Lessons being taught by reality on our first EV conversion

[Randall]

We are learning some painful lessons here -

1. Do NOT sell the gasoline motor until you have actually finished getting the critical dimensions, especially the motor mount.

2. Do NOT cut wires, repeat, do NOT cut wires.  We thought we'd rush through our conversion cutting wiring harnesses.  Guess what happened?  We lost track of the wiring, the factory manual was incomplete or wrong and we were forced to buy another used wire harness, solder it all back in, in order to correctly convert the vehicle over.  It is very easy to cut a wire, but very costly in time and expense to figure out where that wire went.

3. Do NOT assume that you can pick up easy items like plugs for the hoses.  They don't grow on trees and the exact dimension specs are hard to find.  One example - the hydraulic power steering gear box used 2 different size metric plugs to seal off, but the metric thread dia and pitch were only found by using a metric thread gauge and buying some sample oil plugs until one was found that fit.

4. Be careful on cutting hoses, some OEM replacements will really cost you, if you have to put back components.

In just the first 1/3 of our vehicle conversion, we are already learning that the big story is PLAN first, before acting, and haste does make waste. (don't go crazy with the diagonal pliars cutting anything in sight)

 

[leitmotif]

Randall

There are no lessons better learned than those learned by mistake.
Been there dunnit.

Let us know how you are making out.
Dan Bentler