Fabricating Mounts

Yesterday I was about to work on running a cable from the main contactor to the Alltrax motor controller B+ terminal. I was using one of the short wires that I received from a local enthusiast of CitiCars. The A311 angles were in the way when trying to bend the wire.

I spent a great deal of time bending the tops down backwards over the SW202 motor reversing switch. Part of the problem was bending the brackets while they were still in the car. The other part was that I just didn’t have the tools available to do it properly. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t clean, but I got the job done.

Now that the brackets are bent over, they provide an additional surface to mount things to. They seem a bit high in where they are bent. The cable itself is under too much stress. I’m reconsidering how to attach it in the most beneficial way.

PlugShare

I’ve been using PlugShare to find charging stations. They let you pick your car from a list, but I had to choose “Other”, which just showed a tarp over a sedan. I sent customer support (Ticket #70359) a request a couple weeks ago to let me choose a custom name other than “Other”, along with my own image of the car.

They got back today and added a “Sebring Vanguard Citicar” option, and asked if it was compatible with J1772 connections, to which I replied:

Stock model from the 70s is only compatible with level 1 chargers. A lot of us CitiCar/Comuta Car owners have been modifying them with J-1772 adapters, lithium battery, and chargers that support up to 240v.

A few others on the C-Car Facebook group confirmed that they too were able to add their CitiCars and got a kick out of it with plenty of excitement. It feels like these little cars are getting a little bit of validation in their place in history.

Fuming Mad

TLDR; gas smells bad

Ramble

I haven’t been to a gas station since February. Partly due to the fact that my primary vehicles were inoperable for awhile. A dead battery due to just not driving the car, and the SUV had problems trying to shift it out of park. Both vehicles are up and running now.

I had an in-person doctors appointment and decided to take the hour-long trip in my car since it gets 45 miles to the gallon compared to my gas guzzling SUV. I only drive the SUV occasionally to keep the battery charged and to pull my RV – but camping is canceled during the pandemic.

Anyhow, I’m running on, getting off topic.

Fumes

So my car had maybe 70 miles left, so I stopped to get some gas. I could smell the gas station! I hadn’t smelled anything like that since I was a kid. I thought the smell went away when everyone switched to unleaded gasoline. And the smell was stuck on my hands afterwards.

So yea… I just found it curious.

Rant

Don’t sit behind a Ford Mustang GT at a drive through. The fumes and loud noises are unbearable. I just kept imagining how much money the driver was spending to get me high. Every drive-through has cars just idling, wasting gasoline. One of the largest parts of a car is dedicated specifically to making the engine quieter. The mustang had two tail pipes and it was still very loud when idling. It makes me wonder how much louder the engine could get without it.

Big Rebuild

Seeing the bare copper in the wire that rubbed against the asphalt has made me rethink things quite a bit. I haven’t driven the CitiCar since then. Given my other vehicles are working now, I’m considering taking that giant leap and start replacing everything, starting with the motor.

The weather is still good for working outside. I also believe that I have everything that I need now. Wire, switches, monitors, batteries, charger, adapter, motor, controller, contactors, etc. I need to push this project forward.

Other news

My racing switches arrived today along with another tiny radio head unit for Bluetooth and microSD cards. The switches mounting plate looks like it is too high to put it where the stock radio is usually installed.