Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[MetroMPG]

A visitor writes...

Great thread
It was fate I tell you! It was meant to be.

For a couple years I have been enthused about converting a Metro to either pure electric or hybrid (Mother Earth News like). Then last July my wife made the mistake of leaving me at home alone for a few days to go on a cluck-cluck trip with her girfriends. And an ebay auction for a '93 Geo Metro (with a bad engine) was closing while she was gone!

I mean that can't be a coincidence can it? I didn't have a choice did I?

But, sadly, it has been sitting out back ever since, cause I'm building a house. Then you come along and do exactly what I'd love to be doing, the same way I'd do it too - on the cheap, but worst of all with a Metro that looks exactly like mine! And it works!

Thanks a lot! Now what am I going to do? Finish the house or start piddling with the Metro?

Seriously, great work and great scrounging. Best of luck. I'll be checking the thread probably twice a day.

[MetroMPG]

That is one heck of a coincidence!

You just made me think of something. How many people here have heard of Grassroots Racing? The concept is something like: build up a $2000 car (total cost), then race it against everyone else who entered the contest.

Maybe we need to have a Cheap EV Build-Off competition. Like $1500 US max expenditure, cars judged on top speed, range, creativity, safety, aesthetics...

Anyway - best of luck to you, too. I say forget the house and start on your Metro. What's the saying... You can't drive your house, but you can live in your car.

[MetroMPG]

Tomorrow the recently-neglected FS gets some needed attention. Meeting up with Ivan to continue ICE-ectomy procedures. The exhaust & fuel system s are still under the car - but not for long.

Also, we need to rotate the motor 90 degrees to get the terminals into a position where they won't be covered by the battery tray that will sit over the motor. Important to be able to see/check those connections easily.

The car needs an axle seal too. Damn EV has been leaking oil everywhere it's parked!

[MetroMPG]

Ha! Funny comment just posted at YouTube: (

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDERyAILOak

)

Quote:
Has anyone offered to donate money to you for batteries? Maybe you should ask for donations and just keep an account of it on your video....Keep up your save the earth tour.

The idea of setting up a carbon offset program to fund the build did occur to me...

BTW, does anyone know what's up with YouTube's comments? I'd say 4 out of 5 times I try to reply to someone's comment, my reply never appears (even though I get the javascript alert saying it has been posted).

(PS - over 2k views. This one's popular.)

[MetroMPG]

De-exhausted the car today. De-fuel tanked it also. Alert YouTube viewers would have noticed both items in the "drive over" shots.

At one point, as Ivan was removing bits & pieces, he said, "man you don't need tools - you just have to wiggle stuff to remove it from under here." A lot of hardware/unpainted stuff underneath is pretty rusted. We decided the brake lines should also be changed.

And not a moment too soon!

As I rolled the car down the driveway afterwards, the brake pedal went to the floor - one of the rusty brake lines ruptured. Probably from having been disturbed by wiggling/cutting/removing the rusty fuel lines which were held along with the brake lines in common brackets.

So, 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

[MetroMPG]

SVOboy:

How did you stop the car then!!?!??

Hand brake. Wasn't going very fast (that goes without saying )

[MetroMPG]

How to build an electric car that pays for itself

So, I bungeed one of the cooked floodies onto my home made bike trailer this afternoon and took it up to the recycler. They're worth $3 each.

Following that, I got in touch with my guy at the forklift company and offered that we'd give him the recycling money for any used batteries he'll send us (or rather, tell me about, so I can go pick 'em up).

But he said, "nah, we're enjoying helping out the project. No need to provide cash."

Which is both good & bad. I'm always suspicious of people who aren't motivated by greed. They're more complicated, and not necessarily as predictable And I would really like to have a predictable supply of used batts.

Anyway, I also asked him if he would hook me up with his supplier, since theoretically, there's a guy driving around to a bunch of different customers dropping off new & picking up used floodies. I'd like to get in on that motherlode! He said he'd mention it to him next time they talk.

End result: it looks like each battery that we deem a dud adds three bucks to the ForkenSwift Fund.

[MetroMPG]

I have been recently talking to folks on the EVDL about constructing a controller bypass, and the advice I got is that 48v is about the limit you want to do in a direct motor-battery connection.

Someone said he did a 96v bypass in a Metro sized car and it was "scary" (think violent, think of stuff breaking & batteries cooking).

[MetroMPG]

Chicken!

;-)

Not chicken - cheap!

---

Today: broke in the welder! Made a total mess of a non-car-related little welding job a friend wanted me to do. But it was fun. And I believe the parts actually stuck together despite looking like, well, crap (we drop tested them, and tried to bend them apart with vice grips). And got my first welding-related burn. Hooray.

---

Got the final report in from Motor Guru Husted on the 12 inch torque monster. Basically what I expected: it's in great condition, might be suitable for a mid-size conversion at up to 120v but the square shaft makes it less desirable (if you're not into modding the adapter we already have, and insist on a round shaft for a taperlock adapter). There's more detail in his message than that, which I'll post to the motor page tomorrow.

Not wanting to tear up your stuff does not make you chicken or cheap. I was just teasing. This is such a cool project. Thanks for letting us all follow along.

[MetroMPG]

...But not wanting to spend the extra bucks for components that can handle more than 48v is.

---

Updated the 12 inch motor details page. Priced to sell?
http://forkenswift.com/baker-12-in-motor.html

---

Crawled under the immobilized FS this evening to see if I could detatch the busted brake line where it meets a union. Nuh-uh. Couldn't budge the nuts - even after soaking them for a few days with penetrating oil. There's a fair amount of corrosion under there.

It looks like this might be one of those "house of cards" situations, where you end up busting more stuff up and down the line trying to get something fixed.

Ivan's dad has a flare tool, so I think we're going to try to splice in repairs without removing the ends of the lines.