Porsche 914 EV Conversion

DECEMBER 28, 2006

The conversion process highly recommends installing a new clutch assembly, so I ordered a clutch kit from Driving Source NW in Salem, OR (part # POR055822) on December 27th. Dennis from Driving Source NW was going to be in Portland the next day and was wonderful enough to deliver the clutch (and four CV joint gaskets in upper left of photo) to my house.

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Portland Conversion Kits Porsche 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

DECEMBER 31, 2006

I'd like to thank the wonderful folks in the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association for all their advice and input in helping me learn more about the whole electric vehicle scene. Rick Barnes has graciously allowed me to help him with his Ford Probe conversion one Saturday and John Benson, who lives a 20-minute walk away, has let me look at his Porsche 914 DC motor conversion project.

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Oregon Conversion Porsche DC 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 20, 2007

Over the past few weeks I've been trying to contact the folks at Electro Automotive to get the status of the EV 914 kit. They finally responded last night and apparently they're completely buried under the demand for EV conversion kits. Mike and Shari both have colds and the welder that creates the frames for the battery holders is quite backlogged.

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Golf Cart Kits Conversion Volt 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 25, 2007

Yay! I just got my first shipment from ElectroAuto in months! The motor mount and adaptor to the transmission showed up. This is progress. The only thing vaguely unsettling to me is that the invoice says that they already shipped the Zivan NG3 charging system, but I haven't received it yet. I'll give it a couple of days to show up and then send off an e-mail to get a tracking number.

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Parts Motor Motors Motoring 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 30, 2007

Whew, the charger arrived last night. I'm glad it didn't get lost in shipping. I have to be careful sometimes because the UPS guy leaves stuff behind a post on my front porch and sometimes I don't look there when I get home. Although I haven't fired it up, the charger seems to be in one piece. The specs say that it draws 115V at 20 amps. I'll ask Zivan if I can tune down the required power so I can plug it into the 15A/115V outlet at work.

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Plug-in Plug Charging Power 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 31, 2007

One of the major issues with electric vehicles is keeping the battery pack healthy so it lasts a long time. The issue with having a long string of batteries is that when you charge them, not all batteries charge at the same rate. Without going in with your multi-meter and measuring the voltage on all the batteries individually, it's hard to keep track of which ones aren't as charged as the others.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Charging Water 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 1, 2007

Well, today was the big day to dump some cash on a platform for the EV. After thinking about it and talking with some friends, I decided to splurge and spend a few thousand more on a much nicer looking car so I wouldn't have to worry about fixing up the cosmetics. I really like the interior and the car drives well. There were minor things that didn't work like the horn and a notch in the trunk for the TargaTop, but Craig is going to work on those before I pick it up tomorrow.

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Conversion Parts Cars 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 2, 2007

My friend Pete drove me out to Camp914 today to pick up the vehicle. Craig did a wonderful job on detailing it and showed me all the required controls. I drove it home without a hitch and spent a bunch of time reading the instruction manual (you're not supposed to do that!). There are a few minor things to fix, but overall, the car is fantastic. I even met the prior owner (Vince) at camp914 and heard his story.

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Cars Vehicles 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 3, 2007

I stayed up last night until midnight repairing a whole bunch of little things that didn't work on the car. I'm actually quite psyched that I was able to do it all in about six hours. Things that I fixed were: - Add stainles steel seat adjuster handles - Re-adjust the steering wheel so it was centered - Fix the hi-beam headlight switch - Fix the auto turn-signal cancellation worked again - Fix the connection to the horn (the custom WoooGaa horn is great!

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Re-Charge Connect Connected Light 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 3, 2007

After much fussing around to get the dashboard apart, I finally got the headlamp switch removed. It looks like the headlamp contact is completely burned off. That would explain why the headlights only worked intermittently. Luckily, the prior owner left another headlamp switch in the glove box. The switches are different, but I could cannibalize an electrical contact plate from the older "skinny" switch and replace the burnt one in my newer "fat" switch.

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Installation Parts All-Electric Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 11, 2007

One of the diseases that plagues the fuel-injected 914 is the difficulty in getting the car to idle under all conditions. My 914 starts up just fine but then stalls most of the time at stoplights after cruising on the freeway for 30 minutes or more (heating up the engine). It's also started jerking around when first accelerating from a cold start, sometimes rather violently that the whole car shakes back and forth.

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Engine Fuel Parts Cars 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 4, 2007

After fixing the headlamp switch and re-gluing the rear-view mirror back on, the 914 is fully operational and a total blast to drive! My friend Rick and I drove out to the Columbia Gorge for a hike. It was a beautiful day and having the Targa-top down allowed us to see all the mountains and cliffs on each side as we drove down I-84. I'm going to start commuting to work with the 914 to get used to the vehicle's capability and have some fun while it's still has the range of a gasoline car.

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Gasoline Oil Light Range 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 14, 2007

Well, I tried to learn more about the distributor two evenings ago and really screwed up the engine timing. The 914 runs but really sputters and jerks around when cold and doesn't seem to improve much after warming up. I have an appointment at the shop on Friday to fix my "optimizations." On a more interesting note, I prototyped a battery equalizer with two 12V UPS batteries earlier this week.

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Volt Installation Batteries Battery 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 16, 2007

I took the 914 in to Alan at A & P Specialties this morning and his techs fixed the timing so the car runs smoothly again. The points were burned and had to be re-timed. The real acid test is if the car fires up tomorrow while getting cold all night. Alan said that if it ran poorly when cold, the block temperature sensor or the pressure sensor is probably having issues.

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Re-Charge Conversion Light All-Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 18, 2007

I'm currently working on a battery equalizer for the 914 EV based on the whitepaper at the following link: [link] The above two schematics show the circuit that I'm experimenting with using 12V batteries. It seems to work fine on my bench. The circuit above costs less than $10 per battery in parts and I hope to make this available to everyone to help people make their batteries last longer.

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Golf Cart Batteries Battery Kits 147

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

I received the suspension parts from ElectroAuto today. If you hadn't read before, the 18 8-volt golf cart batteries add 800 pounds to the weight of the car, so the suspension needs upgrading. It looks like I got new springs(blue), torsion bars (red) and two sets of matching shock absorbers (white/silver). If I go to the shop and have these replaced, I won't really be able to drive the car around.

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Golf Cart Kits Volt Batteries 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 24, 2007

I've been mulling over some ideas for the past few days. The 914 doesn't run well at all when its cold and after going to the DEQ, I realized that I'm going to need a lot of work to get the car to pass emissions (it's a rather gross polluter right now). So, given that it's cold and rainy for a few months and I have the suspension, I decided to start the conversion, despite not having all the parts from ElectroAuto yet.

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Golf Cart Cheap Clean Cleaning 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 2, 2007

Whew, today was a long day. My friend Jonathan was in town and helped me go out to pick up some old, sulfated 8-volt batteries from Pacific NW Yamaha Golf Cars. Bob at NW Yamaha was great and sold me some old 8-volt batteries for $5 apiece. I'm going to use these to test out my 8-volt desulfator system to see if I can revive them. These US-Battery models are the same that are going into the electric car conversion.

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Batteries Battery Volt Gasoline-Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 3, 2007

Can one revive a mostly dead battery? Several internet sources say yes. Above is a picture of a heavily sulfated 8-volt golf-cart battery I acquired yesterday. It had a floating voltage of 7.85 when I got it and needed half a gallon of distilled water to fill it back up. Just off to the right of the battery I've attached the $250 "Cadillac of Desulfators" and it's merrily buzzing away along with a 1-amp trickle charger.

Golf Cart 100

Golf Cart Volt Cadillac Water 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 8, 2007

I just got back from A & P Specialties where Alan replaced the suspension on the 914 and did a steam cleaning in the engine compartment. Without the battery weight and having the unaligned suspension, the car rides unstable and high. No matter, I'm going to start preparing to drop the engine this weekend. I ran out and got another floor jack and a water-proof label-maker so I can mark all the wires and hoses as I take them out.

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Conversion Water Gasoline Clean 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 8, 2007

On a more process-oriented note, the 8-volt battery sitting on the desulfator is up to 9.1 volts (from 7.95 volts), so I have warm fuzzies that the desulfation system is working somewhat. I'll wait until the battery gets up to 9.6 volts (float voltage) and see what the specific gravity is. If this experiment works, I might splurge and purchase a $500 super-desulfator and offer to desulfate batteries for the OEVA club.

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Volt Purchase Batteries Battery 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 8, 2007

Here is some progress in the first two hours: Covering wrenches with blue electrical tape for battery work. Removing the Engine Cover Taking out the Battery Removing the starter wire from the positive battery terminal Uncovering the fuel pump for draining gasoline Taking out the "classic" WoooGaaa horn The next step will be to take off the front and rear hood lids, which I'll need an assistant.

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Gasoline-Electric Gasoline Batteries Battery 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 8, 2007

In addition to starting the conversion, the OEVA had their monthly meeting this evening. I got to chat with a bunch of folks about battery management systems and share my excitement over starting the 914EV conversion. Keith on his all-electric scooter Demonstration of a battery equalization system that uses one charger per battery after the main charger finishes with the bulk charge.

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Conversion Batteries Battery All-Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 9, 2007

Most of today was spent just taking the car apart. My friend Pete came over for lunch and we removed the front and rear trunk lids. We also drained the fuel tank by operating the fuel pump with a 12V gelpack battery and took out the fuel tank. I even went so far as to yank out all the fuel lines that go down the center tunnel of the car. There's no going back to gasoline now!

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Volt Fuel Gasoline Connect 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 11, 2007

I spent yesterday (Saturday) disconnecting all the cables from under the car in preparation to drop the engine. The shift linkage was especially hard because it moved around so much. My friend John (above) held the shift lever still while I yanked out the linkage earlier today. I also drained all the engine oil and transmission fluid. My buddy Pete is providing some 2x4s later today to hold up the car so I can drop the engine this week.

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Oil Engine Parts Design 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 13, 2007

The engine just about a foot below mounting height. Engine pulled back about a foot. Hole left over in the engine compartment with dropped engine. Notice the belt that drives the air pump for the emission control system. Well, I worked for the last three hours to drop the engine out of the car. I followed all the directions in the Pelican Parts technical article and didn't miss any attached parts.

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Engine Exhaust Parts Gas 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 16, 2007

This week has been a whirlwind and I haven't caught up on sharing all the pictures. Last Tuesday, I received another shipment from ElectroAuto. This one included the motor controller mounting plate (large black rectangle), its rubber mounting posts and the potbox and its mounting plates. Since this kit is the 914 AC kit, I have no idea how to install the controller plate.

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Parts Kits Installation IDEA 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 16, 2007

Apparently Blogger thinks this blog is a spam site and is forcing me to type in characters with each post. This wouldn't bother me, except that it doesn't accept my character input as valid, even though I've tried a few times. I've put in a request to stop this, but it will probably take awhile. In the meantime, I've pulled out the engine and rotated it for easier access to remove the transmission.

Engine 100

Engine 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 19, 2007

Blogger just took me off of "spam blog" status, so I can now post more pictures of the engine drop procedure. Here are some 2x4s under the chassis to prevent the car from coming down. I also put 4x4 blocks under the axles to prevent the brake shields from getting damaged in case I lowered the body too much. Here's the primary engine mount after I unbolted it.

Engine 100

Engine Motor Motors Motoring 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 20, 2007

This was a big evening of figuring out how to remove the transmission with one person. First up was removing the rear portion of the exhaust system, shown here next to my trusty 34mpg 1994 Saturn. (Someone else converted a '94 Saturn Wagon to an EV, but I'll keep mine!) Here is the removed transmission. I'll try to take more pictures as I go next time to document the process better.

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Saturn Exhaust Conversion Connect 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 21, 2007

I put the engine for sale on CraigsList and have to prepare it for delivery this weekend. There is very little space in my one-car garage so getting rid of the engine while keeping all the necessary components will be good. In order to get a last measurement of the flywheel to housing distance, I got a digital caliper from Harbor Freight Tools for only $29.

Engine 100

Engine Porsche Conversion For Sale 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 21, 2007

Lee Hart, an EV guru on battery maintenance and equalization, has graciously e-mailed with me regarding the best way to equalize batteries. He's currently working on upgrading his battery balancer (see link at right) to handle a wider range of battery technologies and applications. Lee convinced me that the flying capacitor approach that I originally thought would work is not practical in real world situations.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Convert Maintenance 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 23, 2007

After talking with some engineers at HP and mulling over some ideas, I came up with the attached schematics for an inexpensive battery balancer. This one relies much more heavily on complex PIC programming and uses an off-the-shelf laptop or inkjet-printer power supply to deliver an isolated source of power for the battery charger. Any feedback you have is welcome.

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Cheap IDEA Convert Parts 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 24, 2007

This morning, Jamie from Corvallis bought my engine and took it away, freeing up much needed garage space. Thanks, Jamie! Engine in Jamie's van with a bunch of extra parts. Me, enjoying my desperately needed garage space.

Engine 100

Engine Parts 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 24, 2007

Today was an educational and humbling day. I appreciated having the new garage space after the engine went away. I started opening up the transmission because first and second gears were grinding badly and I wanted to see if I could replace the synchro rings. Here's the back end of the transmission with the cap removed. The crescent-shaped shifting fork for first and reverse is on the left.

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Parts All-Electric International Store 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 25, 2007

While taking apart the transmission, I took some measurements with a digital caliper. These are probably different from other 914s out there, but I wanted to record them here in case I lose them amid the rapidly increasing paperwork. Distance from edge of flywheel to engine housing: 1.684-1.687 inches at various places motor adapter cone depth: 1.318 inches motor adapter socket depth: 1.373 inches 4th/5th gear shift fork to bracket on shift rod: 0.127 inches 2nd/3rd gear shift fork to ridge on s

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Motor Motors Motoring Engine 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 26, 2007

My first use of a Sawz-All. The hole for the motor controller plate. All the transmission pieces (waiting for new parts) covered up to prevent metal shavings from getting into them. The motor controller plate provided by ElectroAuto before being bolted and caulked in. Today I got to try out my new set of cobalt metal-cutting drills and the SawzAll I borrowed from my dad.

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Installation Motor Motors Motoring 100