I started working on the housing and realized that the 6" pipe that I had previously gotten had an actual ID of 6.050" and in addition it was not round so that by the time that I machined it to be round the inside was oversized.

I have ordered up some tooling that will make my life easier in making the next reverse unit a lot easier to manufacture. It has been over 20 years since I last worked in a machine shop and now I realize that how spoiled I was previously, in that they had all of the tooling already on hand, including some of the more specialized stuff that I am now having to acquire.

Work still to be done is to modify the housing to include a cable activated brake band actutor, a mounting for the housing as well as making a mounting and adapter to connect the DC motor.

They would not issue comprehensive or collision but cover liability only. This was inline with what others had said about getting insurance for home built vehicles.

In WV they have a customized plate that you can purchase for an additional $10, it contains a graphic and limits the text to six characters, so I settled on 'VORTEX' that is if it is available. I was originally hoping that it could have seven as I wanted a plate that said 'GENESIS' but it is one too many characters...

Of course when I checked out the axle adjusters they would not be long enough, so I ended up making up another set. It is important that the axle adjusters completely cover the slots in the swing arm otherwise water could get into the swing arm and make a mess on the inside.

Mounted the VIN Plate and the license plate and FINALLY took the vehicle out for a test drive. I ended going a bit farther than initially intended and over all went about 20miles round trip. I was having so much fun that I did not want to turn around, *lots* of strange looks from everyone that saw it go down the road - and it was a ton of fun! I returned home and got my wife in and went for a short drive as well, got back home without incedent.

There was a couple observations that I made with this initial test drive:

1. Starting out from dead stop is better than previous.
2. Exhaust is loud, too loud..
3. Aluminum radiator works fantastic!

First item - Gearing: it is good enough for now but initially I will see if I can find an 18T sprocket for the intermediate shaft. I think that the speedometer is off as it said that at one time I was going 55 but it felt more like 45. At that speed the tachometer read about 3800 rpm which is perfectly acceptable. The gearing is better now that I replaced the 30T pulley with the 26T one, however have to be a bit careful if I am starting from a dead stop and going up an incline. For right now I will leave gearing alone with the thought that eventially I will locate an 18T sprocket for the intermediate shaft.

Next item - Exhaust: quite loud will have to address this. I will see if there is an insert for the spark arrester that I am using, possibly adding more baffles.

Last item - Radiator: The aluminum radiator work fantastically! It finally came on after about 15 miles, it was fairly quiet and probably was on for about a minute when it shut off. I believe that the fact that it is aluminum makes it radiate heat almost as fast as it gets put into it, I have to believe that I will not have to worry about over-heating at all!

I realized that I wanted to remake the engine torque strap that I originally cludged up, and this time I could also incorporate a bit of a chain shield to help keep the grease in control.

I took some 1/2" OD round stock and cut it to 13" total length. I then threaded each end using a 1/2-13NC die, one end 3-1/2" long and the other about 4" long. Next I took a piece of 12 gauge sheet metal cut out a length about 3" x 6" and welded it to the torque strap. Ground down the weld and painted it up.

It should work out great and help keep some of the flying grease in check. Here are a couple of pictures of it:

First thing that I did was to take her for another 30 mile trip around town.

First thing that I did was to loosen the engine mount bolts and move the engine slightly forward to remove the extra slack in the chain. Then I used my plasma cutter and cut out some mounting plates out of 1/8" thick steel for attaching onto the engine subframe, and drilled them out for a 1/2" retaining bolt. You will note that the front of the plates are welded onto the front side of the subframe as well as 'wrapped' around and welded onto the top-side of the subframe in the picture below. This is done so that the plate has maximum surface area to weld onto the subframe.

Next made up a 'Tee' out of 3/4" bar stock and drilled the center out so that a 1/2" bolt could pass through. Thehe other part of the tee I made from some thickwall tubing that I had laying around and I drilled and tapped it out with a 1/2-13NC tap. I did this so that I could have some minor adjustment for the torque strap so that I could get the length right on. Next on the engine side I made up a mounting plate using 3/16" thick steel to connect to the engine, slotted some thickwall tubing inserted the plate and welded it on the end of the tubing. Then I welded on a short length of 1/2-13 thread to connect to the other end.

Finally I made up another chain grease guard and welded it onto the torque strut. Since the strut was higher than it was before I had to bend the sheet metal so that it extend closer to the chain, I also made it as long as I could for better chain coverage.

Got it all assembled and here is the final results:

Upon inspection I found that it had come down hard enough to crack the fiberglass in four places, interestingly enough three of the cracks were on the chassis and one was on the rear hatch. In addition one of the catch bolts for the latch got bent!

I put in the inside door latch handles and the job went very smoothly, using a die grinder to fit them into the door. Then using some 1/8" diameter stainless rod made the connections to the latch mechanism. I now have working inside door latches!

Did some tweaking of the front end toe in and took the vehicle for another 20 mile ride. Much better handeling however I did notice that during cornering that the tires seem to rub on the insides of the fenders. Once I got home this was confirmed by residual rubber on a portion of the inside fender. This will have to be remidied quickly as it is a danerous condition that could potentially cause an accident!