1992 Mitsubishi Mirage Electric Conversion

[Shifty]

I have started an electric conversion of a 1992 Mitsubishi Mirage. I will be tracking its progress here. Hopefully it will be running soon.

First I have to give props to the University of Oklahoma and EVRI (Electric Vehicle Research Institute) for letting me use a shop on campus.

The car was donated by a professor for conversion many thanks for this.

Now here is a picture of the car.

[SVOboy]

Nice stuff! Looking forward to some interesting updates.

[Shifty]

I am still learning how this forum posting works so if some formats are funny it cause i got no idea what i am doing. Ok, now for the details on what i have for the conversion.

Car: 1992 Mitsubishi Mirage
Motor: 3 Phase Induction 50 Kw
Controller: Dolphin

Here is a picture of the engine of the car and me.


The motor control is provided by a dolphin controller powered by lead acid batteries.

In just a bit i will post the progress made so far.

[SVOboy]

If you have any questions about the forum, don't hesitate to ask!

[Shifty]

The first step in converting the car is pulling the engine and removing all the unnecessary parts like the exhaust, engine, gas tank, and radiator. The transmission is left in so the electric motor can be connected to it. A car lift made removing the gas tank and exhaust fairly easy. The hardest part was getting the engine out. There was not much of room to move the engine to clear the front wheel drive transmission.

Now for some pictures. Lets see if i can get these right.

Here is the engine still in the car.
Attachment 1

The car on the lift.
Attachment 2

The motor pulled.
Attachment 3

The next step is to go to the recycling center to turn in the parts for cash to further fund this venture. Before the engine can be turned in the flywheel clutch assembly should be removed an it is useful later.

[MetroMPG]

Nice to see another conversion underway. I always had a soft spot in my heart for the little Mitsu "bread vans".

50kw AC motor! Does the controller have regen?

And it looks like you've found some used components to keep prices down.

What are your plans for the battery pack/system voltage?

[Daox]

Wow, I second the 50kw AC motor! Looking forward to seeing more.

[Shifty]

The controller can do regen. It also has a built in DC/DC converter. The question is will it still work. These parts all are left over from an electric vehicle program that has been idle for a few years but that is starting back up. If anyone has any experience hooking up a dolphin controller let me know.

For power i am planning to use some optima yellow tops. The only downside to this type of controller is it requires about 300 V. I am not too sure if i can handle all that weight, so for starters i might use a bunch of 19 Ah 12 V back up batteries for testing.

[MetroMPG]

For info on that controller, I think there may be a US Electricar Yahoo group.

[jasonm]

In case you have any questions concerning the chassis/suspension of this car, you can go here: http://www.4g61t.com

I used to have the turbo version, and even though I had nearly 200hp to the wheels, I could still get 35mpg out of it.

If the weight is going to increase, you can use the front shocks and springs from an eclipse. The spring rates and valving should be suitable for more weight then the stock parts that you have on there now. I don't remember if the rears are interchangeable with the eclipse (FWD model), but I suspect they are since the suspension setups are nearly identical.

[bennelson]

I am so jealous of that motor and controller. And an engine hoist!

I used a clothesline to pull the engine out of the Metro!

I also love how the leg of the photographer has become that standard unit of scale to show how big a motor is!

[dremd]

Subscribed!

Nice Motor / controller!

Wish you were closer so I could come see.

[Shifty]

MetroMpg thanks for the suggestion for the electric car group. I got the data sheets for the motor and controller from them. Also thanks jasonm for that website I had no idea that there were any sites like that for that car. The good news is that we have at least 2 working dolphin controllers and 1 broken one. 2 others are in crates and are busted. Its almost finals week so i haven't been able to work much on the car however i plan to as soon as my tests are all done.
The car lift is awesome to have for this stuff. Nothing like lifting a car above you and not even having to bend over to work on it. It sure beats working on your car in an apartment parking lot with it driven up on a curb.

[roflwaffle]

Needs more wacky hair, the Mad part of your scientific stuffz is running dangerously low.
on the project!

Originally Posted by bennelson

I used a clothesline to pull the engine out of the Metro!

[Shifty]

Well nothing like a few string of delays to throw a project off track. Between finals and summertime I did not get to work on the car much. However the good news is that one of the reasons I got delayed was due to another EV. I fixed a broken Ford EV Ranger.

Here is the repacked battery


And the truck


Anyway back to the Mirage. I have now made some progress and will continue this thread now.

[bennelson]

Shifty, you can't tease us like that!

Whose truck is that? Yours, or were you fixing it for somebody else!

That's a lot of Yellow Tops in that thing.

[Shifty]

The truck belongs to the University of Oklahoma though I am the only driver as of now. We got two of them from a national park, both were broken. I have one running and am waiting on batteries for the second. Mainly they needed new batteries and repairs to damage from mice living in them.

[Shifty]

Once the engine was removed I cut a plate to mount on the transmission. Here is a picture of the transmission with the plate attached.



The transmission has a 20 tooth male spline which I needed to mate with the motors 20 tooth spline. The main problem was the motors shaft was 1/4 of an inch larger in diameter then the transmission. After looking for a way to do this cheaply I finally had to bite the bullet and pay to have a coupler machined at a shop.

Here is the motor mated to the transmission. A bit of advice for anyone who is going to mate a motor and transmission, spend the extra time to double check the alignment I had to redo it once because of misalignment.

[Shifty]

The motor turns the wheels! We got the motor powered up and turning the front wheels while the car in on the lift. The motor and transmission will have to be adjusted a bit to get rid of a small wobble but otherwise it looks like it will work.

Has any one had any experience stiffening a cars suspension? I am going to be about 600 lbs over weight in the back of the car. The springs as they are now are almost bottomed out.

Here is a picture of the car fully loaded. You can see how bad the sag in the back end is.

[bennelson]

I second the question of stiffening the suspension. My Metro isn't too bad yet, but I am still planning on adding another 400 lbs of lead.

Shifty, do you have any photos of the custom-made coupler? I would love to see what that looks like!