Welcome back!

It seems our baby already has a name – Kelli! (see license plates in photos)

The most pressing issue right now is getting the vehicle into the garage as winter is approaching and working outside in winter in Illinois would simply be madness. Despite sticky breaks on the rear wheels we were able to use the starter motor and some muscle to get the vehicle in the garage. Despite coinciding with the end of the semester and finals week, we spent a few days to prop the rear of the car, diagnose and repair the drum brakes.

There was a significant amount of rust built-up on the shoes of the drum brakes. We decided it would be worthwhile to replace the brake cylinder and to install new shoes – assembly required! Tom and I split the job, I took the right passenger side removing the wheel and various axle mounted brake components, then removing the old drum brake and assembling the new drum brake: shoe return springs, adjuster lever spring, parking brake cable, and shoes. Then I reconnected the braking fluid line and re-mounted the new brake.

I’ll admit, getting the springs connected was a challenge. We found an official factory repair manual for our model which helped a bit. With some clever scheming and use of leverage we got the job done and the new components look very shiny and pretty when mounted.

What’s next: Mount new drums and remount the wheels. Develop preliminary electric system schematic, determine/identify specifications

Tags: Engineering, EV conversion