Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[MetroMPG]

Picked up the 4-cyl axles & motor mounts today and dropped off the old 3-pot at Ivan's dad's wood lot (it's now sitting with the 4-cyl in the back of an old pickup truck (with cap)).

Several broken bolts later (steel bolts in aluminum transmission housing - grr) the 4-cyl's offset mounts are swapped over. Also busted the speedo cable end because it's also corroded into the housing. Will have to drill/chip that out too.

This weekend I intend to have the tranny & axles reinstalled and test-install the motor. We need to measure it up for a custom mount. I wanna try stick welding

[MetroMPG]

The main reason we're going to the trouble of using the engine/tranny brackets from the 4-cyl car is so we can remove the electric motor later without having to remove the axles & transmission also.

I re-installed the transmission today with the 3-cyl mounts just to confirm measurements: we only have 1 inch of clearance between the end of the electric motor and the "frame" on the right side. Not enough room to wiggle the motor off the transmission inside the engine bay should we ever need to.

But before I can locate everything in the 4-cyl spot, I have to head back out to the bush lot to take another part off the red car: apparently the driver's side tranny mount is different. Not just the bracket, but the mount that's bolted to the frame.

Hopefully it's a straight bolt-in. I don't think they would have used different holes, but I'll find out for sure tomorrow.

All this junk will become clear when I post photos, for those who care.

[MetroMPG]

SW asked if we're going to try to place batts low to keep the center of gravity low...

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Haven't decided where the batteries will go, but I don't think we'll be too focussed on center of gravity or aiming for a low moment of inertia. I think we're just going for (a) ease of placement (engine bay & hatchback), and (b) retaining a level attitude on the suspension.

[MetroMPG]

I didn't actually install the motor. Everyone knows how much I love cardboard and duct tape... So I made up a mockup to the same dimensions as the motor.



Above: reinstalled the transmission with the 3-cyl tranny mounts just to confirm earlier measurements. It all fits, but only 1 inch of clearance from the right "frame" rail (left side of the pic) = not enough room to re & re the motor without also taking out the axles & tranny. Not that we plan to be dropping the motor out every weekend, but you never know...



Much more comfy. 4+ inches of clearance now between the motor & frame. The only problem was the left side tranny mount (bottom right in the pic) was NOT located on the frame rail in the same spot on the 3-cyl and 4-cyl cars...



The nuts the original mount used were tack welded inside a the boxed frame rail during assembly, so we had to use a hole saw to gain access to the inside of the rail to put nuts behind the relocated holes. So it's a little less strong now. But lighter!

This week: need to make up a mount to connect the right motor mount (lower left of 1st or 2nd pic) to the motor. Also, there's a bearing bracket about half way down the right axle that needs to be secured. (It was connected to the 4-cyl engine block.)

[MetroMPG]

BTW, apologies for the crappy picture quality. Antique 1 mega pixel camera.

[MetroMPG]

Blue car tranny is nearly fully hooked up now: spent an hour this AM re-installing the shifter & linkage from the 4-cyl car (different length control & shift rods compared to the 3-pot due to transmission offset).

I totally FUBAR'ed the speedometer cable "recepticle" on the trans housing (what they heck to you call the orifice it plugs into?). The end of the cable was corroded solidly in there, and I snapped the works right off. The mechanical "sending" unit is still functional - but I'll have to come up with a creative way to hold the replacement cable in place on top of it.

[MetroMPG]

Someone asked if I'd seen this Honda n600 conversion before... http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/325

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I have seen that Honda conversion before. Neat job. AND: under $2K US conversion cost (not sure if that included the car or not).

I'm not crazy about filling the rear seat area with batteries, but then again it's a much smaller car than the Metro, plus his has a lot more range than we'll be aiming for - 12 Trojans gives him 50 miles.

I want to retain seating for 4 - more to keep the stock appearance than to actually carry 4 people. (It'd probably be over its GVWR or whatever you call it with 4 adults plus 4-8 batteries.)

[MetroMPG]

This week/today:

- Took apart the electric motor to degrease it. Years of ingesting dust & the occasional fine mist of hydraulic fluid meant quite a build-up of crud in there. It's the first time I've ever taken apart a large electric motor. Man these things are simple! It's great.

- Reassembled the motor, mounted it on the adapter plate and put the works back on the transmission. No pic of this - just look at the one of the cardboard motor and imagine a real motor in its place:



(Also imagine a slightly pulled back - 110 lbs motor + very awkward position for maneuvering it & I shouldn't have done it myself )

Hopefully this week I'll have some news about the engine mount & right axle mount that need to be made up.

[MetroMPG]

Started work on the bracket to connect the e-motor to the original ICE-motor mount, and another small one to stabilize the right axle. I'll take & post photos eventually.

EDIT: for the motor, we're modifying 2 brackets that came off the forklift (they held the 2 hydraulic pump motors in place against the frame).

I bought a used 36/48 Curtis 225A golf cart controller on eBay, and it arrived today. Will be easier to set up for testing than the original GE EV-1 controller that came with the fork truck. The EV-1 has better specs (like a higher current limit) & features (like a controller bypass circuit for turbo mode), but hooking it up is much more complicated.

And I wanted an extra controller around to play with anyway.

[MetroMPG]

Another fun ForkenSwift note: jumper cabled the other pump motor (identical to the one in the car) to a 12v battery just for fun. Man, it draws a lot of current. Actually we were verifying we could run it in either direction by reversing polarity. Neutral brush timing, so it appeared to work OK either way.