View Single Post
Old 07-26-2008, 12:45 AM   #350 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
bennelson's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 17
Thanked 663 Times in 388 Posts


Hmm - I checked the forklift joystick and it's not going to work, it uses a funky connector which the other half most have been sold as scrap with the rest of the forklift.


My Metro came with both driver and passenger side mirrors - unfortunately, neither was attached. Both had been snapped off at some point in the past.

I figured the best way to reattach the mirrors would be with longer screws running through the broken off stubby bits left on the old shorter screws.



The driver side mirror went back on. Too bad there is a little broken on the front of it as well. Two of the drywall screws went in great. The third one sounded a little weird. Looks like it skipped out of the old hole.

Think anyone will notice?

I am not sure if I will reattach the passenger mirror, or just make a "mirror-delete" black plastic cover to go in place of it.

I wiped down the door interiors with some Armor All. It really suprises me still how good condition the car interior is in.



I threw one of my old electric bicycle batteries into the Metro to test out the radio, lights, etc. Holy Cow! This thing has Daytime Running Lights on it! Hmm. Might not be the best thing in an electric car. I would like to drop any electric loads I can. I did also notice the actual headlights dont work. (the DRLs do, but full headlight mode doesn't) Maybe it's a fusible link or something.

I also ground down a little rust around the engine compartment and painted it with some gloss black oil-based Rustoleum.

Since there is no engine or transmission in the car - the easiest way to work on it is to actually get inside the car. From there, I was able to get a good look at the control arm support on the drivers side.



The passenger side looks pretty good, but I think I will need to do something on this side. Not sure what yet. Guess I will try to scrape and grind what I can do here, then weld something on and oil it all up?

By the way. If you are inside a Geo Metro engine compartment, and think it would be funny to see if you fit inside it with the hood closed - don't do it. You will have to call your wife on the cell phone to have her pull the hood release. (don't ask...)


I also checked and labeled a couple of the misc. cables and things under the hood. Looking at the dashboard, I was wondering about reusing the fuel gauge as a voltmeter/state-of-charge display.

Figured all I had to do is find the wires that originally went to the gas tank and check what kind of signal came from there. I looked under the car where I removed my gas tank. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't find any gas tank wires! Where are they on this car?
__________________


300mpg.org Learn how to BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR CHEAP
My YouTube Videos

Last edited by bennelson; 07-26-2008 at 01:01 AM..
  Reply With Quote