Where I left off was the Pickup had about 3 degrees of tow out. Range was about 20 miles. Very bad for 20 GC batteries.
Now that tow out is only a matter of a few minutes things are a lot better. I took it out for a stiff city run, not being espcially kind, and with the kind of traffic that kept me accelerating from 10 to 35mph again and again. The result was a 15 mile run used 27% of the available charge (Peukert's corrected discharge from my e-meter). This is alot better! I should be able to go over 40 miles, and I have those fat P195/50R15 directional rain tyres. I still need a bed cover, as the VW Pickup is reported to loose alot there. Of course, a real front end alignment is in order, but I want to add a GTI sway bar and lower control arm tie bar first. I doubt I will really need an upper tie bar, as the Pickups added an extra layer of sheet metal in the strut towers compared to Rabbits. Also, I need to change both front axles, I found the little "wwww" noise :-( In fact, if cranked down hard and the throttle applied I even hear the traditional "click, click, click". While doing this I think I will change back to the VW Pickup 4-speed transaxle. Its 4th is a bit noisy (it was run nearly dry at one point), but not much used anyway. 2nd gear will be a bit lower (higher motor rpm) so the baby DCP should run its fan less often when pulling hills around town. Freeway at 60 mph in 3rd will become about 4500rpm though. That is a slightly less efficient point on the Prestolite (they tend toward highest efficiency between 3600 and 4200rpm and 180 to 200 amps). However, I'll be very near full throttle just going 60mph (I'll need 4th to pass an oval windown Bug), motor amps should be very near battery amps. Motor overheating should not be an issue (if the motor was passing battery amps the batteries would tire first). A couple of questions. First, any tips or tricks or warnings when changing both the transaxle and the axles? I've got a manual, but they are shown as seperate jobs. Second, anybody know of a particular 2 inch tach that will work with a DCP? The cheap one I bought doens't, even though the DCP rev limits fine (and the tach works in my old Dodge). I tried adding a resistor, per Damon, but it still doens't work with the DCP. Thanx, Neon - and now back to the glow of the Ren and Stimpy show
