O.K. guys,

I have an issue with the motor brush dust.  I replaced the brushes, although they seemed to have a bunch of life left in them when compared to the old ones.  The motor had a bunch of dust and residue in it.  I cleaned the armature with a scotch-brite pad as per instructions from motor repair guy.  Drove amazingly the first day, range seemed impossibly high.  Charged once on Monday and drove sixty miles with only one four-hour opportunity charge over the course of a week.  Motor power felt up.  This week noticed a bit of slipping again.  Today had to get a tow home, electric motor smell, Motor slipping.  Hope I didn't ruin the motor; I had to get out of traffic.  I parked it and left the key in "run" to allow the motor blowers to cool and clean the motor.

I know Rod re-engineered the motor blowers.  Any recommendation for which blowers to choose?  How many cubic feet per minute (CFM) did you look for?  Roughly, what did you do?  I'm going to replace the battery blower with a marine blower and remount higher.  I'm thinking I'll re-route the hoses and mount the blowers with filters elsewhere too.  The aftermarket Maxima blower failed from a puddle splash.

Rod, you described arcing at highway speeds.  What are the symptoms? 

Would you recommend Electric Motor & Parts Cleaner by BTS?  http://www.iscsales.com/store.asp?pg=products&grp=1156&specific=joimjrl0  ...to clean the motor when I open it up?

I'm sorry to see that the TEVan on ebay didn't sell.  I think that the description was lacking.  Maybe write a long narrative description,  get people invested in the thing.  If you can, get those batteries up and running.  Transportation from Kansas is a hassle too.  Try to do as much of the legwork and it should sell.  Best of luck. 

Steve, I have a UFO I need reverse engineered; you up for it?  Holy crap what a project!  You obviously have a pretty cool shop at your disposal.

Thanks all.

-Alex Hill