[DRIVING] 1971 GMCe Lexus GS450H BMW 530e Tesla Model S Electruck

[Alibro]

and here's my buddies C10 Patrick's dinosaur juice powered truck as a reference weighing in at 3,739 pounds


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I tried doing this with bathroom scales.
I jacked the car up and put three wheels on blocks so it would be level, then the 4th wheel sat on a large plank with the 4 bathroom scales underneath.
It would have worked had the bathroom scales played nice but they were digital and didn't like staying on for more than a few seconds.
I got numbers but wouldn't guarantee how accurate they were.
Using a public weigh bridge was probably more accurate.

Front axle only

Full car with me and some extra bits in so remove 100kg

The dry weight is around 1550kg so with a full tank of fuel and all fluids probably close to 1650kg.
I guess that means I've added approx 200kg with the conversion but I have 38kWh battery that's good for 100 miles range.

[Gregski]

It's funny how OEM EVs are always heavier than their ICE counterparts and many conversions are the other way round.

Ah well if I remember correctly the ID.3 battery box alone weighted about 100 kg while my home made shell is more like 10 kg

Facts! Granted my 2022 RWD Hyundai Ironic 5 has a battery pack (77 kWh) 3 times more bigger than my truck's 24 kWh one

Freedom Units:

Kilos:

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Freedom Units:

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That's positively light compared to the fat pig that is my Charger Daytona. Its nearly 6000 lbs! For a coupe!

[Proton]

So are the 2 OEM cars are heavier on the driver front side ? I would think that they have to take in consideration the driver weight.

[jrbe]

Greg, you have the pads on the floor, right?

Your garage floor isn't likely perfectly flat to be able to see / determine a high diagonal. Just total weights and front / rear balance for the balance questions.

And it's surprising how hard it is to actually get weight to shift around when you're talking a few thousand pounds / kg.

[Gregski]

well boyz, she's been running and driving great, so I decided to rip her apart, that's right it's time to replace the world's most obnoxious aftermarket shifter

so first the center console had to come out

and then I decided that it was easier to just yank the turtle shell transmission cover than fandangle with just removing the B&M shifter off of it

nice thing about working on a truck, is that you can use the bed as a work bench

[T1Terry]

Is you take out the alarm, how will people know you are about to move the beast? You will need to install sound emitting devices so people in the parking lot will know you intend to move in a different direction ......

Are you going to use the original Lexus selector?

T1 Terry

[Gregski]

Is you take out the alarm, how will people know you are about to move the beast? You will need to install sound emitting devices so people in the parking lot will know you intend to move in a different direction ......

Are you going to use the original Lexus selector?

T1 Terry

ha ha, that just made my day, yes favoring the OEM Lexus one

[Gregski]

[Alibro]

But I love to laugh at your clunky gear changer and now you intend to deprive me of my fun.

Shame on you!

[Gregski]

so made this jig last night when I was still considering using the stock 2007 OEM Lexus GS450h automatic floor shifter

it's a crude setup but it demonstrates how far back the actual floor shifter sits behind the transmission, fine in a car, not so fine in a truck, or is it?

[Gregski]

I was hoping to have it sit right about here, in order to retain the center console, hence the jig to test shortening that shifting rod, and not having to do it whilst laying on my back under the rig

[Gregski]

sure, but is there a funny yet insightful video ?

[Gregski]

if you've seen the video above then you know I disqualified the Lexus GS450h OEM shifter based on being too fugly among other nuisances, so that meant it was time to pretend to be Goldilocks

Note: I posses a bit more of the three shifters represented below ie they are all complete although they did show up to the photo shoot with a few bits missing

* I don't know how it is across the pond, but in the States when you go to a car swap meet you will see two different prices for the same part, one actual price such as $20 bucks for two rusty paint chippin' off Chevy small block valve covers, and three "vendors" over you will see the exact same valve covers labeled "Off a Vette" for $200, that's why I had to buy that super janky shifter on the right in the pic below, cause [ahem] it came off a Corvette !

So which one will it be ?

[Gregski]

I liked the middle one the Chevy Tracker cause in my minds eye it would allow me to keep the center console that I already have so I started to mount its cable to the Lexus GS450h transmission when I realized this thing operated Bass Ackwards ! When the shifter was in Park the gearbox would end up in Drive (lever towards the front of the car) and when the shifter was in Drive, the lever on the transmission would be pushed all the way back to the Park position. so as much as I liked this little guy the cable was just not long enuff to route it from the front then loop it around to shift the gearbox from the rear!

[Gregski]

I didn't like the Chevy Blazer one because the shifter and the center console were all one piece and I would have to do some trimming to get it to sit flush on my trans cover, that and it was designed to operate a gearbox lever that hung down instead of pointing up, yes I could have flipped the Lexus lever upside down but it would hang way down and I didn't wanna catch it on something while driving

[Gregski]

the Corvette one I didn't even try... for obvious reasons!

[Gregski]

It was at this point that I sunk back in my camping chair in the middle of my shifter filled garage, and simply asked myself:

What would Damien Maguire do?

and though I could not make out what he was saying, as he held up just one finger, I think the message was clear: I must go out and buy one more shifter !

[Ghia66]

Make it so!

[Gregski]

Make it so!

Eye, eye Captain!

Right, so having done absolutely zero research I ventured out to the wrecking yard. Andy my first thought was, is there such a thing as Too Many Choices? Cause there I was, surrounded by 72,000 wrecked cars (plus or minus 50,000 of course) not only did I not know what I was looking for but I didn't even know where to look. Don't think needle in a haystack, think a needle in multiple hay stacks.

all I knew was maybe don't try to match the 'merican truck with 'merican parts, maybe try to match the Japanese gearbox with "imported" parts

and there she was, a mint 200? Nissan Extra Terrestrial just begging to be plucked

now you look at that YEAR and tell me that don't look like a friggen "9" to you ?

[Gregski]

so let's see if this bad boy meets all my arbitrary needs:


1. 2WD (just cause its a cleaner look) - check

2. cable runs towards the back of the vehicle not the front - check

3. shifts as God intended (Park is lever back, Drive is lever forward) - check, check

4. two piece stand alone shifter/center console combo - well...


Park = Lever Back!

Drive = Lever Forward!

Mechanical cable operated Parking Pawl control, oh he11 yes, means nothing to remove/delete from the internals of the shifter, simply disengage this cable and shift out of Park to your hearts content

Cable runs towards the back of the vehicle and comes with this handsome and more importantly removable cable bracket (note to self, send a Christmas card to Mr. Nissan)

and here she is extracted, unfortunately someone already took the center console

[Gregski]

so then I spied this clean 2001 Nissan Xterra 4WD

1. it had a GRAY two piece non integrated / stand alone center console

2. however it was 4WD instead of only 2WD so it came with the extra shifter foreskin

I just set it down on the shifter from the first car, I did not yank a second cable here

[Gregski]

so we were not done yet, my love for these Nissan Xterra (pronounced: Nissan Frontier) parts kept growing as their popularity grew on me

cause then I came across this 2000 Nissan Xterra 2WD aka "Snow White" with a two piece stand alone non integrated center console (still in tact)

So could I have gotten everything I needed from this one single car had I seen it first ? um, don't answer that

[Gregski]

well this is where things got interesting, but first lets do a Mandatory Stare and Compare, of a 2WD shifter thingie vs a 4WD kind


looks like I got lucky and the prior owner kept this piece nicely oiled and greased to keep it from rusting

and it was at this time that The Greg noticed the new 2WD shifter cover was H.O.A. beige ! and not gray

so a bit of quick thinking later and we swapped the shifter gator boot off the 4WD shifter cover for the greasy blank plate tray thingie from the 2WD, and yes it will bug me to have a baige insert, but I won't tell if you won't tell

[Gregski]

and $85 dollars later...

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