Restoring an old conversion, Finally back to work Options

[914e]

When the kids turned 14 my son and daughter for some reason decided they needed to build a car. I still suspect somehow my brothers stuck this idea in their heads. After months of failing to get them to drop the idea. I was able to convince them the $500 muscle cars that I grew up with are long gone. So I convinced them a bug was a perfect first car. Cheap and easy to get parts for. They found a 74 super with a blown engine for about $700. The owner claimed it was daily driver till the engine blew. The body looked pretty solid.


My plan was to have them rebuild the engine, do the body work, and get it back on the road. We dissembled it and started on the body work. After a few months we had a machine shop examine the engine parts, it was in worse shape then I expected but workable. Meanwhile my daughter started suggesting we should make it electric. Looking at the motor and controller cost it seemed to be in the range of the engine rebuild, then I looked up the batteries.... No way batteries are 20K. They sanded and soda blasted for months. Found some rust areas, being in Arizona a quarter size rust area is a disaster. After looking at what everyone in the world considers rust, I got over it and bought a welder.

My daughter kept on me about making it electric, after I figured out the smart way was to use batteries from a wreaked car for pennies on the dollar, I agreed. Of course teenagers can't finish the body work in April when it is below 90F. They wait August weeks before school to try to finish when it is still110F. Anyway after many days of painting at 4 am we finish.





Back in the 90's and 2000's the local utility sponsored electric car races. Often a 914 was converted to electric and raced. As we built the bug I ran across a few of the old 914 conversions.
After the bug was on the road, I enjoyed driving it so much I started looking for making something of my own. I started looking a Ghia's, Buses, 911's and then one day a 914 pops up on Craigslist.



Old DC motor, converted by a high school or college 20 years ago. Even had a battery module. The body looked good, the price cheap.

[914e]

After my daughter rebuilt the CV joints she was too busy the last few weeks of school to help on the car. If she had time she might have reminded me to order all the parts I needed, before I tried to put it back together. First mistake was I forgot to order Schnorr washers. Oh well the half shaft was in, I ordered the washers which nobody in the whole state has on a Saturday.



My transaxle had a pretty bad leak from the speedo bushing, so when Mike released the new double seal version I snapped one up. I at least made sure I could get the fill plug out, the bad news was I could barely even touch the gear oil. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) The good news is I didn't lose a drop from my quart low transaxle. I only had a pint in the garage so I added what I had. It wasn't full, but it didn't leak so I had some misguided hope. Some how though all this I had the pull down the half shaft of the transaxle again the tore the gasket. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)
I was hoping the put in the shift linkage but it would be in the way. Ordered extra CV joint gaskets, and extra washers just to have them. Picked some gear oil during week.

I topped up the gear oil, put on the CV joint gasket, bolted in the the half shaft. Put in the shift linkage and had both end connected, looked up and noticed I forgot the cover. Disconnect the linkage go find the cover, slide it on and think there should a rubber boot. I must have that boot somewhere, I dig though all my boxes of parts can't find it. We go grab some lunch.

After lunch I look through my orders to see if have ordered one, I had not. I add it to a new order. (Can I claim 914 rubber and AA as a dependents?) I go back out to car the pull the linkage back out till I can get the boot. To find a fresh puddle of gear oil. It is pouring out the the output shaft seal. At two in the afternoon on Saturday nobody open has that seal. Autohaus had them in stock but they are only open during the week.

Looking at the weather I see that mid week was dropping back into the 90's. Since work has dropped back down to just insane, I decide to take a day off midweek after I get the parts. The parts arrive, I pull the half shaft again. I pull the output shaft and seal, put in the new seal. Looking at the output shaft, it seems strange me that Porsche would have left the casting rough so close the the seal. I start cleaning up the shaft to put it back only to find that it not casting . It is rock hard Arizona desert that had combined with gear oil to make one of the best epoxies you can find.
After about 30 minutes I was able to remove it. With it cleaned up reinstalled it, the half shaft, linkage, torqued everything with ALL the parts installed. So far after a few days still bone dry.