1992 Mitsubishi Mirage Electric Conversion

[Shifty]

I dont have a picture of the exact coupler thats in the car but I have a few pictures that give a good idea of how it looks.

The coupler mates a larger male spline to a smaller male spline. It looks like this.



and mates a shaft like this.



It is about this side and made of heat treated steel.



To get this custom made will cost about $300. If you have parts of the female splines then to couple and align them it is a bit less. I paid about $150 for that.

[Shifty]

I had to use so much lead because the controller requires 320 volts. No matter what batteries I use it comes out to alot of weight. Right now I just got done removing the passenger seat, the exhaust shield and all the plastic in the rear of the car. So far I have saved 60 lbs. Every little bit helps.

[davidbr13]

Hi, Shifty. I have a soft spot for this since I'm from Oklahoma (I went to that other university...), and I have a bit of experience with EV's.

Have you taken the test to get the state license yet? It's easy, the main hurdle is the insurance they require you to carry.

For stiffer springs, call coil springs specialties out of St. Mary's, KS. (Springs for Custom Cars and Custom Situations - COIL SPRING SPECIALTIES). Just give them the info. on your basic vehicle, and tell them how much weight you added at the front and back. They will custom make you springs. A front and back set for my fiero (Dave Brandt's 1986 Pontiac Fiero) was like $320 if I recall.

If you have issues with the dolphin controller, contact Chris Zach (you can reach him from the elec-trak forum (Elec-Trak.com) and he has been known to hang out on the EVDL (The Electric Vehicle Discussion List) as well. He has repaired many of these on USE prizms and S-10's, and can program/reprogram the controller as well as help with any faults. He has also started a "known issues" list and has repaired controllers that many would have just tossed in the scrap heap.

As far as concern over a lot of batteries, it isn't a big deal. I use a string of 19, and would have used more if they would have fit. I'm right at GVWR, and the car handles fantastic with the new springs. Your batteries are smaller, so should not have a big impact, although the USE prizm used Hawker 26 Ah batteries, about half the size and weight of the YT's. AND they get 30-40 miles range with the smaller batteries. Crunch some numbers and see what size you really want to use. Of course then you may get to be limited on what is available.

A high voltage string increases efficiency, and you can use smaller cables. The important thing is to keep them balanced. By the way, I've heard bad things about Optima quality since Johnson Controls took over. You may want to do individual cycling and capacity tests on them before installation to weed out any bad eggs. They (Optima) have also refused warranty claims on batteries used in EV's for some people on the EVDL. Exide makes the orbital blue top and the purple 34-XCD, and those are comparable in size and capcity to the optima YT's, so you could look at those as an option. I believe there are also some hawker clones out there in various sizes, and the power-sonics like what I used, come in a lot of sizes (plus they have handles!).

In any case, good luck with this conversion. It should be really slick.

[Tango Charlie]

Elements of my dream workshop;
A lift
A big tool box
A computer
A CHALKBOARD



How cool is that? I don't know why the chalkboard gets me so excited.

Awesome project, Shifty.

[brihoo2k]

Originally Posted by 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!

Ha ha I once used a leather shoe lace to put a motor in a metro the head was remove which made the motor weigh about 40 pounds. I only did it that way to be able to say I did it that way. One hand holding the motor using a shoe lace and the other putting in bell housing bolts

[Shifty]

Well It has been almost a year since I last posted but the blue car is almost done. I had been working on it for a while but school and life just got in the way of regular work and updates.

So now I am going to post some pictures and explanations of how it was done in case anyone works on a car like this.

This picture is the bracket we made to hold the controller and other electronics above the motor. What you cant see is the rubber we put down on this later to help with vibrations going to the controller.




Next up is the picture of the controller and all the electronics finally mounted in the car. This is a picture of the car in its pretty much final state. You can drive it around right now though it feels a bit weird to drive it still.



In the upper right you can see the throttle control, its just a normal 5K pot hooked up to the controller. The mess of stuff to the right is outputs for lights and other things that I don't really need to use. I ended up securing them better in the end. The controller uses a liquid cooled system but with a 3 gallon tank and a small pump it doesn't really need a radiator. The temperature stays in range unless you are really pushing it.



This is a close up of the inter locks and the precharge switch. Both of the tall black cylinders are 450 V relays and the rest is electronics associated with turning on the Dolphin controller slowly.

Last but not least is the user control system for the car. Since I messed up the ignition system the key is only good for unlocking the steering wheel. So the key always stays in the ignition. To run the car you have to throw the switches a certain way to turn it on then put it in drive. These also control Regen and how the dolphin is set. So far no one has tried to steal if



This car runs good and has surprising acceleration when it is floored but due to the fact of only having red top optimas (not deep cycle) I do not drive it far, 5 to 10 miles between charges until i get better batteries. The only trouble that has happened so far is flat tires.