The parts have arrived!

peter

Wow.  Both the big crate (with the battery boxes and stuff) as well as the box with suspension stuff have arrived.  Naturally, they arrived while I was gone, but my long-suffering wife was kind enough to deal with it (and now I have to return the favor somehow, but that should be fun).  At long last (and only 3 months late) the stuff is here.  Minus the manual.

The Boxes

The big crate weighed in at 300 pounds.  Most of that weight is from the various components.

The Parts (1 of 2)

Lots of cables, connectors, and such.

The Parts (2 of 2)

Battery boxes!

So now, I just need to get the car cleaned up (rust repair and grease/gunk removal) so I can start hacking away.  Oh the fun….

Transmission is re-installed

peter

Wow, the transmission has finally been rebuilt and reinstalled.

Reinstalled Transmission

So nice and clean – that won’t last long, though. 🙂

Many thanks to Brad Roberts and Sean Molloy for their expertise in this process. Both of them are available for hire and do very nice work, feel free to contact me for their number.
Sean posing near the now-working car

That’s Sean posing by the now-working car.

Rust

peter

While I’m waiting for the electric parts to show up, I’m tacking some rust on the body.  Rust is one of the major killers of 914s.  There are several areas that are of major concern, one of which is named the “hell hole”, I kid you not.  This hole is just under the battery, and is caused by water and battery acid (yikes!).  I’m not brave enough to get to that yet, but instead I’m removing the rust around the front trunk.

Oh, and I’m also hoping to get my transmission put back together this week so I can start driving the car.  Hope springs eternal and all that.

Delays and more delays

peter

Wow, waiting for parts is so…..not-exciting.

I was gone for a week on travel (Seoul, South Korea) (hot and muggy – a person from Chicago said it felt like home), and then dealt with a heat-wave over Labor Day weekend (107F and 40% humidity).

Plus, some parts went AWOL. A special ring for the transmission (worth $500) decided to go somewhere other than my house – UPS lost it. At least I got a replacement. And then I found I needed some more synchro rings, and those are still to show up.

And all I’ve received from Electro Automotive is the motor and controller – nothing else. Hrm. I’ll bother them next week to see where everything is.

Transmission

peter

Brad stopped by on sunday and “helped” me take the transmission out. By helping, I mean I held the light and watched as he did a bunch of wrenching under the car. Good thing, too, because there were some hidden bolts, and I would have forgotten to disconnect the ground strap.

For those of you that have never seen the inside of a transmission, it is a bit daunting, lots of gears and arms, all covered with oil.
Transmission taken apart
It’s just weird stuff. Thank goodness I’ve got Brad to help on this.

Here’s a closeup of the gears.

Transmission Gears
The underside of the car where the transmission mounts to the engine is just a mess.

Missing Transmission

Comic-Con

peter

Hooboy, what a waste.  It USED to be that you could go on Wednesday night and see all the artists, get your books signed, get t-shirts, etc.  Nope.  Not no more.

Comic-Con has been Discovered.  (http://www.comic-con.org/)

Wailing, gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes, etc.

Even the t-shirts suck now.  Except for the ones the California Browncoats are selling – those are still cool.

Oh well, back to fusebox installation (need to change the standoffs to allow for older wiring).

Fusebox Install

peter

I got the new fuse panel in good time, and after dealing with the house and dog distractions, spent a lovely sunday installing the new panel. Naturally, a lot of the time was spent at the hardware store getting tools that I didn’t have (or lost) (such as 27mm socket for the steering wheel, or metric hex wrenches).

The stereo and security system had created a nightmare of wiring under the dash…removing that stuff was a total joy. Good thing I had a good manual with an accurate wiring diagram.

fuse_1.jpg
As you can see, the old fuse panel was a mess.

old_panel
Look at all the old wiring I got to toss out…

old_dead_wiring

This looks much better now, doesn’t it? 🙂

clean_under_dash

Unfortunately, the wiring harness is just too thick to allow the new panel to sit tight against the old posts, so I need to add some height to the posts. That’ll be an easy adjustment…just another trip to the local hardware store for longer screws and use some existing 1/2 plastic pipe for the standoffs. To be continued!

Cool Car

peter

Wow…I took the car to AAA to register it with the DMV (MUCH faster and easier than going to the DMV). Of course, it took more $$$ than I wanted to pay, but no choice in the matter, I suppose.

When I came back out I found this on the windshield:

Cool Car

I guess other people like the 914s, too.  😀

New Fuseblock and Distractions

peter

Well, as part of the cleanup, I ordered a new fuseblock from JWest Engineering (http://www.jwesteng.com/porsche/914/).

Blade-style Fusebox
This will really help with understanding what is under the console. Plus it is a big incentive to remove that old radio (with cassette!) and clean up all the wiring under the console.

HOWEVER

Home has been keeping me busy. VERY busy. The ropes on our double-hung windows (circa 1942) are rapidly decaying. I figured out how to replace them – at 3 hours per window. Our dishwasher needed to be replaced (Maytag did a recall on our model, sent a repair kit but no repair person, so I replaced it with a Bosch). Our dog is STILL being fussy at night, and the cats are not taking too kindly to her yet…

So I hope to be able to get back to the car by this weekend…by which time the fusebox should be in my hands. 🙂

Conversion Kit

peter

The kit I’ll be using for this project is available from Electro Automotive. It contains an AC motor, controller, battery racks, cables, and heavy-duty suspension. This is a bit lazy on my part, but I wanted to have most of the guesswork out of the way on this first project.

What’s interesting (to me) is that it requires the use of old-school 8 volt batteries. The kind that requires constant topping off with water. I asked why not use the newer sealed batteries, and the reply was, “You could, but you would get greatly reduced range and amperage.” Good enough.

Some other projects are looking into state-of-the-art (i.e. ultra expensive) lithium-phosphate batteries. These don’t explode, unlike lithium-ion batteries. They also cost around $2000 per battery. Ummm….don’t think I’ll go that route any time soon.

I ordered the kit on July 10 (mailed the check), so I can expect the kit to arrive within the next two months. The long lead time is due to the fabbing of the battery boxes. The motor and controller will drop-ship from Azure Dynamics. The other parts will ship from Felton to me as they become available.

Cheers!

Starting……now!

peter

Hi Folks,

I just bought a 1975 1.8 liter Porsche 914. It is sunflower yellow, and in pretty good shape. A few spots with rust (although I’m sure I’ll find more later). The transmission needs to be rebuilt (big surprise, eh?) and the engine has a bad case of vapor lock.

Having had the car for a few days, I figured I would start by taking out the old-n-busted alarm system. Easy, I thought. Until I tried to remove the wires leading into the cabin. Um. Ok, so how do I remove that panel from the back of the cabin? Time for the manual (again).

More later!

Cheers, Peter

P.S.  Some photos for you:

Left rear view of the original car

Left front view of the original car