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Old 09-30-2014, 08:45 AM   #3 (permalink)
Astro
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Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Australia
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So what are the plans for the conversion?

Electric motor will be a 3 phase industrial motor, rewound to suit an EV.
Supplied buy Catavolt it is a 132m frame 75kw motor Custom wound to spec.
Partialy motivated by budget but also by wanting to do something a bit different. (yes, that will be a recurring theme in this build ).

Gearbox to remain.
Clutch to remain, may go with a different flywheel just to reduce weight.

Controller will be the most excellent Paul and Sabrina designed AC controller.
This controller is one of those rare devices that no accountants, marketing experts or cost cutting committees have been allowed to touch. It is built how the designer originally intended. If you don't know about this controller then give yourself a slap from me and head on over to Paul's thread.

Batteries will be Winston 40Ah cells, as many as will fit. The small size of the cells allows them to be squeezed into smaller areas of the car at the expense of more cells required and more cell top BMS modules. The plan is to mount them under the rear seat, taking the place of the fuel tank. If more cells are required than will fit in that space then they will go in the engine bay.
The pack under the rear seat will be a self contained and removable unit. It will also house the main contactor and the pre-charge contactor.
That way pack voltage will only leave the pack module when either the pre-charge or main contactor are active.
Monitoring this pack will be the Low Cost BMS. This will provide individual cell monitoring, charge control and top balancing on every charge. The low cost allows me to use smaller capacity cells which should be easier to squeeze in to the available space.

Power steering will have it's pressurised fluid supplied by a second hand electric power steering pump. These are available from most car wreckers for less than $50. Just make sure they are well mounted with their vibration insulators correctly attached. They can generate quite a bit of noise if not mounted properly.

Heater, this will be a cannibalised ceramic heater. It will take the place of the existing heater core. Very cheap, very effective, quick to heat up and very light weight.

Brakes. The vacuum assisted brakes will get their vacuum from a second hand vacuum pump (Hella UP28, 30 or 32) controlled by a Summit racing vacuum switch and relay.

The air conditioning will be via a pulley mounted to the rear shaft of the electric motor. I have read that the pressure generated whilst moving is enough to keep the A/C working whilst stopped at traffic lights. If not then i can always remove the existing compressor and fit an electric one sourced from a hybrid vehicle.

Well that's it for the second post.
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