Now it's summer 2024 and I am keen to get the little red car back in shape for *this* year's Microcar event.

I have, on hand, swingarms and a differential from a Ford Think NEV. The good part:
- same tire diameter (despite different rims, and the need for spacers)

The bad part:
- to go 50 mph, the input to the diff would have to be ~13,000 rpm (because the Think diff has a 10.5:1 ratio)

SO! The plan is this: Buy a BMW 5-series rear differential ($140 with shipping on eBay. Amazing! btw, about 3.5:1) and use my Cushman Truckster transmission (a veteran of microfurthur, my three-wheeled Lambretta conversion) and the D&D shunt-wound motor (10 hp continuous, 30 hp peak; same as before) motor.

Think swingarms, BMW differential.



I got to work, yes indeed. Here are some pics of the build.

Adjusting tension.

That six-hole plate will hold the half-shaft end to the diff.

Coming together. Cushman transmission nearest, D&D shunt-wound motor parallel to it.

Think half-shafts shortening process.

Pretty close.

Almost ready to install. Lots of dry fitting.

Note the non-metric tires and rims. Standard four-hole trailer tires.

Looking good, but still stickin' out the back!

Checking runout on the differential input.

Done.


So! I did all that work, but, miserably, I didn't get it working in time for Gould's Microcar Event. I was so close I missed part of the weekend to try to finish... but, alas, no. Rode my Vespa VBB instead on the last day of the Event. Sad. Even the VBB was sad! It broke down before I could ride home from the ice-dream stop. (No biggie: Blocked carb.)

I kept working in the subsequent days, and I got it driveable. I didn't get as far as installing a shift linkage or anything else, but I drove it. It was ok, but noisy and shaky. Partly addressable with programming, but I had eccentricities in *my* driveline that would be hard to chase down. Ugh.

Then, believe it or not, I started the process of selling it. Someone asked me if I would sell; it was a great price and I was in a house-clearing, project-eliminating mode, and I said yes. I took out my drive components and all of the professor's electrical work and mine. It was ready to go.

But the sale fell through. The guy never got back in touch with me, and because I was having some regret about deciding to sell, I never reached out to him. Huh!

To celebrate the recovery, I did two things: I got the vanity plate "PRFSSR" in honor of Professor Tanenholtz. And second, I started thinking about repowering yet again. I got a lucky break: local Vespa 400 guy, Gabi B (whom I had previously pestered about selling me one of his transmissions!), put me in touch with a guy who had a transmission/differential to sell. Unlike a replacement from France which would run to something like $1500 with shipping, this would be only hundreds.

Let the next chapter begin.

Shout out to Professor Tanenholtz.