I decided that with only 2 weeks to go until Shep's car show in North Carolina that I had to get the engine back into the vehicle. Rather than removing the rear canopy I decided to unbolt the gas struts and 'flip' the canopy back over the top of the vehicle, seemed like it would save me some hastle of removing it, and it actually worked pretty well! I had a shovel that was just the right height and padded where the handle contacted against the canopy.

Well installing the engine went pretty well, except for one scratch on the paint. The rest of the day was spent installing the intermediate 'jack' shaft as well as the custom pulley/sprocket that I made up to convert from the chain to a flat belt. I had to shim out the middle pillow blocks that mount the shaft a bit to achieve proper alignment.

I also got the drive belt mounted and the rear fender, I measured out and cut the old chain that I had so that I could figure out how many links that I needed the new chain and it was about 28 links. Next week I will go to the bike shop and get a new chain and master link. The remainder of the day was spent trying to find mounting points for some of the engine hardware as well as fooling with the spark arrester that I have. I need to get the exhaust pipe reduced a bit so that it goes into the spark arrester. Here are a couple of other shots of the installed engine:

The Grant steering wheel is just what I was looking for, black anodized aluminum frame with leather rim. The diameter of the wheel is 13". I may need to purchase an installation kit, it was unclear when I bought it.

The Autocraft battery has dual posts, meaning that it has the top posts and on the face it also has screw posts. It was about the biggest battery that I could fit the space allocated and has 1000 amps cranking power. Lots of power, I have always heard that since motorcycle engine based 3-wheelers do not have nearly as much alternator/generator power as do automobiles and as such extra reserve power is preferred. One other neat feature is that the battery came with a removable top cover (possibly for shipping) that I discovered could be flipped over and used as a battery tray!

As well as using a couple of screws to hold the cover/battery tray, I used a web strap to retain it in the front trunk area so it can't move around as shown below. It's starting to get a little tight in the front trunk area:

I installed the steering wheel adaptor and new steering wheel this weekend. Forgot to buy a steering wheel puller so improvised using a piece of steel and drilled a couple of holes in it. Using a couple of bolts through the holes was able to pop off the original wheel. Installation went pretty smoothly following the given instructions.

Next I had to drill a couple of holes to pass wiring up into the front trunk area and up into the dashboard cavity. When I constructed the chassis I had put some holes through the side formers on both sides, but only on the drivers side did I remember to pass through some twine from front to back. So on the passenger side I taped up my shop vacuum to the rear access hole and tried to suck a line from the front of the vehicle.

This was not working so well so I put a small piece of foam onto the end of the line and tried again. This partially worked however the foam ended up getting stuck in one of the holes in the side formers and blocked it. Frustrated I gave up on it, possibly later I will try reversing the vacuum and blow it out.

Then I divided up the wiring and pulled the taillight group through the drivers side and at the same time pulled a couple of other lines of twine through - for future pulls. Next I tried to pull the thicker battery cables through, got one through successfully, but the 2nd kept getting hung up at some point. After numerous attempts I decided that what I needed to do was to 'un-pull' the taillight wires and bring both battery cables through first, then pull all ancillary wires. By this time it was late afternoon so I decided to quit for the day.

The radiator that I want uses a standard 2-1/4" core with side tanks that are 3" deep

Here are the radiator shops that I contacted:

• Wizard Cooling
• Cool Craft
• Street Rod Stuff

Here is diagram of the radiator that I want to have made, click on it for a larger view:

After the battery cables were done, I then re-pulled the taillight wiring group with a successful outcome.

Scott also said that a shroud would not be necessary and that a pair of 9" diameter fans would fit nicely. The fans are approx 2" deep, put out a total of 800-1000CFM and use 10-12 amps of power.

Initial drawing had an internal oil cooler, updated the drawing to remove it.

2nd design would have hit the canopy lid as it closed, I have a 1-1/2" strip of maple under the skin that extends below window.

3rd redesigning of the radiator. This time iit gets recessed into cavity, uses original heat sensor, added mounting tabs for external oil cooler and now uses PULL fans on the engine side.

Tonight I spent some time sorting through the wires of the new wiring harness. I split them up into groups of which ones need to be pulled to the back of the vehicle and those that either stay in the passenger compartment or the front trunk area. The taillight group was already pulled and was pretty obvious. Since the engine is in the rear of the vehicle instead of in the front I will have to extend a number of wires in the harness so that they can go to the back.

The holes in the side formers are about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" in diameter and I lucked out with pulling all the wires to the rear of the vehicle on the drivers side only! I pulled about 5 extra 16gauge wires through for things that I knew that I would need such as electric speedometer, neutral switch, etc. so hopefully I will not have to pull any more. I left twine string in the chassis so that if need be in the future I could pull them.

Here is a list of the wires that were pulled to the rear of the vehicle, as you can see there is quite a few wires:

• Battery + (1/0 gauge)
• Battery - (1 gauge)
• #1 radiator fan
• #2 AC/Heat
• #11 right power window (use for latch solenoids)
• #14 alternator excitor (don't think that this will be used)
• #15 alternator output
• #19 neutral safety (to starter solenoid)
• #20 coil (used for ignition control power instead)
• #21 temperature sensor
• #22 oil pressure sensor
• #23 tachometer
• #42 power antenna
• #47 electric fuel pump (used for front fuel pump as well)
• #54 electric choke (not used - manual choke)
• #29 (2 wires) right/left tail lights
• #46 rear trunk light
• #48 right rear turn signal
• #49 left rear turn signal
• #55 3rd brake light
• #56 backup light
• 5 extra wires

I decided that I wanted to put some speakers on the inside of the 'torque box' structure, a quick measurement and I determined that I could just squeak in some 5-1/4" round speakers. I had to cut a 4-5/8" hole to place the speakers in so I put down some masking tape through the area and marked out where the hole was to be cut out. You have to be VERY careful in this placement as there is not much room for error, you can see that I just missed the leading edge of the torque box:

I put in the holes on both sides this helped pulling wires through from the front to the back so I highly advise doing it before you pull the wires. The above picture on the right shows the installed speaker and grill.

There were a number of wires that had to be extended, I went out and purchased locally as many colors of 16 gauge that they had (about 6 spools of 20') as well as 10' of both 10 and 12 gauge. I did not simply splice the wire onto the end, but instead spliced it in the middle of the wire where it went through the side formers. This way the wires were still had the label markings on them at the other end and saved me from remarking them. All spices were fully soldered, shrink wrapped and taped to ensure that I would not get any shorts, etc. a lot of work but worth it in the long run.

I will be installing a circuit box/enclosure above the drivers side pontoon the wires will be brought from the pontoon, through some conduit to keep them from being exposed from weather, I will have to locate and install the box before I get too much farther. Here are a couple of other pictures:

Below is a thumbnail of the starting/charging circuit, click on it to see a larger image:

Below is a thumbnail of the ignition circuit, click on it to see a larger image:

I figured that I wanted to put the following components in it: starter relay fuel pump relay radiator fan relay latch relay clutch diode

The battery cables ran into the box will each have a stud for easy wire connections. All other cable will be ran through a short length of conduit (sealed at both ends), most of these wires will pass out the box through the grommet on the bottom edge, while the wires for the taillights and latches will exit out the top left grommet. The Ignition Control Module and Regulator/Rectifier will be mounted external to the circuit box onto the chassis so that they have ventilation.

To put it short they absolutely refused to supply any schematic (no huge problem) but it was extremely difficult to get in a word between his rantings that for 16 years even people that have no electrical background could connect the product without any problems. I found that he was very sensitive to my questions and had a very aggressive nature on the phone. I tried to tell him that the instruction manual had numerous errors and omissions in it and that it did not even show how to connect the 50amp main fuse! He started going off on a rant like a 6 year old, and to be perfectly honest I had had enough of it and hung up on him. These are my impressions of the 'conversation' that occurred and not meant to slander anyone and mearly my point of view.

I would NOT RECOMMEND using Kwik-Wire.

Maybe it's just me but I prefer to do business with people that appreciate your business and don't berate you for not understanding their documentation - which to them the document is perfectly clear. At this time I feel that I am on my own to either figure out how to install this product by myself or switch to another product.

I went to both Automotive Autowire and Painless Performance to see what manuals etc that they might have. The Automotive Autowire installation has a complete schematic included in their document, and the Painless installation manual appears to be good as well with similar wire numbering scheme (#915 vs #15) that matches the wiring harness that I already have as well as good diagrams and sectional schematics. With these download manuals I think that I can use the harness that I have already spent a couple days work on and make it work...

Here are some downloads I may be able to use:

• Painless Performance #90501 18 circuit installation manual
• Automotive Autowire Highway 22 Kit schematic diagram (previously downloaded, no longer available online)

The Painless Performance installation document is FAR superior to what I currently got with my wiring harness, and I feel pretty much sets the standard for what would be required for this potentially complicated scratch wiring installation. They have 3-D views as well as partial schematics and even discuss differences in wiring 2-bulb vs 4-bulb tail lights.

In review of the Painless #90501 document I have determined that there is only ONE difference (other than prepending a 9 to the wire #) in the wire numbering, that being the 3rd brake light! Now I should be able to install my current harness without issue as the Painless document also has sectional schematics so that I can visually see what modifications I need to make for my specific installation.

The automotive solenoid is easier to mount and has no extraneous terminals. I will be wiring up a neutral safety switch on the clutch pedal, this way either the transmission has to be in neutral or the clutch pedal needs to be depressed for the starter solenoid to 'kick in' when the ignition is turned on.

Spent some time tonight and modified the original VFR750 starting/charging circuit.

Once cleaned up a bit I painted it with some of the satin black aerosol spray paint that I had, and finally made the holes for cables, conduit and a 1-1/4" hole for a grommet. I sealed up the holes in the pontoon using some black silicon caulk.

Once mounted I pulled the wires through the conduit and separated them into common groupings. Initially I had pulled wire #16 (system power) to the back but unpulled it, this wire is the main feed from the battery into the fuse panel and I thought that it would be better to have it as short as possible. This wire will connect to the maxi-fuse which will connect directly to the battery up in the front of the vehicle.

I also decided that since I did not need to use wire #14 (alternator exciter) that I will be using this for the neutral/clutch switch connection to the negative side of the starter solenoid. This is a heave #14 gauge wire and would be plenty heavy enough for the job as well as not having me to pull another wire to the back.

I ordered all of these items from Summit Racing. The #2 gauge wire I got came with eyelet connectors so I did not need to purchase these. The post-style connectors will be used to connect the cables to the battery, while the eyelet-style connectors will be used at the rear circuit box.