WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

In May of 2009, while searching the internet for alternate fuel vehicles, I came across a video done by Jack Rickard of Cape Girardeau, MO,  that featured a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster replica, electric conversion. At the bidding of Jack's then partner, Brian Noto, weekly EVTV Shows started being produced by June of that year. Needless to say, I was hooked and started attending the yearly Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention (EVCCON)  from that year until now. This year the weather cooperated and  a barbecue was finally held at Jack Rickard's home, overlooking the Mississippi, River; The location of the original weekly video productions.

The ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

So when when I walked into the driveway from the fire pit and saw the door of the garage open, it took me back to the the beginning of the EVTV weekly show , the source of the many great memories I have of past EVCCONS and of most of the knowledge I have gained about electric cars, over the last 6 years.

THE ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

INSIDE THE ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

JACK'S STILL

There were many absent from EVCCON, renamed The EVTV Open House this year but for me and a group of die hards, we got a real trip down memory lane!

My dream was always to be able to bring a car to the show and life is short, so you never really know if you will ever be in Cape Girardeau again, but this year my dream came true!

Long live your dreams,

Randy

VACUUM PUMP CLAMP CLEAN UP

This morning the clamps on the vacuum pump were replaced to hopefully give it a little cleaner look. Nothing functional but it does look better. Eventually a small vacuum tank will be added but doesn't seem to be necessary as the pump provides plenty of vacuum and does not seem to motor boat.

BEFORE

AFTER

Final preparations to tow the car still have not been made and I am a little worried, as Brian's company works with some major manufactures and if the right deal happened to be closing, could cause major changes in the EVTV Open House plans.  Another local EV enthusiast  offered a ride to Missouri, but after four years of sweating over the Fiero, really had my heart set on taking it to Cape Girardeau. 

All my cloths are packed and in the Fiero so will just need to pack up the laptop, camera and all of the chargers to be ready to head out. Hopefully my next post will be from the EVTV Garage.

Randy

FINAL PREP FOR EVTV OPEN HOUSE (EVCCON)

After work Friday the final prep work for the trip to Cape Girardeau began. As a side note, I hate the spell check in Blogger, as it marks words as misspelled that really are not, such as Girardeau. It was spelled correctly but has a red line under it, so I have to take the time to look it up on Google just to make sure. 

Ok, back to the prep work; The solid state relay for the heater did not seem to be working correctly so was taken out and replaced with a Giga-Vac contactor. A little over kill but at least I know the defroster will work on a cold September morning in Missouri.

GIGA-VAC CONTACTOR FOR HEATER

When the car was detailed, it came home with the rear view mirror laying on  the passenger side floor, so a trip was made to Autozone to get some rear view mirror adhesive. After pealing off the old adhesive with a razor blade and roughing up the glass and steel attachment with some emery cloth, both were cleaned with the supplied cleaner and a drop of the adhesive was applied to the steel attachment. After holding it in place for a couple minutes, then letting it dry for a half hour or so, the mirror was clipped back in place and seems to be holding just fine. The car was detailed last month and after the local farmer harvested his soy bean crop, in back and to the side of my hours, the car was covered with dust. On the way to get the wind shield adhesive, the Fiero was run through a car wash and looks pretty good again. (From 10 feet)

REAR VIEW MIRROR REATTACHED

As I am not sure if blinker and brake lights are required on a car when being towed on a dolly, sheet metal was screwed to the original slotted motor bay covers. This will allow a place for the magnetic base on the portable tail lights to clamp to on the otherwise fiberglass body. The original slotted motor bay covers were replaced with solid ones to help keep water out. Brian Couchene is towing the Fiero to Missouri and his dolly does have tail and blinker lights on the fenders, so not sure the portable ones will be necessary but wanted to be prepared, just in case.

MOUNTING PLATE FOR TAIL LIGHTS

The hose clamps I used on the brake vacuum lines just stick out like a sore thumb so I picked up different clamps that should blend in a little better. If time permits, they will be installed tomorrow.

BRAKE VACUUM LINE CLAMPS

The trunk is packed with tools, adapter cables, and everything that may be needed to make sure I can keep the Fiero running. Probably won't need any of it as I have never had any problems with the car breaking down but don't  want to get caught off guard out of town.

The batteries are being topped off again as I am trying to have as much charge when we leave as possible. Not sure what the charging situation is at the Cape but want to make sure there is enough in the car to make it from the hotel to the EVTV Garage.

See you at the EVTV Open House!

Randy

MURPHY'S LAW

From WikipediA - "Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" And so it goes with the Fiero conversion, 

The transmission just will not shift into another gear smoothly while the car is moving. You always have to hunt for the gear and then there is always grinding when the gear finally engages. I have had the gear shifter out, repeatedly adjusted the shift levers at the transaxle, so finally decided to replace the worn nylon bushing on the shift lever pin with new sintered  bronze ones, available from Rodney Dickman. This is where Murphy's law started to kick in!

Two screwdrivers were driven between the head of the pin and the shift lever and the pin seemed to be moving, so a couple more taps were given to the screwdrivers with a hammer. Then there was a snap and the arm on the bracket holding the shift lever broke. In my last post I described drilling and tapping a hole in both pieced to attach them back together. 

SHIFT LEVER BRACKET

After that the pin was chucked up in a drill and emery paper was used to clean up the rust and scale on the pin until the new bushings would slide on and off the whole length it. Upon closer inspection of the shift lever, a notch in the pin that raises and lowers the shift select rod was found. The pin was driven out, rotated 45 degrees, so it would contact the notch in the shaft on an unworn spot.

WEAR ON ROD LIFT PIN

PIN ROTATED 45 DEG

The new bushings were driven in the shift lever and the pin was inserted.

BUSHING WITH PIN INSERTED

With the arm on the bracket bolted back on, the assembly would not go back over the shift arm on the selector shaft, so a puller was purchased and after heating the fit with a propane torch several times and spraying it down each time it cooled with WD40, the puller was put in place and tightened. The shift lever came loose and started sliding off but when the arm was all the way to the top of the threads, was removed to inspect the progress. As it turns out, it wasn't just pulling a fit on the end of the shaft but was pulling a sleeve that goes over the shaft out of the transaxle through the seal. I really wasn't expecting this but found that the shift are had come up enough to get the bracket back in place. Just hoping that a pin holding the sleeve on the shaft was not sheared inside the transaxle. 

SHIFT LEVER PULLED TO TOP OF THREADS

Even with the bracket and arm attached back together with a stud, there was a little movement where the arm had snapped off, so I decided to look for a weld shop that could tig aluminum. While looking for a welding shop in my area, I came across a site called Thumbtack that links you up with local service providers. The information was entered and submitted and to my surprise, the next morning, there were two responses. Upon talking to Matt at Precision Fusion and Repair and being told he could not do it until next week, I explained to him that the car was an EV conversion that was being taken to an Electric Car Show in Missouri and I really needed it this weekend. He agreed to do it tomorrow if I would bring it to his shop this afternoon, so off I went to Upper Arlington, Ohio, a Columbus suburb about 45 minutes away and dropped it off. He assured me he could fix it, the alignment would be correct and that the repair would be stronger than the original piece. If all goes well and I am happy with his work, his contact information will be posted an my next post. Matt said he could also do aluminum battery boxes, so this in good information for any Central Ohio converters who may need boxes or aluminum repairs done in the future.

Ok, on to EVTV and EVCCON. Jack Rickard did a post early Friday morning saying he was canceling EVCCON. I assume most of you know what that is but just incase, EVTV is company in Cape Girardeau, Missouri that over the last five years has produced weekly shows on electric car conversions and for the last four years has hosted a yearly convention that I have attended for the last four years without the Fiero being finished. EVCCON attracts an international audience and is probably the primer event in the world for electric car conversions. On the bright side, there is still going to be an open house at the EVTV Shop, so hopefully Murphy is done with me, the shift lever will be able to be fixed, and the Fiero and I will be able to travel to the Cape for the open house.

Randy

BACK FROM EVCCON

I left Cape Girardeau around 7:00 am ext and headed for home instead of the drag race, as it looked like rain. After seeing Michael Brown's posts, it looks like I should have stuck around!

EVCCON 2014 DAY 5

Michael also did a post of DAY 4, and it is really great that he took the time to document the event. I finally did get to talk to Michael at the Awards Banquet to let him know his work was appreciated. 

Although I had a great time at EVCCON this year, was disappointed the Fiero did not get done in time to take, that so many speakers canceled out on Jack, and that quite a few of those in attendance in the past, did not make it this year. Thanks to Al Gada and William for letting me be a part of the drag racing team at Jack's hanger on Friday. It turned out being a lot of fun!

Thanks to Jack Rickard and all of the folks at EVTV for making this year's EVCCON another success, and for all of those taking the time and spending the money to bring their conversions. Can't wait until next year!

Randy