83 Mondial QV - EV conversion project using Tesla LDU

I spent the past week doing a lot of family things but I did manage to spend time doing both research as well as starting to take apart the stock suspension shock assembly once I got home to better understand the steps required to for a QA1 coilover conversion. I will put together a more detailed DIY once I'm done but here are some observations in progress. I didn't realize from the pictures is that there are two pieces to the top shock mount.

- The lower top mount is the obvious plate with the four threaded holes/bolts that go into the top of the subframe. This piece also acts as a "top hat" to the spring and centers it.
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- The upper top mount is a plate rubber block with a sleeve inside sandwiched onto the top of the shock shaft with a washer and nut. The rubber allows some amount of articulation. Picture below shows mount with the new QA1 stud top protruding through.

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I could replace the upper top mount with my own plate and a mono ball so that the shaft can articulate but I still would need something on the bottom to prevent the spring from moving around too much. I could use the QA1 top had but I would still need something in the bottom part to hold the QA1 Top hat in place underneath the plate.

At the end of the day, I too concluded that reusing both pieces of the top shock mount assembly is the path of least resistance.

Only two machining operations are needed for the top mounts
1) Mill or lathe the stock lower top mount to 2.5" in diameter so it will hold the QA1 spring in place. It's slightly wider at the top.
- Repeat this operation 4x (one per corner)

2) Fabricate a sleeve to remove the slop between the stud top for the coilover shock and the upper top mount piece.
ID: 3/8" or 0.375" (thickness of QA1 stud top from SS100SD)
OD: 12mm (thickness of stock Koni shock shaft)
Length: 1.45" (same thickness as upper top mount)

For the bottom mounts
I didn't see the necessity to make my own rubber or poly bushings for the eye. If someone has a reasonable explanation, I'd like to hear it but the rubber material supplied by QA1 seems good enough. Therefore, all I need are to make a sleeve that brings the inner diameter of the bushing to 12 mm as the smallest diameter sleeve provided by QA1 is 0.5" (so you'd have a 0.472" bolt rattling around in a 0.5" hole). This can be done on a lathe with very little effort.
OD: 0.75" in
ID: 12 mm
Length of sleeve: 1.25 in
Quantity needed 4

For both sleeves (top and bottom), the goal is to remove slop and not corrode. Therefore brass or aluminum should be good enough.

Concern 1: Helper springs?
Right now, I'm not certain I need the 4" helper springs. From what I can see, it all depends on how high I set the spring perches
- My plan is just to assemble everything, wait until I have the motor and batteries in the car, and then decide if I need the helper springs to bring the ride height up.
- As an FYI, it seems that the springs recommended in the BillyD's thread are actually about 2 in shorter than the recommended spring height length from the QA1 shock documentation by QA1 for the shocks. I won't know if these are the right shocks until I have my car assembled, so there's no reason to buy helper springs until I know they're necessary as I could also just buy taller springs (

QA1 Front Shock: QA1 DS402.
Recommended Ride Height: 11.5-12.5"
Recommended Spring Length: 9" BillyD recommended spring: 10HT350

Stock Front:
Overall length 18.5"
Top of Spring to center of bottom eyebolt 14" (what I will try to mimic as a starting ride height with the QA1)

Rear: QA1 DS602. Recommended Ride Height: 15.25-16.75" Recommended Spring Length: 14" BillyD recommended spring: 12HT300

Stock Rear
Overall length 20.5"
Top of Spring to center of bottom eyebolt 16.5" (what I will try to mimic as a starting ride height w/ the QA1)

Concern Two: I'm a little worried about how close the dampener adjustment knob is to the rear spindle.
I believe it all depends on the max suspension drop. Right now, my suspension has no springs and when the car is in the air so the whole spindle is dropped farther than the shock will likely allow. Once I have my sleeves machined I'll test fit things without a spring to confirm max drop and to see if the knob hits (you never know when you'll need to launch your car off a hill in SF). Image Unavailable, Please Login



Potential Solution 1: Mount the rear shocks so the knob is pointed inwards. That would make adjustments a little trickier but realistically this is likely going to be a dial it in and forget it operation for me. I'm not tracking this car.

Potential Solution 2: grind the tip of the spindle just a little bit to make sure the knob never hits. Colin Chapman would approve of this unsprung weight reduction.

 

One more tidbit.
I actually own a proper "macpherson strut spring compressor" tool set but the clamping arms were too big for the spacing between the coils on the loaded Mondial spring.

Instead of just hitting the top nut with my impact gun and "hoping for the best", I actually used some rope (more like packing straps) I had laying around to run multiple loops around two sides of the spring. I made sure each side was tight and then wrapped the whole mess in some scrap carpet before releasing the pressure with the impact gun.

With the shock top off, the multiple wraps of the rope got tighter but nothing flies off. The shock could then be removed and the rope gently releasing the pressure. No drama except maybe the rope was a little dirtier. Much less exciting than letting it rip but a LOT safer.

 

After getting back from a brief holiday (thankfully without covid -- something a LOT of my friends have unfortunately not been able to say), I spent some time working on the braking mechanism and taking a deeper look at the coilover setup.

Brake Pedal
- As mentioned previously, I decided to reuse the stock brake pedal/box and vacuum-based booster.
- In (attempting) to take apart the stock brake box, it became apparent that the the shaft which actuates the shaft going into the vacuum booster is likely to be splined (vs press fit) so that there is no chance of the brake pedal "slipping" and not actuating the shaft. The clutch pedal (which i wanted to remove) freely rotates.
- The solution was to cut the clutch pedal off at the base of the rotating shaft and leaving the stub in place so the brake pedal wouldn't move L or Right along the shaft.
- To prevent the clutch stub from rotating, I reinstalled the spring.
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Its now back in the car.
I haven't decided if I'm going to replace the brake master cylinder yet. It worked when I removed it but looks a little crusty.
If there was an aftermarket brake master cylinder with only one reservoir that would fit in place of this one, I would consider it.
- Since I also need vacuum for the Mondial's HVAC flaps, I went with an external pump. Lots of people suggested lots of options but one thing I knew is that I wanted something more quiet than your cheapest diaphragm vacuum pump. I ended up buying a Rotary vane based setup from LEEDs and plan to plumb that in along with a reservoir.

Only downside is I think the one I bought was DOA. I don't feel a vacuum being pulled and its very quiet.
I gave it 12V from my car charger (40A which is more than this thing will ever pull). All it does is click. I'm not sure if I missed something.


Suspension
I haven't made much progress here worth showing but here are a few observations made
- It did occur to me that QA1 bottom eye hole mount is thinner than the stock Koni eyehole.
- Since the bottom shock mounts were all dry rotted out, I decided to press them out to see if I can reuse the steel sleeve.
- As it turned out the stock steel sleeves are larger in diameter than the QA1 bushings (1.02" vs 0.75"). Therefore, I will just lathe these down to 0.75" OD. The ID already matches the stock bolt (12mm) and the length is right (just need to make sure to paint it to minimize potential rusting and make sure its evenly in when I press it though the QA1 poly bushing)

On the Top Mount
- I'm now not 100% certain I can use the bottom part of the upper shock mount. If I mill it down to 2.5", there might not be enough material to center the 2.5" spring. Therefore I may just make a new plate with 4 threaded holes and an indention to hold the QA1 "spring top hat" in place.
- I now see that whether or not you need the spacer all really depends on if you plan to reuse the stock "upper" top mount from the mondial. That thing is to designed to grab the top ~2" of your shock shaft. If you make your own shock top entirely, your shock will likely need to be 2" taller.. hence the need for the spacer springs.

Hubcentric Rings
While my buddy is machining parts for me, I also bought a 3" x 12" long aluminum tube of 0.25" wall to have him machine some hub centric spacers for me. While not absolutely needed on the fronts, I definitely need them to keep the spacers I bought centered on the stock ferrari rear hubs.
That's three simple lathe operations: lathe OD to 73.1mm, ream or lathe the inside to 67.1mm, cut into rings at 10mm for the front and 19mm for the rear pair)

Accelerator Pedal
1) Apparently, you have to be 16 to visit a junkyard so my plan to bring my son there will have to wait for a few years. Luckily my wife came along so she watched him while I ran in to grab a pedal "you have 15min"
2) At the nearby PicknPull (checked inventory in advance using row52.com), I found two cars with suitable floor mounted pedals: the BMW and the Mercedes. The BMW pedal is more upright but had a much fussier attachment method (its mounted on a piece of white plastic so it must be pried off and then the plastic base mounted on your target vehicle.

Once I found that the MB pedal, while a little bulkier, had a decent enough feel, and was only held by a single 10mm nut, I took that one off.
- Total cost was $23 out the door including the junkyard admittance fee.
- I tested the pedal on my bench with a power power supply, gave it 5V, and got the full sweep on the output.
- Mounting it should be fairly easy. I should be able to fab a mounting bracket with a simple flat L bracket to pickup the two existing mounting studs.
- Big question is how close do I want to mount the pedal to the brake pedal.

First pic is at an angle so you can see the pedal length
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Second shows a leftmost mounting point without the brake pedal hitting it. You can see the stock mounting point
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Third pic is the brake pedal if pushed all the way to the right (would be right next to the center console)
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The bracket will give me options to mount it so this is not a decision I need to make today.

 

BTW, all of this dinking around is because I'm waiting for my EV components; just ordered a big chunk (basically everything but the batteries) from ElectricGT and my buddy hasn't sent over the 3d printed LDU yet so I can get to bracket fabbing.

 

The third pedal and closely spaced throttle/brake setup for heel-toe shiffting only works if you have a transmission to hook the 3rd pedal to.
The Tesla LDU gets you good HP/TQ at the cost of only having a reduction gear (single transmission speed).
Sure, I'd love to keep the gated shifter fully functional but the way to do that would be to buy an adapter plate and a modified Porsche G50 transmission that has been flipped upside down and with a shorter bellhousing. Those things are over $16K now (I think I said no when they were "only" $14K a few months ago). Supply must be getting low since these transmissions are in demand by both Porsche enthusiasts as well as ever budding mid-engine kit builder.

A shifter and a clutch pedal might be cool, but not spend-the-same-amount-of-money-I'll-burn-on-battery-modules cool.

 

Last night, i checked the vacuum pump and tested that it works when driven directly (bypassing the relay and the vacuum switch). I consulted LEEDs tech support and learned that the likely culprit of the energizing and not is likely not having the ability to deal with enough current at ramp up; adding a battery helps. Considering how simple everything is (relay, vacuum switch, and this pump), I'm inclined to believe them.

I also fabricated a simple bracket to mount the accelerator pedal out of a cheapie L-bracket from Lowes.
- I suppose I could mount it a little closer to the firewall by moving the mount points back 0.5-1" and there's obviously room to move the new accelerator pedal closer to the stock brake pedal.
- For now, I suppose this will work well enough until I fully rebuild the brake system; as it stands today, the brake pedal can actuate all the way to the floor which feels a bit "odd" compared to the existing brake pedal. I never drove the Mondial enough preconversion to have a feel for how far I would push the pedal in. Shifting from gas to brake feels okay though.
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Now just need to lathe out the sleeves to finish my coilover setup and my hubcentric rings (might as well while I'm already doing lathe work) while I wait for the EV components. Maybe I'll send the body out for repair while I wait.
-g

 

I haven't posted in a while as work has gotten busier but I have still managed to make progress on two fronts while I await my EV parts.

Suspension (in progress)
- I'll write up a more or thorough writeup once complete.
- My friend just got a lathe so I've been finishing up the suspension. The sleeves for the bottom eyebolt and the shock top were easy.
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- I went back and forth with my friend with ton of different ideas (replacing the shock top mounts with a monoball bearing and a plate, etc). Different
- We ended up deciding to reuse the stock upper shock top components.
- The simplest operation to have something to keep the QA1 springs centered is to mill the lower shock top cup to 2.5" OD. You can't take it all the way down flush to the plate because the ID of that hole is 2.5" and that wouldn't leave enough to hold the spring in place.
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- We then decided we'll make a simple plastic spacer from HDPE (aka cutting board material). TAP plastics sold me qty 5 x 4.5" x 4.5" x 1/2" HDPE for ~$17 bucks.
- The spring will sit flush with the spacer and the spacer will be wide enough to allow the other side to sit flush with the bottom surface of the "lower upper shock top".

Initial fitment on the front:
- I will double check once I have batteries in the front trunk but my initial take is that you do NOT need helper springs to extend the spring length in the front. This seems to be because there is enough travel.
- See these pics of the wheels mounted and the wheels at max drop vs at the length
- At max drop, there's about 4" between the fender lip and the top of the tire.
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- At the point where things are compressed, there's about 2.5". That means there's roughly 1.5" suspension travel. That should be enough. I'm not racing baja with this vehicle
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"Looks good" is what I think for now.

I will do a similar fitment for the rear sometime soon.

Replacing the Stock Fuse and Relay Panel
I'm not going to win points for keeping this vehicle stock so replacing the stock fuse+relay panel with a modern one will enable me to
a) isolate only the 12V circuits I need for my car post-EV
b) use a more modern fuse panel with new relays
c) give me an opportunity to understand this cars wiring at a deeper level and simplify things when necessary
d) give me the opportunity to sell the old fuse and relay panel while its still working... along with the "unobtanium" connectors i'm not

Here's the fuse panel I've begun to integrate. I chose it because it preintegrated the fuses with the relays for more circuits than I need.
https://leashelectronics.com/products/pro-street-wiring-board

To aid in future diagnostics, I've labeled each wire with its original connector position & circuit # along with its functionality.
- This was easily implemented with a label printer + these clear heatshrink tubing
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VPPJQ1G

Afterburner's diagrams and post-sales support have been a HUGE benefit to this part of my project.
The wiring is a work in progress but I've gotten several circuits already moved over to the new fuse panel and have maybe a dozen or so wires left to label

Observations
- Most but not all circuits are positively triggered meaning you send a 12V signal into a relay and it does stuff.
- A few are negatively triggered. For example, the horn switch turns "on" by connecting a line from the board to ground to in turn trigger the relay to send 12V to the horn compressor and then to ground. Since this board expects a 12V signal, I will need to convert the ground trigger to 12V. I can do this with relays and may in fact build a box OR I might just make/find a small PCB and make one small module that does all the converting for me.
- Some wires/circuits can bypass an aftermarket fuse panel entirely. The 12V power comes from a relay controlled by a switch, went into the stock fuse/relay panel, and came out another connector to go to the actual load device. These will be easy to wire up.
- I need to figure out how the headlamp motors work and how to trigger them. Each headlamp has 4 wires in 2 plugs. The wiring diagrams doesn't make it immediately obvious which would be the 12V and which would be the ground.
- I need to figure out how the stock intermittent/double wiping relays work and set it up to at least have on/off functional wipers if not all the fancier functions. I doubt I will drive this car much/all in the rain but I should still have functional wipers.
- I am likely to switch everything, including the headlamps, to LEDs, to lower current demands. I have a pair coming in I will test.
- Bottom line: besides getting wipers and the headlight motor mechanisms working, I may add a second relay module box for the wiper relays and to convert the ground triggered signals to what the Leash board likes.

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For my ground triggered signals, I thought about rewiring just those circuits but realized some would be trickier than others.
- For example, the horn switch seems to be one 12V wire in that grounds itself on the steering column. ground triggering -> tells the fuse/relay panel to activate the horn circuit.
- I then considered buying up one of those waterproof relay boxes and wiring it each signal inverting relay individually. Possible, but large and IMO wouldn't look super clean.
- This morning I found this multi channel relay module I can use as a signal inverter so i won't need to mess with the "downstream" wiring.
- $14 and I can bring the ground signals from the car, invert them to 12V to send to the leash module which will then have fused relays to toggle the actual horn/lobeam/hibeam/wipers/etc.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L6ZTPMP/

 

Thanks for the confirmation that I'm not rewiring this horn. Much like with the wiper stalk, lights, and turn signals, it'll be easier to adapt the wiring currently on the car to a new panel than it is to replace the wiring.

 

Yeah, that's not surprising. If you aren't afraid of tackling it yourself, there are companies which will sell you all of the parts in one package (every hose cut to fit, etc). It will be easier than my project.

 

Here's my update for the past 2 weeks.

Fuse Panel Replacement
- I'm over the hump and maybe 80% of the way to replacing the stock board with the Leash Electronics module; all wires have been ID'd and things are moving smoothly.
- I'm working my way through all the circuits: I started with getting the simplest stuff working (e.g. all the bonnet releases) and moved onto the signals requiring the ground triggers to be converted to 12V signals.
- My biggest gating item (besides time) is that I ran out of label tape; if I'm going to be removing all of the wires from their stock connectors, I want to spend the extra effort to label them so future me can go by more than just the cryptic color scheme Ferrari used.
- Testing the relay module. ground triggering -> 12V signal for the leash works spendidly. This $14 works but the build quality isn't 100% (the jumpers that shift each relay from positive to negative trigger weren't soldered completely flat with the PCB and one relay's screw clamp is a little wonky. Both issues are easily fixable but not really worth it.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L6ZTPMP/
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- I could have integrated everything into a single box but connecting every relay to a fuse mount would have been tiring.
https://www.waytekwire.com/item/46354/RFRM-Fuse-Relay-2-88-mm-Dual

I only have about a dozen wires left to remove from their stock harnesses to plumb in and to connect the ground trigger wires to the leash module.

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- In parallel, I went ahead and mounted the vacuum pump for the brake booster (and eventually the HVAC flaps). I still need to plumb in a reservoir but this is easily done. I couldn't find my horn compressor (because used Ferrari) but I bought a new one that is mounted in the front trunk area and the horns are mounted where the mileage counter used to reside.
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- I still need to do a little bit more thinking about how to get the pop up mechanism, wipers, and washer pump working. Good news is I have all the wires ID and labeled so this is just work

LED Headlight Conversion
In parallel to this fuse panel replacement, I also looked at replacing the headlamps with LEDs; this will help lower the current draw the few times I will drive this car at night.
- On unfortunate issue is that the lights aren't entirely plug-and-play. They plug in but I need to fabricate/modify the existing metal mounting plate to fit it in the stock pop-up headlight housings. Not a big issue but simply another project to tackle.

Fixed Doorhandle
- As if I didn't have enough other projects going in parallel, I decided to look into fixing my driver's side interior doorhandle (LH - 60631300) was cracked and bolted together. I was told my a parts supplier that this is a very, very common part to find broken. As many of you know, these parts are unobtainium.
- I did look and learned that the 400i uses "similar" door handles (#257-30-811-02
and 253-30-750-09); how similar given there were different part numbers was a question that none of my research online could answer.
- I decided to take a gamble and given what was available, I picked up a RH interior doorhandle for the 400i to replace the LH interior door handle
- I finally got them last week and realized that the handles themselves are identical; how the lever on the base actuate the door release rod (is it hinged on one side or the other) is what is different between LH and HR.
- This means I could easily tap out the door handles from the RH 400i base remount them on my LH base.
- Given that this seems to be cheap cast metal, be very careful and support the arms where you are tapping the retaining pins in/out.
- Also, if you replace the front lever, take in to account where the lower gear sits in relation to the upper handle so the motion is the same before/after replacement.
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- I now have a repaired LH Mondial inside door handle Ready to reassemble
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LDU Test Mounting
My 3DF printed Tesla LDU model finally arrived from my buddy and exposed an unanticipated issue: The shape of the LDU makes it so that the axle take-off point at the gear reducer doesn't quite line up with the rear spindles. This isn't a "dealbreaker" issue but its something I will need to solve.

Two Solutions:
- Mount the LDU as originally planned (flipped over with the motors in front of the gear reducer), cut the forward brace for the upper suspension mount and weld on a new brace (not hard; just work -- and I'll call in a favor from a professional welder friend).

Model came in 30 bricks I glued together. Not likely to be cost effective to sell but super helpful for me.
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- Considering mounting the LDU in a more vertical position. This isn't as ideal from a CG standpoint (300LBs will be higher than I like in the car) but it WOULD free up so much space that the battery box would be stupid easy to make (just a big rectangle) that its worth considering. My supplier (ElectricGT) is going to think about it and LMK if they see any dealbreakers with this option.

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My gut feel is I'm going to cut the subframe bracket and add a new buttress.

 

I'm using forced lubrication already vs the internal gear pump (external pump) but I agree - it's not guaranteed. It's worth investigating though but I'm 90% certain the subframe will be modified.

 

Today's unnecessary EV-related purchase. Vintage style sticker. Not sure where I'll place it on the car (probably on the battery box) but I think they more fitting than Scuderia fender shields for this Mondial.

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Weird Behavior from my Light Stalk
Tonight I had a friend stop by and validated that the behavior of the signals from the stalk are NOT what I'm expecting from the wiring diagram.While the light switch (twisting the stalk) works as expected, I don't see ground trigger when the low beam is activated (X6 - yellow with green), ground trigger when hi beam is activated (X7 - red), or even continuity between X1 and K2 when the flasher is activated (X1 and K2). Something is not working as expected.
As a next step, I pulled the plug from the wiper stalk to check for continuity directly. It seems that while twisting the knbo does cause the green wire to ground out, and the flasher wires do seem to connect, the two important positions (low beam and high beam) do not trigger. I'm a little stumped. I seem to recall this working when I had the car using the stock fuse panel... but maybe that's just me twisting the knob and seeing the lights pop up and turn on.

I'll fiddle with this some more.
Q: Are broken light stalks a thing with mondials?

Pop Up Headlights
I also stepped through the relays and I think I see how things work for the popup headlights. Its pretty interesting to see what they built without microcontrollers.

LED Headlights
I figured out how to make a retaining ring to mount the LED headlights.
My first attempt will be to try and modify one of the stock retaining rings. If that fails, I'll fabricate a new retaining ring.

LDU Installation
Next, my friend expressed skepticism about cutting one of the main supports for the shock towers on the subframe. We took some measurements and it seems like the Tesla LDU will fit better in the stock Tesla orientation mounted "hanging off the back of the subframe". I'll double check this when I drop the subframe tomorrow but if it does work:
- Running the LDU in stock orientation vs flipping it upside down will save me $$$ in terms of R&D and not needing an external oil cooler.
- I can leave the subframe more unmolested esp related to the suspension. If anything gets cut, it'll be the rear horizontal bar that can be relocated forward.
- With the LDU mounted more rearward, the rear battery box becomes easy (just a big box)
- CG will still be low but F/R balance will have a little more weight aft of the axles (the batteries midmounted and in the front will offset this bias)
- I'll lose a little trunk space (floor must come up by a few inches)

Reassembling the driver's side door card
This was another easy task and was nice as it gets some parts I removed out of the way.
Everything works again (door locks, door latch, and even the power side mirrors)

 

COILOVERS COMPLETE
I had a day off work so I went over to my friends place and finished making the last item I needed to assemble the coilovers: a spacer that sits between the stock "lower" top shock mount that has been cut down to 2.5" diameter AND the QA1 spring.
- I couldn't just cut the entire shock top down to 2.5" OD because I there wouldn't be enough of this aluminum to left (the ID measures right at 2.5")
- This HDPE spacer takes the space between the shoulder and presents a nice flat surface for the QA1 spring to push against.
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Observations
- With my setup (re-using the stock upper/lower top shock parts with some modification), I didn't need any helper springs for the rear assemblies.
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However, at max drop (no weight from the car compressing the spring), the rebound adjustment knob gets uncomfortably close to the top of the rear spindles. The solution is just to mount them spun around 180 degrees when I next disassemble the subframe (I'll eventually send it out for powder coating).

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If there's any interest, I can post a complete DIY as a separate thread.

Now that my subframe is off the car, I'm now confirming that I will indeed by mounting my LDU in the "normal" Tesla mounting position AND that the axles can bend that much.

 

This week I received confirmation that my CV axle angles are within tolerances: I've been told that the 930 CV will be happy if the axle remains less than 25 degrees at maximum drop. There are still some tweaks to my simple math to consider. FOr example:
- I can reduce the deflection distance between the axle and the LDU's reducing gearbox by moving the whole LDU forward by cutting the two topmost brackets on the subframe (you can see one has the hole on a tab just to the right of my coilover picture).

- However, the angle will increase because the CV axle adds a certain amount of thickness before the axle changes angle: instead of having 20" between the spindle flange and the face of the LDU, there's 0.874"-1" thickness for the stub/CV axle before the axle can bend.
If my math said that the total horizontal + vertical deflection is ~7.16", the angle is more like 20.65 degrees vs 19.695 degrees.

Another Idea: Remote mount the inverter
As another plan, I also learned that of the two cylindrical housings between the LDU, one actually holds the windings and the other holds the inverter.
Therefore, I could in theory separate the inverter housing from the gear reduction unit. It's not a slam dunk solution

Pros
- I could then mount the motor + gear reduction unit in between the stock subframe towers and be perfectly lined up on the horizontal plane.

Cons
- Added complexity: need to fabricate would be two waterproof covers (one for the gear reduction unit and one for the inverter housing), run 3 high voltage cables between the two blocks, and fabricate house mounts for both the LDU and the inverter housing.
- Unequal length axles: current plan uses axles which are approximately 20" and 20". This idea would lead to one axle being 26" and the other 14"

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to go down this route (as a first attempt) but its worth considering.



Next Steps
At this point, I know I'm going to do mount the LDU in the "tesla Stock" orientation. How exactly I do it is still slightly up for debate but I plan to start cutting the subframe and the bending the bracket the subframe attaches to at the top to make room for the LDU.

 

Minor Repair - Hazard Switch
- I noticed the other day that the hazard switch was sticking so I decided to remove it and disassemble it.
- There was a bit of corrosion on the contacts but that was easily dealt with using contact cleaner.
- Besides gunk, the primary issue with the hazard not staying in place (down vs up) was that the metal stick on the side that holds the switch in 2 positions (down and up) needed to be bent a little more leftward as depicted in the video.
- You can can see the switch and how it works in this little video. Once I confirmed it worked consistently (needed a little more bending than seen in the clip), I reassembled it and installed it back in the center console top.

 

LED Headlights Retrofit - Completed
- At some point, I decided that I wanted/needed to replace the headlights with LEDs. I noticed that the current draw of the stock high beams exceeded what the Leash Electronics board was designed to supply. I could probably have wired up a separate circuit but I always wanted LED headlights so here we are.

- I then decided that I've always wanted halo eyes for the low beams. Considering I probably will never drive this car in the dark, and considering that this is a completely restorable function, this wasn't that big a decision to make.

- The stock lower retaining ring (the one that holds the headlamp in place and allows for angle adjustments) is too large for the LEDs headlamps (which have a more substantial base because of their heatsinks)
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- My original plan was to fabricate new retaining rings (CAD it up and send it out to a laser cutting service) but I also realized I could just cut the stock lower retaining rings.
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- The plan was simple: cut the bottom out, notch the inner flange, and bend it if necssary. The stock retaining ring would retain the curve and be stronger than if I had a flat sheet laser cut.
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- It all came together smoothly. For the halo rings on the low beams, i needed a second 12V source so I soldered a short wire w/ a spade connector at the end to connect to the power source. There's also an option to turn it yellow (for a turn signal) but fiddling with that is a post EV problem.
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W3RBBHL/ - DOT certified. Can be both low an hi-beams but I will install as high-beams. Solid metal heatsink rear.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y68XZ6D/ - DOT certified. have halos, seems to not be as great a build quality as the other set
- I noticed some surface rust on the stock base rings and cleaned them up. I suspect I will disassemble both headlights again so the housings (one of which shows signs of previous repair) when the car gets repainted.

- The lights retain their adjustability and the housings are assembled and ready to reinstall.

Fixing the light stalk/switch (In Progress)
- It occurred to me that something is off about my light switch so I need to remove it from the car to test it (testing at the plug shows that the twisting sensor works but nothing else).

- I removed the wheel only to find that there's a notched ring holding the MOMO steering wheel base to the column. I'm not buying a $100 socket to take this off.
https://www.baumtools.com/shop/ferrari-tools/ferrari-steering-tools-3/fr105-ferrari-steering-wheel-groove-nut-socket-38mm/

- I then found this DIY on how you can cut up a 1-1/4" socket (Amazon cost: $10)
http://1984mondial.com/photos/photos_maintenance/2010-06-steering-wheel-removal-tool/