The Grumman Gets Going!

After this chump got stumped for weeks trying to wake up the motor controller and diagnose faults, EV Expert Dave Barden came over for a visit from Vashon Island and solved my woes in one quick computer session.  I've gotta get a dedicated old laptop or Palm set up for this purpose, as the Zilla seems to be stuck in an old world of 9600 baud serial port communication, and USB to serial port adaptors are a wily bunch.....

Driving 17 miles home, the battery pack didn't sag much when kept under 400 amps, and I've resolved to take it easy while working out the bugs.  For example, there's a nagging noise coming from the right front corner that I erroneously diagnosed as a bad constant velocity joint, so the students and I put on two new axles, complete with stub axles and four CV joints.  However, that didn't include the wheel bearings, which are part of the front hubs that the stub axles are inserted through.  Off it all came again today and we pressed new bearings into that olde hub, still bearing the May 1982 inspection sticker!

The old bearing seemed good, but the first test drive seemed to prove us out.  Then we noticed a missing circlip that serves as the bearing retainer, so out came the hub again and during this reassembly, we noticed that a brake pad had delaminated during the test drive and the backing plate was bent.  SO, after that one short test drive, the Grumman went back on jack stands, awaiting new front pads and the retainer bolts that the pads slide on...