Beegees City Els find new homes

[booboo]

Plus the red button (emergency stop?) is hanging down inside the cockpit..

Should keep me out of mischief for a little while .

Hopefully you guys will help keep me pointing in the right direction

[anachrocomputer]

Those parts in the rear compartment are the contactors (fancy name for big relays) and should be in the motor/battery compartment, next to the controller. This is why it won't go! The contactors connect the power to the motor, and reverse the polarity to get the motor to run in reverse when required. Is the forward/backwards switch OK (on the dash next to emergency stop)?

Shame so many minor parts are missing (mirrors, light lenses, etc.).

[booboo]

Those parts in the rear compartment are the contactors (fancy name for big relays) and should be in the motor/battery compartment, next to the controller. This is why it won't go! The contactors connect the power to the motor, and reverse the polarity to get the motor to run in reverse when required. Is the forward/backwards switch OK (on the dash next to emergency stop)?

Shame so many minor parts are missing (mirrors, light lenses, etc.).

One of the contactors has been taped to death with loads of black tape, so I guess it needs replacing. The forwards/reverse switch has three positons that can be locked in place up/middle/down (middle being neutral ?)

Once it's been assessed at the 3rd June meeting, I'm hoping to have a better idea of what to tackle first ,and how to do it !

[aminorjourney]

Hi Karl,

The roof bits can be fixed quite easily. I have a repair kit somewhere. I can also tell you where you can get tyres from, and from my experience you may actually want to try Twike tyres rather than City El Tyres. I got a set of CityEl tyres recently for about £90, but you will also need to get someone to fit them. We tried, but knackered three inner tubes getting them on!

The bits in the boot kiij ti contain two contactors for reassembly plus a plastic cover which fits over the top of the Curtis (the big black controller box you can see in the back). I'm learning something too - I thought the controller on the Mark II City els were vertically mounted and yours appears to be Horizontal.

Could you snap the speedometer just to confirm it's a mark II? I'm curious now!

Overall it looks in pretty good shape. I'll reserve judgment till I see it in the flesh though But there's certainly nothing I can see in the photos to get worried about.

Nikki.

[booboo]

Hi Nikki,

I'll get the picture for you tomorrow - I've just spent the entire day cleaning the beastie . Thanks for the tip about the tyres, although I will need some pointers as to how to safely remove the wheel without damaging something. I dont have a trolly jack yet, so I'll add one of those to my list !

A bit disappointed to find the damage to the front end is a little worse than first thought , but shouldn't be too much of a pain to fix. I've used the "Smart Repair" guys before and they can work wonders. Hopefully they can work their magic here. But the cosmetics should wait, since the other items need sorting first.

Also the number of loose wires not connected to anything is a bit of a concern.Again,hopefully they can be sorted on 3rd June. The former keeper did say he didn't know what he was doing when he started taking it apart - he certainly wasn't fibbing !

Not sure if it's an indication of a problem or not,but the nearside rear wheel has at some point been rubbing on the lip of the wheel arch.

On the plus side, it cleaned up really well .

[aminorjourney]

Ah, Wheel arch rubbing?

Sounds like one of the leaf springs could be gone. When you move the car be careful you don't rub the wheels on the wheel arches. I'll have a look next week

It seems that the earlier City Els had trouble with weak leaf springs. IF yours are intact it probably means they were replaced. If not you may have a cracked one. They're only about £20 a pair though IIRC.

[ChrisB]

Oh wow thats great

dont be too concerned about the issues as theres a good lot of folks about that will be able to help you out regarding any questions or how to's you might have.

Infact it might be a good idea for owners to start up and document anything they do to their El's with pics etc and put it up on threads here , a bit like I've been doing in the Berlingo forum here. A picture speaks a thousand words


ChrisB

[aminorjourney]

Excellent Chris!

It should be a fairly easy list, and a good resource! The City El resources on the web are mainly German or Danish and since I speak neither very well I would love to have an English resource here.

I'll start a new thread John (Anacrocomputer) should be able to take some spring photos as his car is currently suffering from that very problem!

N

[booboo]

Could you snap the speedometer just to confirm it's a mark II? I'm curious now!

Nikki.

As promised..

[aminorjourney]

Yup, that's a Series II dash. It's much easier to redo the speedo on these - but you will have bizzare mph divisions.

Looking forward to seeing it next week!