RE: RANGE COMPLAINTS?

[eric.chang@CHRYSALIS.ORG]

Hi Paul.  Thanks for the encouragement and the tips on motor
repair.  I went up to the East Bay Electric Auto meeting and
chatted with a few of the folks up there.  Clare Bell got me
on the phone with Bob Schneeveis (sp?).  These folks are
really knowledgable about all the technical ins and out of
EV's.  They also have a lot of cool hardware in the building.
Anyway, the pres showed me an armature with the winding bands
wrapped around both ends, and Bob told me how to fix them and
where to get supplies.  Clare and Bob also told me that EASE
certification really does not mean much more than showing
ability at repariing commercial air conditioning motors.  It
was immediately clear that the dire warning about replacing
commutator bands with kevlar thread and high temperature
epoxy ruining the commutation of the motor were unrealistic.
In fact, Bob told me that it was standard practice to repair
with polymers and rebalance with epoxy.  (I would need the
services of a rebalancer, but this is straightforward.)
They also told me that this motor shop is taking advantage
of my inexperience, and I have to go to a decent person and 
mention their name.  There is just such a fellow, who just
happened to do a much more involved job for Clare on a motor
which placed well in some race.  This cost was only $900,
and she said that the motor was not just repaired, but it
was reengineered.  It reminds me of my dad who had his transmission,
drive shaft and differential replaced to get rid of this 
strange noise.  The noise did not go away.  So, this old
motorcycle gang guy told him to go to a strange junkyard in
the bad part of town and mention his name.  My dad did just
that
, and he returned home in a bad mood.  One of the fellows
just laughed and said that he must have a loose screw behind
the wheel.  My dad went to that old motorcycle gang guy
and complained.  The guy said that his buddies may have 
done some dirty work in the past, but they were straight
shooters :-).  So my dad told him what they said and the
motorcycle guy said, why don
t you check the tightness of your lug nuts?  Did you have
a new tire mounted recently.  My dad found that one was loose,
and when he tightened it, the noise went away.  Eric