Anyone know where I can get a workshop manual for an Excite 64

[T1 Terry]

I'm new here, so be gentle. I am in Australia, so you can't come around and egg my house for what I want to do :lol:
I recently bought a stat write-off MG4 from a salvage auction and want to use it as a donor to convert my '74 VW Kombi to electric.
A workshop manual or You Tube videos on how to dismantle the whole car would be very helpful, both to avoid damaging anything and avoid making an ass of myself ....

T1 Terry

 

[T1 Terry]

As I mentioned in the opening post. This vehicle has been in a collision with either a tree or a white post on the right hand front. The lower ball joint has popped, the lower control arm is bent up at 45* at the point the lower ball joint bolts on, the right hand front guard is crumpled, headlight and other bits missing on the right hand side ... and the steering wheel and passenger dash airbags have deployed. It has been sitting for a while and the 12v battery is completely drained.

I put a charger on the 12v battery today. Things clicked and shuffled and what ever, then the 4 way flashers came on. Went through the process of trying to get it to drive, I could release the park brake and select neutral, but that was it. The dash beeps and a warning to evacuate vehicle shows on the display in front of the steering wheel .... and that's about it. Still can't turn the steering, nor could I get it to stop flashing lights and telling me to evacuate.
I disconnected the main positive cable and that shut everything down and I've left the charger running on "Power Supply Mode" (because I couldn't get that to do anything else either) it says it's putting 2.2 amps into the battery .... and I'll try again tomorrow.

T1 Terry

 

[Coulomb]

Still can't turn the steering, nor could I get it to stop flashing lights and telling me to evacuate.

Mmm. It's not sounding like the very best case scenario, but I guess you anticipated that.

 

[T1 Terry]

Mmm. It's not sounding like the very best case scenario, but I guess you anticipated that.

I was hoping for the best, while being prepared for the worst, it was a stat write off after all. Today is predicted to exceed 40°C, so it might be a good time to read through the manuals @loenkernan posted the link to access, in the hope something turns up there. Also a Google search on how to bypass a deployed airbag might shed some light on the subject.

The steering did work on the back of the tilt tray when the operator put his jump pack battery across the 12V battery terminals, so that is a new fail item .....

T1 Terry

 

[leonkernan]

I put a charger on the 12v battery today. Things clicked and shuffled and what ever, then the 4 way flashers came on. Went through the process of trying to get it to drive, I could release the park brake and select neutral, but that was it. The dash beeps and a warning to evacuate vehicle shows on the display in front of the steering wheel .... and that's about it. Still can't turn the steering, nor could I get it to stop flashing lights and telling me to evacuate.

That incarnation Youtube channel had something similar, there was a module that detected it had been in a crash and from then on it couldn't be reset.
Removing that module made everything else forget about the accident.

It was only a couple of videos back.

btw, that was @siteguru 's site I linked to, he's the one who grabbed the stuff from MG.

 

[Coulomb]

The steering did work on the back of the tilt tray when the operator put his jump pack battery across the 12V battery terminals, so that is a new fail item

Presumably, the battery contactors aren't going to come on until they see the all clear from a higher authority (ECU), so the DC-DC won't be working, so the 12 V battery will be dead or weak. I'd say that the power steering takes a lot of current from the 12 V battery, and with a weak charger across a nearly dead auxiliary battery, the power steering isn't going to work. Once the 12 V battery is fully charged and/or replaced, that may well come back. Though operating the power steering without a solid auxiliary battery might have blown a fuse I suppose.

Normally, the 12 V battery will be getting 100+ amps of assistance from the DC-DC when power steering is needed (i.e. you would usually be in ready mode, hence the DC-DC would be operating).

 

[T1 Terry]

Thank you both. I found a thread on this forum MG ZS EV OBD software for airbag reset etc regarding the "evacuate vehicle" warning and how to sort the problem.
Hopefully, disconnecting the airbag ECU and the ABS ECU will not stop the vehicle main computer from operating.

Thank you Coulomb for the info regarding the power steering being 12v, I hadn't thought of that ...

T1 Terry

 

[T1 Terry]

Finally got the screen to light up, it shows 268km on the odometer, can't hope for much newer than that.
I'm guessing the lane departure caught someone by surprise and speared them off to the right and into a white pole, there was a drill core like piece of timber in the hole where the tow coupling screws into .... definitely not a feature I want to transfer to the Kombi, they are enough of a handful in a cross wind, without the steering going bonkers as well .....

T1 Terry

 

[kiwi]

Mate, I know you’re dead set on powering up that old Kombi but have you thought about just fixing what you have? You haven’t treated us to a picture yet but one stuffed corner is probably pretty fixable. Is the engine and rear axles OK?

 

[leonkernan]

He said right at the start it's a stat write off.
It's not able to be registered in Australia again in that case.

 

[kiwi]

You blokes often export fixed stat jobs to the poor relations in NZ… And I hear that around Melbourne a stat job can be had ready for the road for the right incentives…

 

[Rolfe]

A picture or two would be nice, regardless. Of both cars.

I'm interested to know how you fit the MG4's battery into a car that wasn't designed to have a battery across the bottom of it.

 

[Archev]

A picture or two would be nice, regardless. Of both cars.

I'm interested to know how you fit the MG4's battery into a car that wasn't designed to have a battery across the bottom of it.

It’s a fascinating project and a lot of folks seem to say similar. I’m addicted to the stuff they do in “Electric Classic Cars” down in Wales.

 

[dsimpkins]

A picture or two would be nice, regardless. Of both cars.

I'm interested to know how you fit the MG4's battery into a car that wasn't designed to have a battery across the bottom of it.

A VW camper (or Kombi) has a large relatively flat space underneath between the two axles that the battery could potentially fit into. Often get auxillary tanks and other stuff slung underneath the floor on campers.

 

[T1 Terry]

Some photos

 

[T1 Terry]

Mate, I know you’re dead set on powering up that old Kombi but have you thought about just fixing what you have? You haven’t treated us to a picture yet but one stuffed corner is probably pretty fixable. Is the engine and rear axles OK?

Not a huge job to repair, but it would require a new dash, steering wheel air bag, seat belts replaced (self tension and lock when the air bags go off) and the right hand guard, headlight, bumper, lower control arm, ball joint and crash module.
Then the cost of shipping it to NZ, dodgy WORV clearances still show up on a history search .... and where would I get such a perfect donor for my Kombi project?

If it comes out like I picture it in my head, the finish project will be worth more $$ than what I could get by repairing the MG4 and selling in NZ and the full restoration cost for the Kombi (not cheap) and selling it ..... but I'm not doing this as a resell project, I have had Kombi since '98 and was the daily driver for me and part of my scoring the winning points to get the wife (a good thing, took three tries, but finally found a keeper)

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

That car is a mess. If Terry wanted an MG4, well, they're ten a penny. He could get an MG4. But what Terry wants is his beloved Kombi converted to electric power, and it seems a far better fate for the MG4 than simply being patched up and put back on the road! He can always sell left-over parts he doesn't need as spares for other MG4s too.

Terry, that story about your wife is now something you have got to tell us, now you have alluded to it!

 

[Rolfe]

Happened across this.

Jason Momoa Converts Classic 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II to an EV

Jason Momoa breathes new life into a classic! Dive into the details of his stunning 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II transformed into a powerful and sustainable electric vehicle.

myelectricsparks.com

 

[T1 Terry]

That car is a mess. If Terry wanted an MG4, well, they're ten a penny. He could get an MG4. But what Terry wants is his beloved Kombi converted to electric power, and it seems a far better fate for the MG4 than simply being patched up and put back on the road! He can always sell left-over parts he doesn't need as spares for other MG4s too.

Terry, that story about your wife is now something you have got to tell us, now you have alluded to it!

The mate who lived next door to the mystery lady (who recently bought the house) said I had to meet her ... yeah yeah, another woman was the last thing I needed in my life by that stage .... but I pulled up out front of the mates house, saw this woman in her corporate gear and thought, this is punching well above my weight, might as well get the put down over with and the mate will stop annoying me. So I walked up to the fence and said "g'day" like a typical Aussie yobbo, and her eyes lit up and she responded positively rather than the usual being sent to sit in the gutter where you belong that someone who looked like that would have said.
Turned out, she met her ex through the Sydney VW club, became the secretary, married him and they owned a number of Kombis over the yrs. Later she told me, if you had turned up in a flash car, I wouldn't have given you the time of day .... been together over 20 yrs now, I think it's the 19th wedding anniversary coming up next mth.


Back to tie this into the thread, it was saying that I bought the MG4 to convert the Kombi that allowed me to still live and still live in the house :lol:

Sadly, I don't have any photos of the Kombi, they were all on my computer and hard drive when this happened mannum lithium battery fire - Google Search

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

OMG that's terrible! I hope your insurance covered it. Did you ever find out what caused it?

 

[T1 Terry]

OMG that's terrible! I hope your insurance covered it. Did you ever find out what caused it?

Nothing that can be verified, either someone didn't like us, or it was a robbery and by burning the place to the ground, there is no evidence of just what was stolen.

All the gas bottles were turned on and a fire lit in diagonally opposite corners. The fire started with an explosion, LFP cells don't explode and they were the only cells we used, so ...... The explosion was big enough to blow the front windows through 3 rows of vehicles parked in front of the building and glass was embedded in the vehicles and the hedge across the front fence area. The heat was so intense it melted the aluminium window frames and sprayed them around like melted solder and cause 5mm thick square hollow uprights to bend over a 45*, or simply compact and bend if they were thinner. Aluminium ladders and scaffolds simply burnt with only ash where they were and a few puddles of aluminium in other places.

Insurance covered the building and workshop materials, but not all my electric vehicle conversion gear or $10,000 worth of LTO cells I had bought to experiment with building a long range battery for my Prius .....

Anyway, all gone now, life goes on and more projects to keep me occupied ....

T1 Terry