I'm sorry to hear you think it got lame! That wasn't my intention at all! I guess good news, yet to be told on the channel, will be that I will be returning to the original gas set up and will be getting a 903cc. One day I would like to do an EV conversion, but pieces are just too expensive still. In a few years when electric cars flood the market, pieces will probably become cheaper. So, I will be continuing the series from a teardown of the 903, full gasket set, then start reinstallation. Hopefully I can get you back!
Hot tip, pick up a used motorcycle jack on craigslist. great for removing/installing engine/transmission as a unit. (credit Flaviaman
Good point. I thought about building an EV 850 with my son since he’s into EVs and I had at the time 4 850 rollers.
Presently have the modified 903cc head with the pistons machined down to lower the compression.
It's not required that the cams be replaced on the 124 DOHC motor to put it in an 850 to run CCW. In the PBS conversion you replace the distributor drive gear (not shaft) with one from a Ford 6 cylinder motor. It's a slide on fit and will now maintain the correct oil pump rotation running CCW. A special bellhousing allows the use of a VW starter. That's the hqard to find part. Memory is starting to fail but at most the cams are reset as the slopes are symetrical. On my application the distributor was on the cam tower and the firing order had to be adjusted with changing the spark plug lead locations. The motor was supported with a mid location cradle. A very simple and straight forward swap. It added about 80 pounds to the stock total weight . Moving the radiator to the front helped offset the "tail happy" aspect. I used the following suspension mods: 1300/124 rear coils, 1300/124 front reverse eye leaf, rear sway bar moved to front, thicker bar (from Addco in Florida) at the rear, 6" rims with P-7 Pirelli tires in 175/50? With dual DCOE's it maybe had 120 horsepower. It felt MORE STABLE than a stock 850 Spider. It required trimming off the rear motor perch pad from the 850 rear panel. Installed it looked like a factory installation.
How did you install the Addco bar? I got mine off ebay a long time ago and don't know if it came with the correct end links and bushings. The ends of the (3/4") bar are quite different and won't swap directly over. The bushing part on the end of the bar is 5/8" ID. Best thought so far is to use a 5/8" spherical rod end but they're huge and overkill. That also means that the rod end won't line up with the attachment point on the trailing arm. The polyurethane bushings and brackets look like cr@p and won't fit onto the stock stud locations under the car. Have been looking at some generic Prothane bushings but don't know yet if they'll fit.
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I did the conversion in the late 1980's and can't remember some of the exact details. As to the Addco rear sway bar I seem to remember it being a direct replacement with only rubber bushings on the body to change. Last item changed was to go with Carrera shocks all around. I got them from Greg Schmidt and they were on John Edwards 850 Autocross car. I contacted Addco last year but they never replied to my Fiat 850 rear bar request....Of all the various motors I've had in an 850 Spider the nicest was an Autobianchi A112 1050 with a PBS 8-port head running dual 40mm DCOE's.
