This move is key to my sanity. The "dot com bubble" is about to burst and the value of HP stock will fall over the next two years. The longer I wait for the car to be delivered the cheaper it gets.

I try to get him to take a nap before heading home. He declines explaining that he wants to get home in time for supper. When he realizes this is not possible he promises to check into a hotel near Denver. He drives all the way home without stopping to sleep.

The dome light doesn't work, the wires are melted. The door doesn't ever look properly closed. Unfortunately it is a lot of fun to drive. :)

The bolts that hold the swingarm to a bracket on the motor are stripped. One of the bolts had been ground down to remove the stripped threads and forced back into the hole. The holes in the bracket are also crossthreaded. I retap and buy new bolts.

The batteries were purchased for $130 each from Batteriesareus.com -- free shipping.

A used Sparrow sells on eBay for $13,000.

The new battery is one that has been sitting in my garage for a year.

The mirror was only held in with two small pieces of dried out double sticky tape. The tape is located on the left and right ends and any pressure on the top or bottom of the mirror will easily pop it out.

I was adjusting the mirror and noticed that the top of the mirror was set into the housing too far and when I pressed on the bottom the whole mirror fell out.

For the first few days the new belt sounds funny and my mileage drops by about 10%.

This is the first time I have replaced a battery that I installed. This battery was installed 14 months and 2770 miles ago.

• 77db(A) when coasting at 40mph
• 80db(A) when using the motor to maintain 40mph
• 55db(A) stopped with only the fans running

This was a new experience for me as every other battery had died gradually enough that I was able to make it home -- just slowly. It appears that the internal resistance of a single cell had jumped up to just over an ohm while I was driving. Once this much resistence was in the cell it was no longer possible to draw even 50 amps.

It was very easy to spot the bad battery; the bad cell was hot to the touch. All other batteries were about 80 degrees F, while the bad cell was ~120 degrees.

A meter on this single battery goes from 12.5V with no load to -37V as I draw 30 or 40 amps backing out of the garage.

This battery had side connections and was purchased from the local BatteriesPlus store.

I also notice that the blinker causes the headlamp to dim.

The two weak batteries I identified on 8/15 were not the weakest. Another battery developed high (0.2 ohm) internal resistance and would drop to -3.5V at 75 amps. I was able to get to work and back with it in this state, but it was slow going the last mile.

It seems like a good idea to have something like a high current diode in parallel with each battery. This would pass current around the battery whenever its voltage dropped below 0. The battery could help power the car at low current, and the diode would keep it from slowing down the car at high current. Carrying one of these diodes with me, with clamps on the ends, might have allowed me to drive home on 7/11.

Ordered two new batteries for $139 each from Batteriesareus.com. Only one battery showed up after two weeks. It had been returned from some place in Michigan.

Replaced the one of the original 13 batteries. I would have replaced two if they had arrived.

They gave me a much better price than what was quoted to me over the phone years earlier.

Loosened the bolts holding the door on, and lifted on the door and re-tightened the bolts. This made the door close much more easily.

On the 10th and 11th I saw the pack voltage dip below 130V on the way home from work. My 13 idiot lights are hard to read in the daylight, so I waited until after dark to diagnose which battery was weak.

Letting it cool down for a couple of hours and driving slowly does not help. It becomes clear that I will not be able to cross a couple of busy streets so my long suffering wife tows me home the last mile and a half.

I bought a cheap electronic infrared thermometer for $10 a few months ago. You don't have to touch something to take its temperature. You just point, press a button, and you see the temperature instantly. I got it as a way to get a second opinion about which battery is bad when I have an internal resistance problem. My theory is that the battery with the highest internal resistance will be the hottest. With this meter I found that the temperature of batteries #4 through #7 were 91°F, #8 was 93°F and #9 was 97°F. These readings were made 12 hours I had last driven my Sparrow.

I replace the #9 battery. I had bought the replacement 8 months earlier.

Batteries #8 and #9 are the hardest ones in the pack to replace. In an attempt to delay needing to replace the batteries in these positions I swap a newer battery into the #8 position. It does not seem possible to put an Optima with sidepost connections in the #8 position so I had to pick a battery without sideposts to put in that spot.

I accidently break a weld in the bracket where the charger mounts. Reattaching with screws seems to work.

The main goal of this was to reduce the noise inside the cab. I have had a piece of cardboard between me and the cardboard since March of 2005. This wall is more attractive looking and seems to quiet things down a bit. Measurements today with the wall are louder than measurements taken two years earlier with no barrier at all.

I was able to tape it back in with foam tape like held it in originally.

There is still much more noise than there used to be. Brushes? Bearings?

The speedometer no longer works.

I drove my Sparrow about 60 miles with the speedometer, and odometer, not working. This means my odometer is now off by about 60 miles.

I remove the pulley and find that the pin I made from the shank of a drill bit on Nov 19, 2006 is broken in three parts. I make a new pin out of music wire and reassemble.

My 100 Amp load tester showed 8V for the battery I replaced. Since it is only 8V it was probably only tested at 67 amps.

It has been 15 months since I replace any batteries.

The transistor was only 23 cents, but there was $8 shipping so I bought 2 of every transister on the board.

The battery came from Amazon. The local batteries were $220 to $250.

The Sparrow would not move after that, and I had to be towed home.

The forward reverse relays click now, but the car won't move.

Ron replaced 3 transisters on my old EVCB board, but his testing showed it was still leaking current to the reverse relay when the switch was set to neutral or forward. This can be bad as if the forward and reverse relays are both closed at the same time, then there will be a high voltage short through the relays. Ron's new board does not leak this current.

The batteries are not in good shape. 3 batteries won't stay above 10V at 100A. Charging them individually.