[halestorm]

In the original ElectroAuto kit they had you fish a number of cables through the driver's side heater duct on the Porsche 914, from the engine compartment to the old fuel tank compartment. I don't remember this being particularly difficult. I'm running additional cables now and need to use the heater duct on the passenger side. Is there any reason why this should be different? I've been struggling for 90 minutes now and haven't gotten one thing through. I got a fish tape through pretty quickly but my cables got stuck on something. Eventually I reduced cables until I had none, and my fish tape got stuck on whatever this something is. Is there something in there? Any suggestions? I need to run two 2ga cables and two 1/2 water hoses (7/8'' OD). Thanks,

 

[kennybobby]

Something to consider is that there may be welded baffles or stiffner plates within the duct with non-deburred sharp edges since they weren't expecting anyone or anything to be in there. The other aspect of chaffing and rubbing thru the wire insulation is that you have no way to inspect for such damage until something shorts out.

i'm sure whoever put in the kit thought it was a neat idea to hide the wires and make it appear clean, but unless you install the known-to-be-smooth conduit yourself then you are counting on luck. Having visual access of the wires would seem more important than looks.

 

[rwaudio]

In the original ElectroAuto kit they had you fish a number of cables through the driver's side heater duct on the Porsche 914, from the engine compartment to the old fuel tank compartment. I don't remember this being particularly difficult. I'm running additional cables now and need to use the heater duct on the passenger side. Is there any reason why this should be different? I've been struggling for 90 minutes now and haven't gotten one thing through. I got a fish tape through pretty quickly but my cables got stuck on something. Eventually I reduced cables until I had none, and my fish tape got stuck on whatever this something is. Is there something in there? Any suggestions? I need to run two 2ga cables and two 1/2 water hoses (7/8'' OD). Thanks,

In a stock car the chambers are apparently clear (from what I've read), however if the car has ever had rust repair work I guess it's common to add steel braces in that chamber to make the car more rigid and easier to repair. I ran a pair of 1" OD water lines and a 1/0 cable through the passenger side so unless it's significantly modified it should work. There is a small "hatch" towards the rear of the car beside the passengers seat that can be opened and give you a better look inside (assuming all cars had this), I found it after I was done but would have helped in the process, but it did let me confirm the cable/hoses were nicely run and weren't up against anything sharp.

Good luck!

 

[halestorm]

Thanks, I'll look for the hatch. I didn't pull the carpet because I didn't expect to find any kind of hatch. I think the car is pretty stock (no rust repair) only because that would be the ONLY place that someone decided to do any rust repair.

Wish I had a bore scope. If I can't figure it out tonight then I think I'll pick up one of the $20 USB endoscopes from Amazon.

 

[palmer_md]

There is a section of hose in the middle and it may have come loose or just rotted. There are some good images of the inside of the longitudinal here:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=66637

 

[halestorm]

holy cow! That's got to be it. I assumed it was a steel tube all the way through but if there is a hose then that makes sense. This is consistent with another bit of data, namely that I wasn't able to get my fish tape through in one direction, rear-to-front, but only front-to-rear, and then it got stuck when trying to pull it out which would be the rear-to-front direction (I eventually freed it with great trouble). I bet you're right, that the hose has come loose or deteriorated.

There is a section of hose in the middle and it may have come loose or just rotted. There are some good images of the inside of the longitudinal here:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=66637

 

[halestorm]

I bought an inspection camera. The first image is looking into the rear end of the duct (the good side). The other images are looking into the side which has the blockage ~ 2 feet in, apparently right at the end of the solid duct and where the heater muffler tube starts. You can see the steel(?) braid is loose. I'm really stumped; I have no idea how to fix or get around this.

 

[kennybobby]

i can't tell what that mess is either, but great pictures!

Maybe you can run something soft in from the good end up to the blockage and view it from the front--like a piece of garden hose. That stringy stuff looks like nylon string that maybe was used when fishing it thru the rail and trying to pull it.

 

[halestorm]

There is a small "hatch" towards the rear of the car beside the passengers seat that can be opened and give you a better look inside (assuming all cars had this), I found it after I was done but would have helped in the process, but it did let me confirm the cable/hoses were nicely run and weren't up against anything sharp.!

Is this "hatch" big enough that I could cut up and remove the entire heater muffler from in-between the end pipes? I haven't found my hatch yet because it seems the carpet is glued down.

One guy suggested "angioplasty" -- insert something that I could inflate to push the braid apart to the sides. Or some kind of sharp tool that would cut the stuff away. Neat ideas, just not sure how to put them into effect.

 

[halestorm]

The blockage is about where those spot welds are located. I'm wondering if I can drill a 2 inch hole there, or to one side, and remove the bad braided hose through that. Incidentally, all that brown isn't rust but glue from the carpet.

 

[halestorm]

Found a pic showing what those spot welds hold...

 

[Chris Pincetich]

You should start a thread on 914world.com
Tons of experts with lots of project experience!

 

[Jonny Retrofit]

Using the heater channels is convenient but a bit of a cludge. Pull the cables through the centre tunnel instead where the fuel lines used to go.

 

[rwaudio]

Using the heater channels is convenient but a bit of a cludge. Pull the cables through the centre tunnel instead where the fuel lines used to go.

The high voltage cables run down the center, not enough room for two heater hoses that are almost an inch in outer diameter. Running through the heater channels worked beautifully.

 

[seatosummit]

The high voltage cables run down the center, not enough room for two heater hoses that are almost an inch in outer diameter. Running through the heater channels worked beautifully.

I would be really interested in photos of what the HV cables in the center tunnel look like in previous builds.

Just bought my 2/0 cable and am planning to to the cabling runs in the next few weeks.

Bummer as I replaced the leaky, factory fuel lines through the center tunnel with Tangerine SS hoses a mere few months ago before I was convinced I wanted to convert.