Paul & Sabrina's Cheap EV Conversion

[redbeardatxm]

Thanks!

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

redbear: the answer to your controller questions will most likely be found on the EVDL mailing list. http://evdl.org

[MPaulHolmes]

OK, so I was bidding on this terrific foot pedal/pot box. That dang thing got ripped from me at the last second! oh dear! I was going to buy a PB-? (maybe PB-5 but I'm not sure) for my 1204-412 curtis controller. Well that's $100. Plan B! I'm making it homemade. I'm also going with the $2 radio shack 5k pot. I'll put up the pictures of my prototype when I'm done. Total cost will be about $5. I made a really crappy round piece of wood that I drilled through that will sit on the post of the Pot. I'll fasten the Pot to a piece of sheet metal (or hard plastic) which will be fastened to a short piece of 2x3 wood. The purpose of the round wood is to increase the diameter of the pot post so that it's easier to turn and a wire attached to the wood will have a linear range that is the same as the range on the gas pedal from all the way up to all the way down to the floor. There will be another wire attached to a spring that will keep the pot in the "off" state until the pedal is depressed. I just need to make it look nice enough so that an inspector ignores it. Pictures to follow!

[MPaulHolmes]

It works good! (the homemade potbox). Here are a few pictures. I just need to beef it up, like use wire cable instead of nylon string and not use a thumbtack to hold the string on the pot. Also, I can shrink it down a bit, so it's a box! Pot Box!!!

[bennelson]

Hard to get more homebrew than that!

Guess it beats spending $100 for one and waiting for it to come in the mail.

I am thinking my Electro-Metro will start out using my motorcycle twist throttle in the early testing stages....

[MPaulHolmes]

Well, I have some very interesting news about the car for our conversion. It's going to be... a...

VW Bug!!!

For a while I would take my ebike for leasurely cruses through my neighborhood, seeking out the perfect conversion. Well, I noticed a nice little blue VW bug a while back, and I tried to talk to the owner but no one was home. Yesterday, I took my baby for a walk and they were home. A very elderly couple that loves little babies! He had put in quite a bit of money into it fixing various things, and had almost rebuilt the whole engine on his own, but something was still not working. His wife wants it out of their driveway. He decided that since the engine isn't working, that he'll just take it to the scrap yard.

"Bad engine? hmm... I don't mind!"
"Well, I put quite a bit into it, so I can't give it to you for free, maybe a couple hundred?"
"I get payed on the 15th of June."
"You want to convert it to Electric??? Wow! I didn't know people did that!"
"Heck yes they do!"
"Your baby, She is so beautiful! We have lots of grand children"
"Yes, HE certainly is!!!"

Best of all, It's only about a block away, so I don't have to tow it! At least I now have a use for that 1 Ton engine hoist I bought. hahaha just kidding.

[bennelson]

Electric rear-wheel drive! Fun!

Mounting the motor should be pretty easy because of that!

[dremd]

SWEET!!

E-Bug will be awesome. I think there are even commercially available motor plates for those transmissions now days.

[MPaulHolmes]

Well, I upgraded the string to 1/16" steel cable, coated in plastic. I changed the roll of electrical tape that was used to expand the diameter of the Pot post to a chunk of the wood off of our plunger. I drilled through the piece of the cylindrical wood and slid it onto the post. I used JB weld to hold it in place. Also, the plastic round sides are JB welded to the wood post. Then I drilled a hole through the wood and through the metal post of the pot, and put the steel cable through the hole, making it stick in the hole with lots of JB weld. It's drying right now. The spring I'm currently using is from my stapler. All the plastic is from a bucket. The wood is just a 2x3. The only thing I'm now concerned about is the durability of the Pot and the spring. But, I can easily get a strong flexible spring and I found some 5k Pots that are good for 5 million turns for like $30. We'll see, though. I'll post pictures once the JB weld dries.

[MPaulHolmes]

Well, I was at a high school today, and the autoshop teacher was in the office, and I told him I was looking for a clutch hub for a 1971 beetle, and he said "Hey! come down some time today and I'll give you one." What? OK! So, I picked it up, and hacked it up, trying to increase the welding surface area, but maybe it's not a good idea to do that. By the way, those rivets were forever! Dang german engineering!!! Well, I got it off. It has a lip that is exactly 40 mm wide, so I can get a L-110 Lovejoy with a 40 mm diameter, and it will slide right on perfectly centered. I can then weld it really solidly, and then the only thing to do is the adapter plate, all without visiting any professionals that want my money. This is going to be good, and I'm an idiot that doesn't know how to change oil even!
Also, I got a good deal on a 250amp continuous emergency disconnect/contactor from Curtis. It was only $35! I do need to attach a red button though. I don't know why it didn't come with one. I tested it and it works! oh ya.
The last picture is with the spring fully stretched, so if I let go of the second green cord, it will automatically go back.

[bennelson]

Score on that clutch hub!

I think at this rate, your conversion is going to be done before mine!!!

[MPaulHolmes]

We payed for the car today, a 1971 VW bug (blue). It has an excellent body with almost no rust. The same owner for the last 25 years. The engine has only 10,000 miles on it since it's last rebuild. I'll try and sell it, but there is something wrong with the distributor (I have no idea what that is). I am told it's a minor problem. Hopefully, someone on Craigslist wants it for their project. I could end up getting the car for "free" in that case.
Here's the annoying part. It's been parked outside for the last few months, and not moved, and the brake drum is frozen to the brake pad, so the back wheel won't move, so we need to take care of that. It's still at his house, but I have a few ideas how it will be taken care of so we can roll it over here.
Also, I bought 2 L110 lovejoy couplers (both about 1.5" diameter) so if I screw up on the welding job, I have another one. I still need to buy the 7/8" diameter L110 now. Maybe in the future, I'll go with a smaller one like the L095. I don't know. It's just that they were super cheap on ebay. One was only $4.99! The other was $10 I think (I forgot). I'll do the welding once they come, maybe by the end of next week! I probably should practice my welding a bit more before that.

[MetroMPG]

Nice to hear you sealed the deal. A big hammer and making lots of noise on that drum is one of the first methods people use to free a stuck brake shoe.

[dremd]

I freed the brakes shoes on my 66 bus with a bottle of marvel mystery oil (as soon as posable), a chain, and most recently a Supra. . . .. I can provide details if needed . . .

If it is really stuck; pump the tire up and drag it on a trailer (that's how I got my 68' home)

if you can reach on of the adjusting stars that would be very helpful as well . . .

[MPaulHolmes]

Here's the inside of part of my motor. I hope it can be fixed. I think it's just carbon after all, though. Hopefully it can just be scraped off and start all fresh and clean! The rest of the rotor is nice though.

[COMP]

looks like it can be cleaned

[MPaulHolmes]

I'm working on chopping off a big completely stuck-on spline thing on the back post of the motor, so I can slip off the cover to get at the copper bars to clean them. I bought a 3 foot long crow bar, but that didn't do it, so I'll be grinding it along the keyway (which is buried under steel!) and prying it apart that way. A spider for my L110 came today. Now I just need the L110 so I can weld the spline to it (no machining necessary! I hope it works!). By the way, those L110's are beasts, and I think I could do some drag racing with them, and not break anything. I was attempting to take lovely pictures, and the dang batteries ran out!!! They are recharging now. ooh, that makes me mad!

[bennelson]

The L110 must be huge.

I grabbed a pair of L095s thinking they were plenty large, and who needs extra weight anyways?

You are probably right about them being good for drag-racing.

[MPaulHolmes]

Man, the motor had 2 posts (front and back), and I had to remove the back HUGE spline gear thing on the "back" post in order to get access to the copper bars that the carbon brushes slide against (they had all that crap on them). I figured I could take it to a real motor person, but then again, hard plastic SOS pads only cost $0.99. It worked really well. It's now very smooth. Not perfect, but almost perfect. Good enough for government work (I'm a government employee I think. I substitute teach)

Removing that back post was like giving birth to a cactus. My 3 foot long crow bar came in handy though! ha!

The brushes were nice and long still. Now I know how to change the brushes. Really a very simple system, DC motors. Not many parts at all. The brushes were H-100's, whatever that means. Now I'm trying to put it back together. I hope it works once it's back together again.

[MPaulHolmes]

Great news! I can't get the motor back together! hurray! Wait just a dang minute. That's bad news...

Well, some progress. It is a pickle!

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Great news! I can't get the motor back together! hurray! Wait just a dang minute. That's bad news...

Paul, glad to see you have the right attitude for this kind of project.

There are ups and downs to these things, just don't take yourself to seriously when working on it.

Look at the Youtube vid of me being covered in Geo Metro gasoline sometime for a good laugh!