In addition, we were meeting Italian relatives (sons and grandchildren of my grandfather's brother). My grandfather left his small mountain village in Southern Italy (Isca, Calabria) when he was 17 and headed for the U.S. via Ellis Island. He ended up working the coal mines of Pennsylvania for many years and eventually owned his own small grocery store. He put his brother through law school back in Italy, which helped pull them out of poverty. I think they feel a bit of gratitude and, like all Italians, welcome family with open arms. This made for a fun time in Rome, where we were able to get off the usual tourist trail and "do as the Romans do." I will never forget it.


Left to right: My father, his "new" cousin Franco, Franco's wife Rosella, and their son Saverio. Franco followed in his father's footsteps and became a lawyer (although rumor has it his real love was soccer) and Saverio added a third generation of Italian lawyers.


From front to back: Stefania - Saverio's fiance, Franco's daughter Teresa and her boyfriend Luca. They are journalists in Rome. An old American/Italian friend of our family - "Antonio" Salvato, my wife Lisa and family friends Pat and Elaine. Not pictured: Sal, my mother Janet, and Pat's wife, as well as my Uncle Ernie (anyone else on the trip who took better shots, please send me one). These were taken at a very old time Roman restaurant in the Trastevere section of Rome. It was decidedly untouristy affair beginning at 8:30 and going to past Midnight, with another hour wait to catch a cab.


Here is an old Moto Guzzi of the "cafe racer" variety for bike enthusiasts


The NBA is apparently popular in Italy, but maybe the details aren't as important to this Los Angeles "Lokers" fan.

Arrivederci!

Off to Italy for a couple weeks. Hopefully, I will have some of my parts in by the time I return and I can get started on the electrification.

Side Projects

As I wait for the electric engine and parts to arrive for my conversion, I am trying to do some other small projects on the Porsche. One of those was to repaint the engine compartment lid. It's a little tricky to paint, even removed from the car, because of the "PORSCHE" lettering on it. Originally I planned to remove the letters, spray paint it and then put them back on. However, when I tried to take the first one off (the letter "P", of course) it felt a bit difficult and fragile and I thought it might break off, becoming "ORSCHE," so I decided instead to tape the letters individually and just spray paint right over them instead. This required some attention to detail and some annoying fumbling with some masking tape. I got into a good groove, though, because of the CD that was playing. The band is called "Fat Freddy's Drop". They are a New Zealand based band, with various influences (reggae, hip hop, soul - kind of mellow) and quite popular there. Just before Lisa and I left New Zealand, we rented out a camper to see some of the far North Island. That was our only CD and we must have listened to it 30 times over those 2 weeks. I never got sick of it. It's also nice for adding a little romantic ambience in an otherwise cramped little camper van... If you can get their CD ("Based on a True Story"), grab it. Anyway, here is my tape job (I used that not-very-sticky blue tape - regular masking tape would probably be easier):



I used and wore out an exacto knife to do this, but I think it was worth it. Here's the end result:



The paint's still a bit wet in the picture. I'm quite happy with the result. It takes a few years off the apparent age of the car - better than botox. The gold lettering stands out much better now, as well. I used a semi-gloss black spray paint and I think it was just right.

Step 3: Engine Drop!

Description: Disconnect and remove the engine
The basic premise is that you disconnect everything that attaches the engine to the car except the bolts for the engine bar and transmission mounts. You then put a furniture cart underneath and lower the car down so that the engine is sitting right above the cart with about a half inch between them. This requires you to take off the back wheels to get the car down quite low. This is a bit stressful and you should definitely use some 4X4 wood blocks to prevent the back break shields from touching ground. Then you remove the engine bolts, which should move the engine down to rest on the cart. Then you remove the transmission mounts from the back end. See my caveat below. At this point, you jack up the car and hopefully the engine doesn’t come up with it. Once it’s jacked up high enough, you can slide the engine out using the cart. You will need to move the CV rear axles out of the way as you pull it through. This will remove the engine, transmission and exhaust as one very big piece. Once you get it out, put the tires back on the car and lower it. That’s it.

Estimated time: 6-7 Hours

Tools Needed: Just about everything from a metric socket and wrench set, up to 19 mm. A few screwdrivers. A rubber mallet. A socket wrench extender. A metric hex wrench set. Possibly a CV bolt remover (8 mm). Two Jacks. 3 or 4 jack stands, Some 4 X 4 wood blocks and maybe a small 2 X 4 piece. Also, something to secure your front wheels to prevent rolling while jacking the car.

This was certainly a more challenging procedure. I followed the Pelican Parts How-To Here is a link. Their checklist is also helpful.
Two other blogs have engine drop posts that helped me Here and Here. It's also good to have access to the Pelican Parts online pics for the procedure. We took several breaks to look at them, working the computer with my elbows to avoid getting it covered in grease.

Caveats/Tips:
-Don’t even try this with only one jack.
-I had 15” max height 2 1/4 ton jacks. These were not quite high enough and I had to improvise, which was a little stressful. I would imagine at least 17 – 18 “ jacks unless you are okay with putting blocks on them.

-Make sure you have the right tool to pull out the CV Bolts (I ended up needing only a hex wrench, but you might need a CV Bolt remover if you have 12 point bolts – if you do, don’t use a hex or torch wrench). Trying to find a CV Bolt remover at the last second at your local auto parts store is a losing proposition.

-An easier way to get all of the CV bolts off than the Pelican instructions is to unscrew the ones that you can easily reach (there are 4 on each side), then jack up the car enough to turn the wheel, which also rotates the the CV joint to access the others, then lower the car again to loosen them. Then they are all loosened before you jack up the car for the CV joint separation (Credit to Charlie for that innovation).

-There is no way to avoid ruining the little rubber gaskets when you separate the CV joint. They’re $3.95 to replace at Pelican parts, so don’t worry about it.

-Have your plastic bags ready when you separate the CV joints so you can get them over the joint before the grease pours out (This pic shows the CV axle in a plastic bag, but is from later when we tried to pull out the engine. You can see that the axle gets in the way. Good high clearance essential).




-After you pull out the little cone screws from both ends of the shift linkage bar, you might need to shift the car into a gear to get it to come out of the couplings.



-After removing the wheels, use 4 X 4 blocks to prevent the brake shields from touching bottom if you happen to lower the jack a bit too much. It’s good to practice lowering the jack before you get to this part.
-The engine bar bolt had nuts holding them in from above that you might not see. You can feel for them and they need to be held in with a wrench while you unscrew from the bottom. There is a similar issue for the smaller, hard to reach transmission mount bolts. A wratchet extender comes in handy for those.
-Make sure the tranny is resting on the cart before undoing the transmission mounts on the back of the car. Even a couple of inches can drop it hard on the cart. If you can’t get there by lowering the car, place a 2X4 on the back end of the cart to make up the distance.
-Have cold beer ready for WHEN YOU FINISH.

We had to do this over two days and spent a good 6 hours on it. If we did it again, I think we could do it in 3 hours or so. I think the 2 hour time estimate is a bit optimistic.

For more pics and some color commentary, visit my previous post here

Porsche Gutted

One More Step to Extinction

The Porsche-saurus Rex has been extracted from its lair!

Charlie and I posing with the beast

I had problems getting to sleep last night. That engine was still hiding comfortably in my Porsche and I needed to get him out. Charlie planned to come down today so we could finish the job and I got started doing a few little time consuming tasks before he made it down, so we could get right down to the engine removal business.
The experience was exhilarating and a bit stressful. There were a few minor mishaps on the way. We had difficulty getting the engine bar bolts removed. We then went over to the transmission side to remove the bolts holding that up. There seemed to be quite a bit of space 2 or 3 inches, at least, between the transmission and the back of the cart. I tried to remedy that by placing some styrofoam on the cart. That worked about as well as using cardboard to stop a bullet. The tranny dropped down with a thud and cracked the back of the cart. As best I can tell, no damage to the transmission, but it was a little unnerving. I don't know whether getting the front engine bar bolts all the way out first would have helped or not, but I would recommend that if you have that much space between the transmission and the cart, stick a 2 X 4 on the back of the cart so it doesn't have as far to drop.

This Is an Example of a Bad Idea. My Intentions Were Honorable...

We then solved the front engine bar bolt mystery (there was a nut at the top that we couldn't see that prevented us from completely unscrewing the bolts. Once solved we had the full engine on the cart.
Now it was time to jack up the car so we could slide out the engine. This started out well. The engine stayed on the cart as the car lifted up. We started pulling the engine out and got stuck at that pesky CV bar. We needed to lift it out of the way and the various contortions we tried could not get us past it. We needed to get the car higher, but the jack was all the way at its maximum. This was a bit precarious and there didn't seem to be a good solution. I then decided to ask my neighbor if he had another jack with better clearance.
My neighbor calls himself Vanishing Wolf and he spends many hours in his oversized garage working on old-fashioned hot rods. As I approached, Vanishing Wolf was casually working under his latest hot rod with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. "Just set your jack stands, lower the jack and put a piece of 4 X 4 on the jack, then jack it back up," he said flicking the ashes from his cigarette. He had to repeat this suggestion twice more before I understood what he was talking about.
I shuffled back to give this idea a try. We did it only on the passenger side which allowed us to slide the engine sideways and get around the driver side CV arm. My friend Stacey dropped by just at this pivotal moment and was able to watch as we slid the engine out from under the car (I'd like to say it went smoothly, but it would be fair to say that in my zeal to finish the job, I failed to notice that Charlie and Stacey were a bit traumatized by the precarious nature of the jack with the 4 X 4 sitting on top of it).

I think that part of the 4 X 4 is touching the Jack. Charlie wasn't so sure.

Getting that engine out was quite the adrenaline rush, and it was nice to finally sit back and enjoy the Sierra Nevadas that Brent brought by the previous day (thanks Brent). Like a cowboy, Charlie then headed off into the sunset. Unlike our President, I think we earned our swagger today. After a couple of Sierras, Stacey and I took a hike up a nearby hill. In the distance, you could just make out tip of the old engine peeking out from my garage. I felt on top of the world. It also reminded me that soon, I will be looking down to the sea from the mountains of the Amalfi Coast of Italy. The trip will be that much sweeter with this engine drop behind me. It's off to bed and back to work tomorrow. I'll put up a "Step 3" technical post tomorrow.

Just a Few More Hours...

Well, Charlie and I got started around 2:30 and called it a night at 7:30 or so. In between we spent a lot of time cruising auto part stores after discovering the "CV bolt remover" did not fit in the CV bolts. The guys at Napa Auto Parts let us in behind the counter to look for the right tool. Covered in grease, we looked the part of a couple of car buffs who couldn't be bothered with their ineptitude.
After a lot of effort to get the right "12 star CV bolt remover" we realized that the CV bolts had apparently been switched to regular hex head bolts at some point over that past 37 years. Once we realized we had the right tool all along, a simple 6mm hex wrench, we were able to get back to work. Charlie was Zen-like in his unstoppable quest to undo the CV bolts.

Charlie becomes one with the CV Joint bolts.

I then worked on separating the the CV joints. Little by little, they separated, leaving an undulating explosion of grease, covered quickly by a plastic bag. It would be hard to say more about the experience without blushing.
Unfortunately, we had a lot more to take apart before we could get to the engine drop itself. It was getting a little dark and was becoming difficult to see, so we decided to finish the job tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Saturday Drop Party

Okay, I'm going to try to drop the engine this Saturday, so hopefully I will have a nice post up Saturday evening describing a successful, minimally eventful drop. For the most part, I plan to follow the Pelican Parts how-to for dropping the engine. They include a 3 page checklist and claim it can be done by someone who knows what he is doing in 2 hours. Therefore, I will double that and shoot for 4 hours. The Haynes Manual also has a description, but it wasn't spelled out as well. However, I will need that manual to help locate the many parts that need to be dismantled (most of which I've never heard of before).
I've been out shopping for the necessary supplies and I'm starting to feel like a real car guy when I walk into these auto parts stores. I also got some nice new wrenches and screwdrivers at Sears. Man, there is just something about those "Craftsman" tools. I love the feel of them. I consider them a separate indulgence, so I won't include their cost in my conversion total. I will need to buy a couple of hydraulic jacks, though. The prices seem to range randomly from $20 to $200, so I'm learning a lot about jacks this week.
Charlie will be coming down to help out again. I believe he is still eyeing the Karmann Ghia for his conversion, and helping with mine will give him a good start. I think that the Porsche 914 and the Karmann Ghia have somewhat similar Volkswagen engines to contend with. Of course, I will need to return the favor when he gets started.
I already have one person expressing some interest in the dropped engine. He is planning to make a dune buggy and thinks it might work for him. If not, I'll sell it on Craig's List, call a salvage yard or get a hold of 1 800 GOT JUNK (in that order).
Another friend, Brent, says he might drop by with a friend on Saturday. I don't know that he is interested in an EV conversion so much as coming for the possible spectacle of this undertaking. Maybe we'll make it a little party. Perhaps pulling out the combustion engine should serve as a rite of passage - all are invited...

Step 2: Remove the Gas Tank

Description: Removing the gas tank from the front compartment.
Estimated time: 30 minutes to drain the gas, 10 - 15 minutes to pull the tank
Tools Needed: Ratchet Wrench with 10mm and 8mm sockets. One flat-head screwdriver. Also, a 5 gallon gas can and a siphon to drain the tank.
Caveats: When pulling out the tank, lift the passenger side first and keep that side tilted up to prevent gas from coming out of the bottom tubes which are underneath on that side. Best to have less than a quarter of a tank of gas in the tank.

I followed the instructions from the Pelican Parts How-to for removing the gas tank. Here is a link
As noted, I did not go with the fuel pump option and just siphoned the gas out of the car to probably less than a half gallon. I then just followed the basic instructions from Pelican Parts. Any leftover gas in the tank you can then dump into your gas can through the tubes. This was very easy. Charlie came by and helped out, which made it even easier, but it wouldn't have been too much harder by myself.




This might be a common site in the future as "peak oil" approaches and rogue acts of petrol-piracy begin in our dystopian, fossil-fuel depleted world.











Here is a Before/After View





















Look at this rotting carcass. Electricity is the future, baby!

Looking for Mr. Fuel Pump

The next step will be to pull out the gas tank. I was going to wait until next weekend to do it, since I didn't have the Haynes Manual yet and still couldn't find the fuel pump, which can be used to drain the gas tank. I made the mistake of filling up the tank shortly after I bought it, so it has close to a full tank. Well, I was brimming with confidence after doing step 1, so I invited Charlie to drop by tomorrow and help me out with the fuel tank. I figured I had a whole day to find the fuel pump so it shouldn't be too hard.
I noticed online that the fuel pump in '71's was in the engine compartment. Later models; I think the '75 and 76 had a special compartment in the front trunk to store the fuel pump. A search of the engine compartment turned up a couple of things that might pass for a fuel pump, but I couldn't be sure.
Then it occurred to me that the Haynes Manual might have arrived in the mail and I decided to check the mailbox. There it was. I thumbed through the pages and found a picture of the fuel pump. It was clear from the picture that neither of my two candidates was the fuel pump. They turned out to be the fuel pressure regulator and the pressure sensor (I don't know what these things are either, so I'll be glad to yank all this stuff out of there).
Unfortunately, the picture of the fuel pump was only a close-up and provided no landmarks other than the "adjacent fuel filter." I could find neither of these in the engine compartment or the front trunk area. Finally, it occurred to me that perhaps it was under the car. I got down to take a look under the car and could see what appeared to be the "adjacent fuel filter". Because the car is so low to the ground, I couldn't get a good look under there without a decent jack. I will assume for the time being that the fuel pump is also somewhere under the car. I believe this was someone's modification. There is some mention in Pelican's maintenance series that lowering the fuel pump could prevent "vapor lock." Whatever that is, it sounds serious.
Anyway, I will go to plan B with the gas tank removal and just siphon out the gas. The fuel pump is getting a stay of execution until I get a new jack.

Step 1: Porsche Uncovered

Description: Removing the front hood, rear trunk and engine compartment cover.
Estimated Time: 30 - 40 Minutes, including a coffee break.
Caveats: Need a second person.
Tools Needed: Metric ratchet wrench (10 mm and 13 mm sockets)

Okay, this was even easier than expected...

Front Hood
The front hood is connected with 4 small bolts. I unscrewed the top one on each side, then had my lovely wife hold one side of the trunk, while I unscrewed the the bottom bolt on the side she was holding. Then I went to the other side and unscrewed that lower bolt while holding the bottom of the hood with my free hand and resting the hood on my shoulder. It does slide down easily once the bottom bolt removes, so be prepared to brace it. I had some newspaper underneath just in case. Obviously, have a place in your garage prepared for these. It wasn't particularly heavy. I am keeping all the little bolts in labeled, ziplocked bags as someone suggested on another blog.

Engine Compartment Cover
It's easier to do this before doing the rear trunk, as it will expose the bolts for the rear trunk when removed. There is only one small bolt on each side. Have someone hold on to the first side as you unscrew the bolt. It drops easily into the engine compartment as soon as it's unscrewed. One of the little bolts dropped right into the "hell hole" and it took awhile with a flashlight to locate it.

Rear Trunk
Same as the front. 4 small bolts, work with a second person. It's a little heavier than the front hood.




Here's some X-rated Pics of the naked Porsche after Step 1 is complete (I think they are work friendly):