Friday, May 25, 2012

AC Lines and Rack-and-Pinion

Made some progress this week regarding adapter plates, etc.   Received a return call from Mike Brown in California late in the week, and upon inquiry, he indicated that he had not yet received the drawing that I sent by certified mail to his post office box the previous week, so hopefully, he will be able to recover it sometime soon and see if my bell housing looks familiar to him.

Another EV company located in Florida was brought to my attention by a fellow EVer this last week.  The web page is rebirthauto.com, and they list EV supplies as well as BMW adapter plates!!  They list a telephone number (727.821.9736 ), but the “contact us” button on their web page was what resulted in a quick reply.  Pictures and drawings were sent to Steve Messerschmidt (steve@rebirthauto.com) and Steve indicated by email that he would try and reply to our inquiry early next week. 

We also received a very polite reply to the inquiry that we sent to Canadian Electric Vehicles Ltd. ( www.canev.com )  in which  Randy Holmquist (randy@canev.com informed us that they do not offer any BMW adapters.

Tonight the project focused on the removal of the AC lines.  The second phase of the build will hopefully include a functioning Air Conditioner, but for now, the hoses, mounting brackets etc. are in the way and might be damaged while the project is underway.  Previously, before disconnecting the AC compressor, I confirmed (using the AC Schroeder valve and a pressure gauge) that there was no residual Freon pressure.  Note: One must always recover the Freon to avoid fines, protect the Earth, and stay out of the Gulag.

Removal of the pair of lines stalled when one of the 6 mm cap head bolts could not be removed.  It would have been helpful to have noticed that I was using non metric hex wrenches.  Correcting that, finally used Plan B, which should have been the original plan, and removed the single 6 mm cap head bolt located on the firewall (12 " extension a must), followed by easing out the 3" x 3” pass thru rubber  grommet on interior sheet metal, and both lines came out smoothly. 

Picture 4660 – shows bulkhead, upper right is entry into cabin, lower left is after removal of the pass thru rubber grommet

Removed one cap bolt on top of the Receiver/Dryer and the pipes were free at last. 


Picture 4654 – shows disconnected AC lines after disconnecting from bulkhead and prior to removal

Placed duct tape over the inlet on the Receiver/Dryer for dirt exclusion and reinstalled the cap head bolts at each fixture so that they can be found in the future.

Labeling is a total pain, but I am confident that each five minutes spent labeling, will eventually save me an hour, and a lot of hair, which is in short supply.  What is needed is some type of plastic/metal tie-off label that has legible numbers embossed directly into the label.  Cleaning water or oil would not be able to destroy the markings, and a master list could then correlate the tag to the function/location.  I must find these.

I cleaned the rack and pinion assembly using a wire brush and putty knife.  Don’t ask.  I will power wash the whole engine compartment after I solve the label problem and after I tie off each electrical fixture with plastic bags.  To the driver side engine mount was attached a metal extension that spanned the steering column and then bolted to the ICE.  Multiple applications of penetrating oil and whacking with a hammer did not release the extension from the mount, so, I had to get Medieval on it and used enough twist and pull, that the top portion of the rubber tore free.  Need to add this part to the need to replace list. 

Picture 4662 – shows partially cleaned rack and pinion. Note the intact engine mount on the left, and the decapitated mount on the right.

Builders Note: Two pairs of wires attach to the sensor on top of the receiver/dryer.  White plug, Brown to Brown, Black to Black.  Black plug: Blue to Red/Black (receiver side), and Yellow/Blue to Black (receiver side).  Must remove the metal “C” clip from each plug to allow removal of the long connector wire.
After 4 hr 45 min, finally went to be at 1:45 am.

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