Getting insurance was actually more difficult than I expected. My current insurance agent (AAA through Commerce Insurance) refused to cover it because the conversion was not done by a professional. I called a few other agencies that other converters have had success with (Progressive, Farmer's, MetLife) to no avail. Finally, I asked the advice of an acquaintance a few towns from me who is driving a conversion, and he gave me the name of his insurer (Liberty Mutual). They had no qualms about insuring my conversion, so I switched all my auto insurance business to them. Not only that, I'm now paying 20% less even after adding this car to my policy!
Once the insurance was squared away, getting plates was a no-brainer. The insurance agent filled out an RMV1 form for me, specifying that it now has an electric powertrain. I took that and the Title with the purchase info on the back (from 2009!) and took it to the Registry. They didn't look at it twice. Took all of 30 seconds to get my plates (most of that time was filling out the check!) and I was on my way.
Of course, once I went to get it inspected I realized that I should have asked a few more questions because the computer still thought the car was gas powered. Oddly enough, the technician could change it right there on his computer. Who knew?
The inspection experience was interesting. I went to the gas station where we've gotten all of our cars inspected for 10+ years (thinking it might help to have some experience with the guy), and I explained to him that it is now totally electric and that although it is a manual transmission he could treat it as if it were automatic. That was surprisingly hard for him to understand. He kept trying to feather the clutch to get the car started! But he eventually got it into the inspection bay and punched in the license plate number into his computer. That's when we realized the Registry had not done their job right when the registration was entered. But once he made the change on the computer the safety part of the inspection went easily enough, and the sticker went on the window in no time. Of course, by then all of the mechanics were gathered around the car asking questions so I popped the hood and showed them the engine compartment. I couldn't really tell if they were impressed with my handiwork or just thought I was crazy. When I pulled out of the station they were all standing at the inspection bay door watching - wondering if it would actually be able to avoid getting hit? - and I waved out the window as I left. See you next year!! (but not before..... heh, heh)
So here I am at home sucking juice out of the wall.
And at work.
Things were going so well! Then Murphy again knocked at my door. I was tooling around town with a friend (he's helping me work out a way to interface the dashboard tachometer with the DMOC motor controller) the evening after my second commute to work (yes!) when the shifter went slack (no!). Fortunately, it was still in gear but the shifter lost all contact with the transmission. So I pulled over to the side of the road and quickly determined that the connection between the shifter and the shifter cables were gone. So I limped home (boy, acceleration is poor when you start out in 3rd gear!) and took the center console apart. The bushing that held the main shifter cable to the shifter rod was in pieces and scattered about. Well, at least it wasn't something that I had done wrong during the conversion - I never touched the stupid thing!
Of course the dealer sells the bushing only with the entire cable ($216!), but thank goodness for eBay. Apparently these bushing fail all the time and there are people who sell machined parts (<$20) to replace the poorly-designed originals. The only downside is that they have to ship it to me, so I'm spewing fumes to get to work again. But hopefully not for long.
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