Mystery of the flywheel solved!

There is little that I can do at this point without the connecting up the motor - which requires a flywheel.
I haven't been posting my ongoing attempts to find out the status of my flywheel. Let's just say I have been calling the shop weekly always getting an answering machine regardless of when I call. The machine tells me to expect a return call which never comes. I think the last time I actually heard from the shop owner was back in January...

So today, I finally made it out to the shop to confront the owner and get my flywheel back - even if it hadn't been lightened. After an hour drive I find the shop is closed. The gates were locked, the vehicles in the yard were gone as were the collection of rusty crank shafts.
Looks to me like they went out of business - which would explain the un-returned calls...
So, not only do I not have a lightened flywheel, I don't have ANY flywheel.

I got home and checked craigslist, and, like a gift from the gods of electric cars, there was a flywheel listed for sale.
Sunday, I will be $50 poorer, but will be able to move the project forward.

Motor Mount begins

I've been thinking a lot about the motor mount. It's a pretty important part, especially since Miatas don't have transmission mounts, the motor mount secures 3/4s of the drivetrain. I went through a lot of ideas in my head until I came to this one - I think it's a good working solution.
I bought a 9" ring clamp from EV Parts when I bought the motor. It's 2" wide and made from 1/8th steel. I'm mounting it to the subframe directly between the front wheels using two rubber "biscuit" style motor mounts . I cut two pieces of angle iron about 10" long, thinned one down a half inch and welded them together into a long U shaped piece 2" wide. I then marked where the ring clamp will go and removed a semi-circle from each side. Looks pretty good. I was planning on adding some metal to extend the U up the side of the ring, but now think I should allow the ring to compress some, and this extra support would make the lower part of the ring too rigid. I didn't have a chance to weld the ring to the base yet, or drill the holes, but that will give me something to do next weekend ; )

Installed gauges (Part 1)

Got the gauges into the instrument cluster today. It's not as easy as it looks - took a lot of cutting a little careful grinding to get the new gauges to fit (as the black plastic scraps in the picture attest). The stock gauges were about an inch and three quarters (probably metric, though) and these are two inch, so there the holes needed to be re-sized. I used a Dremel, and would highly recommend using one if you attempt something like this. The new gauges stick out a bit - looks kind of like a Toyota Matrix's instrument panel now. The clear plastic panel that covers the dash no longer fits, though. I'm either going to have to modify it to stick out in the bottom to clear the lower gauges or get a half circle piece from TAP plastics and mount it behind the new gauges. Some chrome trim rings would look good on the new gauges too... I'll have to check if Westberg makes 'em. Speaking of Westberg, still have to send back my State-of-Charge gauge. It's only in the picture for show. I'll post an update with the final version of the dash.

EVMiata on KFOG Radio

A friend of mine works at a local radio station, KFOG, and came by to do a short piece on my Miata project and my neighbor's veggie oil burning Mercedes diesel. It's short, but I think it gets the message across that regular people can do something rather than wait for the auto makers to build alternative fuel vehicles. It's due to broadcast for a week, but you can listen to it on KFOG.com at the link below:

Fog files gas free.mp3

A longer version of the interviews is found in a "The Beat of the Bay" show on people having "Ah Ha!" experiences:

Beat of the Bay Ah Ha.mp3

Radio interview and cowl rack is done

A friend of mine works at a local radio station (KFOG) and came by to do a short piece on my Miata project and my neighbor's veggie oil burning Mercedes diesel. He said he's send an MP3 of the final piece and let me know when it airs. Hopefully I won't sound like a total goof.

After the interview I was able to squeeze in a few hours of welding and got the cowl rack finished. I can't mount it until I do the motor mounts, though, so it's just laying there on top of the motor in the picture. Cowl rack is probably a poor name as it really isn't as close to the cowl as I had envisioned it... I'll have to come up with a better name, but for now, *it* is done.

Got the gauges in

State of Charge, Ammeter and Temperature gauge (for the Zilla) all came in. The State of charge was supposed to be 170 volts at 100% and 158 at 0% (this will only show the top 50% of charge, but that's all that's really usable).

The gauge they sent was 158 volt to 178 volt.

It needs to go back : ( Oh well.
Nice looking gauges though and not too deep - ought to fit in the stock instrument cluster without too much work.

Zilla cooling and other parts in - but no Zilla :(

Got a box today from EV Source with the cooling kit, Zolox, potbox and a HUGE fuse for the Zilla. I wasn't expecting to see the Zilla yet, but getting it early would have been nice...