I remember my Uncle Walter telling me once about how he was working on a van for a very long time and then one day he was surprised to realize he was done and it was ready to drive. You get so buried in loose ends that you don’t realize how close you are to finishing. Well, that’s me today!
I installed the backup spring for the throttle. That should give me some peace of mind as I hurtle down the road, knowing that it should retract when I take my foot off the pedal.
I ran heavy duty 2/0 cabling between all non-battery parts, and I connected all the low-voltage wiring to amp and volt gauges, ignition, and controller with permanently crimped and heat-shrunk ends. That should wrap up the whole trunk area. Really.
Everything back here is wired up... correctly, I hope.
And I routed two cables from the trunk in through the now unused heating ducts to the place where the batteries are all waiting.
Here's where the battery cables come in
So here’s my piddling checklist to complete the project:
- Read the directions – Make sure I haven’t skipped a step or done something counterindicated by the instructions.
- Get correctly fitting washers and tighten all bolts and screws (loose connections cause meltdowns)
- Connect charger to batteries (easy)
- Inflate tire (Really? This is what I’m down to?)
- Bring in at least one, but hopefully two people to idiot-check my work. (“Whoa! That there don’t look right!”)
- Hook up batteries to each other with 12 short cables
- Drive around the block, save a whale, praise Earth Goddess, await medal from Al Gore.
This is nothing! Honestly! I’m really a few weeks from driving this thing.
Of course… that may bring up a whole new checklist of problems, but I will be able to go claim my tax credit even if the brakes need some work.
