Station Wagon Solar Roof and Solar Sub- Self Sufficient Sonic Splendor
Toyota has been advertising the “Solar Roof” option for the new 2010 Prius- it’s basically a solar module integrated into the roof panel that runs the cabin ventilation fan on hot and sunny days. Simple enough- but what they didn’t tell you is that you can have a solar roof on any car- obviously!
In: Life and Times, Little Fixes, Renewable Energy System
New Suspension- and the Solano Stroll
As I wrote before I decided to install ground control coilover kits and KYB AGX shocks onto the EV. I did just that last week. The install went quite easily, using these pages for reference.
Before:
The only thing I found a bit unclear in the above linked direcions was how to reattach the ball joint to the lower A arm after it has been removed. When you pull out the two 17mm head bolts as specified, you can swing the whole upright out of the way then lever the lower arm down to pull the shock out.
Lower A arm with ball joint bracket removed:
It’s easy enough to set the bracket back into the A arm, then thread the bolt through the hole in the bracket. The bolt that comes in from the top (just under the shock mount bolt) is a bit tricky as the way it’s sprung the bracket tends to swivel itself down away from the hole in the top of the A arm. I realize this all will seem a bit vague if you’re not looking at it in front of you.
So, I used a scissor jack and an awl to push the bracket back up toward the hole through a small hole in the bottom of the A arm.
The blue screwdriver is holding the bottom of the shock absorber out of the way. The side-bolt on the lower arm has been inserted, the awl on the jack is pushing the bracket (which is hinging on that first bolt) so that the top bolt can be threaded into the bracket.
It worked well enough.
The big white zip tie is holding the ABS wire bracket to the shock absorber, since the shock did not come with the mounting tab on it. I am confident this will be good enough. This mounting tab is the only difference between “for cars with ABS” and “for cars without ABS” shock absorbers.
It was a bit scary beating on the spring perches of the brand new shocks- it’s not tricky or difficult, just a bit hair-raising the first time. So I made this video showing how I did it, just so you can see it’s not that big a deal 
The Ground Control people sent me all the same spring rates (I asked them to decide what would be best for my application) I think it’s 350 all around. Or maybe 375. The rear spring perches are sung off the ground, the fronts are preloaded maybe 1/2 inch. Probably could have had higher rate in the front, but I think it’s OK.
After installing the shocks I got an allignment- I hadn’t gotten it alligned since installing the steering rack either, so it was quite off. The difference in rolling resistance after getting the allignment was very noticible and impressive. It coasts beautifully now.
Moving on- I got an opportunity to take the car out for this year’s Solano Stroll parade right here in town- A friend of mine hooked me up with some folks from the Chamber of Commerce, I offered to give the Albany Citizen and Youth of the year a ride in the car down in the parade. So I washed and waxed the car up and took it out- It worked out great.
And even with an extra 300 LBS on the back of the car (it’s not a 4 seater, you know) the rear suspension wasn’t behaving too badly. Good! Good!
Later that day my friends and family threw me an amazing surprise birthday party. It was great.
Grand debut- The Electric Skateboard
I’ve been working on this project for a couple weeks now, but haven’t mentioned it here- let’s start from the beginning. I was inspired by this post on Jalopnik- I’ve long been interested in leaning vehicles that aren’t bikes. I hadn’t considered the “skateboard steering” approach before. The more I thought about it, the less it seemed like a good idea for a car, what with all kind of funny things about the way it will steer and handle, not to mention road irregularities causing it to steer erratically. Still, though, it’s a way to make a 4 wheeled thing lean through corners without active hydraulics (which always seemed a bit inelegant to me).
Arse Freeze 2009 We’re IN! And, SPACE PIRAES
Last Saturday my LeMons team and I finished filing our application, complete with a brand new theme, a video and coordinated potraits. Monday we were accepted. Awesome. Proving that putting work into the application is worth it. Check out the video here.
The new theme is space pirates. We are space pirates. The car is a space pirate raceship. How about that!?
I’ve begun redecorating the car, taking it down to a blank slate.
Before:
Suspension problem- reaching a solution
I did a little more reading tonight and made up my mind on a suspension solution for the Miata- I’m going with Ground Control coilovers and KYB AGX shock absorbers. Simple enough, plenty of people have done it before. Tons of adjustability. Reading these pages about the AGXs and coilovers help reassure that this is a good and easy way to go, as well as the mention on this page of a 3200 lb miata using this setup. I’m just ready to stop worrying about it and get something reasonably priced, proven and simple on the car. I think the main thing keeping me from driving it now besides charging being still a bit of a pain is the ridiculously bad ride and allignment. I don’t want to get it alligned until I put suspension on it, and the ride won’t improve until I put suspension on it. It’s just not fun to drive like it is now. It doesn’t coast well and bumps and ruts are really unpleasant. And the steering wheel points about 70˚ off straight when the wheels are straight. It’s the little things.
Making progress on Loose Ends
Sunset in Southern Oregon (firefox kind of sucks the life out of this picture, unfortunately. Imagine it much more saturated...)
I’ve got three big areas that need work on the car:
- Overloaded suspension
- Plug-n-Play chargability
- Amp-hour/range remaining instrumentation Read the rest of this post »
In: Battery Regulator, EV Miata
Photo Journo: Wayland Invitational 2009
On my Pacific Northwest roadtrip, as described before, I stopped in Portland for the Wayland Invitational at PIR- set during open weekend drag nights, but with John Wayland's organization a whole EV get together on top.
Some of the photos have clicky links to relevant pages. Mouseover to see if you get the little clicky linky hand.
Bunches more photos lie BELOW- click “Continue Reading”!
In: EV Miata, Photo Journo, Racing
2,300 Miles Later
I have just yesterday arrived back from my great Northwest road-trip adventure- I spent two weeks in Oregon and Washington camping, staying with acquaintences, friends and relatives, meeting people, discussing electric car stuff, reading and thinking about the problems and projects in my life.
Photo Journo: Alameda County Fair 2009
The theme of the day
In: Life and Times, Photo Journo
Photo Journo — Berkeley High School Graduation 2009
Musical talent
In: Life and Times, Photo Journo