Fully painted and upholstered now, still an empty shell. I replaced the lubricant in the transaxle with Royal Purple synthetic in the hopes of reducing friction as much as possible. When I was draining the old oil, I balanced the drip pan on the floor jack frame. Of course it flipped over. Found some really good driveway degreaser at Home Depot, so every oops has an upside.
I turned in the old dead flooded battery as a core and bought an AGM (Optima Blue Top) from Pep Boys to experiment with charging and discharging. I want to get a feel for how to treat an AGM before I buy a dozen expensive ones for the traction pack. Besides I needed a good battery to test the motor/flywheel combination.
I borrowed an engine hoist (thanks Craig!) in anticipation of motor installation. I still want to remove and install the flywheel on the adapter hub until I find an acceptable level of runout. It's balanced at the moment but there's a runout at the ring gear edge face of about 0.025". I'd rather take the flywheel on and off multiple times than take the motor in and out multiple times.
Strategy as I see it from today:
- Get carpet kit for rear storage area behind back seat, test fit
- Test fit rear battery box
- Test fit engine compartment component bulkhead
- Determine the best way to fasten box and bulkhead together through firewall
- Find best locations for cable openings
- Determine optimal liquid-tite conduit routing
- Trim engine compartment component bulkhead as needed
- Drill firewall, battery box, and component bulkhead for mounting and cables
- Test install
- Drill engine compartment and front trunk area for conduit end fittings
- Install conduits and holding straps to underside of floor pan
