Starting on some vehicle upgrades

It will be some time before the EV parts start rolling in (except for the motor adapter - got that already). In the mean time, as the car upgrade parts start arriving, I'm going to work on that. My plan is to keep the car running as is until the new brakes are installed and tested and I have the big EV parts. This isn't really a blog about working on beetles, but what the heck, nothing else to write about yet. I'm going to describe the mechanical activities for a few reasons:

1. To give a flavor of how much work an EV conversion can be
2. To potentially help others who want to go down the same path
3. In case I need to reverse some action, I can remind myself how I got there

This last week the rear disk brake kit arrived. Over the weekend I started on that. On Saturday I popped off the hubcaps on the rear wheels, took the cotter pins out, and sprayed the castellated hub nuts with penetrating oil. I know that these nuts are on there pretty tight (200+ ft/lbs.) so I prepared for the worst. I have a 2-foot 1/2" drive breaker bar and a 12-point 36mm socket, so I gave it a shot. No way. Also, the factory service manual says that you need a hub puller to pull the brake drums off of the splined axle shafts. I took off on a trek to find a bigger breaker bar (3/4" maybe?), a 6-point socket, and a puller. No luck on the breaker bar, but I found a nice 6-point impact socket, 1/2" drive, and figured I'd find a cheater bar and have at it again. Found a parts store that rents out pullers, but I realized I needed to take some dimensions to get the right one.

Went back home, stuck the new socket on the breaker bar, and tried again. Nope. How about a cheater bar? I looked around - no, PVC will not work. Rats. Hey, how about if I stand on it? I tried that, and *click* the nut budged. OK, only good if it works twice, I thought. Went to the other wheel, and *click* again. Nice.

Got the car up on jackstands, removed the nuts, and decided to see if the drums would come off. They did! No puller needed. I decided that the car wasn't going anywhere for a while, so I started on the drum brake disassembly. A dirty job, to be sure. It was just like auto shop in high school - springs, retainers, slave cylinders, e-brake cable, backing plates. All into a box.

The disk brake conversion kit consists of a bracket that replaces the drum backing plate and holds the caliper. The hub end plate with the grease seal is on the outside of the backing plate and has to come off, and then go back on to the new bracket. Here's the order of things:

Old way:

hub nut --> drum --> hub end plate --> drum backing plate --> spacer --> hub with wheel bearings

New way:

hub nut --> disk rotor --> hub end plate --> disk caliper bracket --> spacer --> hub with wheel bearings

Since the disk caliper bracket is thicker than the old drum backing plate, there is a shim ring for the hub wheel bearing (supplied with kit) to go into the hub end plate to make up for the gap. A new, slightly longer spacer is provided. Also, a new grease seal for the hub end plate is provided. Seals are easy - pry them out, and pound the new one in with a block of wood and a hammer. The new spacers however - uh oh, trouble. They were tight on the splined shaft. I would have to press them on somehow. The old ones slipped easily on and off. I thought about it and realized that if these got pressed on, I would never get them off again if I needed to for some reason. This spacer sits between the rotor and the inner race of the outer wheel bearing (and rides in the grease seal), and takes the brunt of the 200+ ft/lbs. torque of the hub nut, so it's not like it's going anywhere. I decided to shave a little off of the inside diameter. How to do that? First thought, use a wheel cylinder hone in the drill press. Went out and bought one of those. But alas, that did not work - a hone is to polish, not remove metal, apparently. The stones on the hone wore down, not the spacer! Not only that, it kept popping out of the spacer and whapping me in the hand. Some blood must be released when working on cars, it's a rule. Next try - a cylindrical grinding stone in the drill press. Now we're talking - within a few minutes I had a couple of snug but easily-sliding spacers.