Peter’s E-914

The new guages are installed – one is for the pack voltage, the other is the pack current.  Both are left and above the dash.  Speedo is also reinstalled, so the passenger compartment is (mostly) done.

Working on the BMS battery connectors now.  A lot of fiddly little parts that require a magnifying glass (for my somewhat older eyes) and a good soldering iron.  Elithion did a very good job with their battery connectors – they actually show the color of wire to hook up where.  On the end of each battery group there is a connector that will have two wires attached – either black/red or green/white.  If you look carefully at the two wire connector on their part, it says B R / G W (or something like that).  Nice job. 

I still have the rear battery pack to work on, and then it is time to fuss once again in the rear trunk – I now have a quick disconnect for the battery pack that I need to fit in.

Well, nuts.  The new charger won’t fit into the front trunk, so it will be installed in the rear comparment, along with the new DC-DC converter.  I’m also putting the aux battery in the rear compartment.

Net result:  no need for relays in the front compartment or engine compartment.  I’m creating a new relay panel that will go in the rear trunk, and will move the DC shunt to the mid compartment (nearest the amp meter).   Lots of rewiring, and re-organizing, and most likely a new set of connectors in the engine compartment.

I’ll post pictures once the relay panel is installed.

Well, nothing like 3 funerals and a standards meeting to throw one off their stride. (Sounds like a bad british sitcom, doesn’t it?)

However, I have been busy on the car for the last few days.  For example, I have attached the flywheel to the motor – this involves attaching a hub to the motor and then the flywheel to the hub – all within a tight tolerance.

And at the same time, I’ve been working with Sean to get the front trunk repaired.  Sean found a donor car for some metal, and cut that donor piece out and then welded that piece into the trunk.  Now I get to grind the metal, seal the seams, smooth everything out and then paint.

Well, dear reader, NEVER say anything is done until the project is over.  Really.

I was getting ready to put in the front battery rack.  This is done by simply placing the rack into the front trunk, marking where you want to drill holes, drilling said holes, and then mounting the rack.  Right.

One of the previous owners had put in Air Conditioning (A/C to us  Americans), and another previous owner had removed the A/C.

Something you might not know is that A/C requires cooling.  Cooling requires air flow.  The A/C installation had required this air flow, so someone had cut some rectangular holes into the front trunk (where the A/C radiator had gone).  Then the other owner had simply removed the radiator and hoses (mostly) and fiberglassed over the holes.

The resulting holes look like this:

So.  What this means is that I need some metal put in, and welded solid.  Or at least welded into place and then sealed VERY well.  This has put a damper on my previous enthusiasm, you can bet on that.

Oh, and Electro Auto sent the wrong parts for the terminals, but that is another blog.

Wow, busy few days recently. After *MUCH* delay (house guest, selling airplane, travel, jetlag) I have finally gotten around to doing more work on the poor, neglected 914.

First of all, most of the rustoration is done (many thanks to the Houseguest for helping paint and cut metal). The engine compartment was the worst offender. I was able to find a local paint store that was close to the original color, and will do for the interior engine areas (but not for the exterior).

Note that I did not get rid of that stupid glue on the firewall that used to hold the insulation. The insulation was terrible – it held moisture up against the firewall, a great way to invite rust. The glue proved too difficult to remove at this time.

And there is the controller mounted in its final position. Note that the grounding strap is not yet attached – this was done later (I had troubles getting the mounting hardware to work).

The potbox was an interesting part. Mainly because the spring was supposed to be attached to the upper-right 1/8 inch hole. Well, as you can see, there is a lower-left hand and a lower-right hand hole, but no upper. Thank goodness for the internets and other 914 conversion nuts.

More work to come, now that I’m motivated and mostly through with rustoration.