Battery Update

They hadn't arrived - my mistake - it sure sounded like they were sitting on the dock. They arrive Monday the 1st of Feb.
They will be moved to the Customs broker's warehouse and after AQIS inspection, I can pick them up from there. I am informed that there is no duty on these batteries - hooray!!

Heater Control

I plan on making an electronic control box so that I can alter the heat coming out of the ceramic heater element. I may be suffering under a delusion that I can get too much heat but it is almost as easy to make it variable as it is to have just on and off.
Here is the original cable-operated control. The cable goes to the hot-water tap under the bonnet - which no longer exists. The other (lower) cable is the vent control and the choke cable is on the left of the photo.
I'm kind of looking forward to losing three out of the four cables that connect to the dashboard. The speedo, choke and heater tap cables are gone. Pulling the dash out is going to be dead easy in this car.

Here is my new control. The linkage now goes to a potentiometer with about 120 degrees of rotation. The pot gives me 0 to 8K Ohms variable resistance which will be the input to the heater variable control box (PWM control). The pot is mounted on a piece of aluminium which is held using the old cable outer sheath securing bolt.

For the technically minded, the little pieces of linkage metal are from the strain relief of a DB25 connector I had lying around at work. One vice and a pair of pliers...
I will seal up the gaps in the pot before installing it to ensure that dust doesn't cause problems.

Motor positioning

I have been messing around for a week now with the motor mounting within the Vogue body.
I always knew that the terminal box on the motor was going to give me grief but I was hoping that I was being pessimistic - I wasn't.
Here is a near final drawing of how I intend to mount the motor and 2 of the battery packs. The front of the car is to the right.

Now here is the problem.
I have overlayed a line diagram of the Vogue chassis with the body to help with visualisation.

The terminal box on the motor is around 80mm high. On this drawing I have dramatically reduced it's height - maybe about 20mm. You can see it will still hit the transmission tunnel roof. I can move the motor further into the engine bay but that is a comprimise that I would like to defer if nothing else can be done.

My current investigation involves removing the end caps and rotor from the motor and reversing the whole lot. That will place the terminal box on the other end of the main body of the motor. Curiously, that's how the motor looked in the original diagrams sent to me before the motor was made.
This image tells it all.

I have emailed the motor manufacturer basically asking if it is within my capability to do this and whether the end caps are "reversible".

My Batteries are in Australia

I was notified by Global Logistics Melbourne P/L yesterday that the battery packs have arrived in Melbourne.
I had to scurry around finding a customs broker.
I really should have done that before the packs left China.
The other issue is that the packs were shipped in a wooden crate without the correct procedure for fumigation so that has to be done here.
You live and learn. I should have known as this was an issue with the motor crate as well.
With any luck I may have them within the next few days.

Steering Box Pitman Arm is FREE!

This may not seem a big deal but it has taken me a couple of days to get the dang thing off! I bought a "Pitman Arm Puller" off eBay (seller was very near my work) and removed it last night.
A Pitman Arm Puller (the steering arm is called a Pitman Arm).


Even with the arm puller on very tight (my socket spanner arm was flexing with the strain), I still had to give it a couple of taps with a hammer to get it to release. Now I can remove the steering box.

Cardboard Motor and Removing Steering Box

We made up a cardboard motor with the same basic dimensions as the real one. That way it's easy to play around with mounting positions.


The first thing I found is that I can't have it as far back in the transmission tunnel as I'd hoped. It fits OK but the rear cross-member gets in the way. I need about 50mm clearance from the motor to the cross-member.


I have wasted an enormous amount of time trying to remove the steering box. The reason that I want to remove it is that the lower seal leaks and it will make it a lot easier to clean around it if it isn't there. I am unable to get the steering arm off the tapered spline on the steering box. I may give up and leave it to a professional once the car is on the road.

Last of the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Parts Out

The Exhaust system and fuel lines are out.


The Fuel tank, heater box and accelerator linkages and accelerator poodle, sorry pedal.
The accelerator pedal will be replaced by a "fly by wire" pedal from a VW polo so I do not need the complicated linkage arrangement.
The heater box will have the radiator type core removed and the ceramic heater element fitted.

Exhaust System and Fuel lines out

I figured the exhaust wasn't going to come out easily so I just did it the destructive way. Out with my trusty angle grinder which I haven't used much since getting it to cut ceramic tiles. Down to Bunnings for a couple of metal cutting off disks and away we go. Very quick but the sparks actually hurt. I know, I should have had long sleeves but it was hot weather.

You can see in this shot that the drivers side (left) has more built up grime due to the crankcase breather being on that side of the car. (I have scraped that side a fair bit.) Two years after the Vogue was built, Rootes changed so that their cars fed the breather back into the intake (into the carburetor) - not so the Vogue - straight to atmosphere.