Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[bennelson]

Been busy this week. No luck on cars yet.

I did just work with a guy today who was driving a red Saturn coupe, the same car I saw a good deal on Craigslist not too long ago. It is a REALLY NICE looking car - very aerodynamic looking.

It also dawned on me that my car that died in 2002 would be perfect for this project. It was a 1.5L 5 speed manual Chevy Spectrum. The engine blew on the freeway.

My friend pronounced it dead and dragged it off to the boneyard.




Last summer, I was at another friend's house who mentioned that he saw my old car only a couple of streets away. Hard to miss, it's painted like a cow.
Sure enough, there it was in somebody's driveway. I have no idea if it had an engine in it or not.

If I make it back to that area sometime soon in daylight, I might drive around and try to find it. Who knows, maybe it has just been sitting in the driveway taking up space and they would sell it to the first person who drags it away!?!?

[WaxyChicken]

/me has flash back to the movie "Christine".... that Chevy was just waiting for him to discover it in the weeds.

[bennelson]

I went out to "Jack's Auto Ranch" today. They had a Metro, but it was all rusted out.

On the way back from there, I saw a house that had a bunch on cars parked behind it. I stopped and the lady of the house told me to go back to a workshop on the property.

The owner was there along with his father and a couple of snowmobile buddies.

It looked like a strange scene from a movie. They all had beards and were wearing greasy overalls and drinking beer. Engines and transmissions were strewn about. Old license plates covered the walls.

I explained what I was planning on doing, looking for a car to convert to electric. They actually had some pretty good advice about VWs. There were 3 VW vans in back along with a number of other vehicles, none really appropriate for conversion.

I had a beer and hung out with them for a while.

Interesting experience. Bit of a culture shock. These guys were hard-core rural grease-monkeys, nice though.

Still searching for a donor car.

I also saw my brother-in-law tonight. I explained to him what I was planning with the electric car. He has a 1999 Geo Metro with a good body. He gave me the thumbs up to convert his car to electric after I do mine as a prototype.

We will see if he still feels that way after I am done with mine or not.

(EDIT: NOTE FROM THE FUTURE LOOKING BACK ON THIS THREAD - My brother-in-law ended up selling that 2000 Geo Metro to my brother for something like $50. My brother completely rebuilt the engine - he took every darn thing apart - did the whole thing - it's a brand new engine. The car is now running as a stock 1 liter Geo Metro.)

[MetroMPG]

Good story. I had a similar culture shock experience while car shopping

You know, a VW van would be OK, as long as you're not planning to go highway speeds with it. They're relatively light & can hold a lot of battery weight, manual steering & brakes (I think)...

[metroschultz]

It is sad that you live so far from the Chesapeake Bay.
Someone is always telling me about a Geo for sale some where.(I'm the local GeoNut)
There are two within a mile of my house.
Both owners think they are made of platinum.
1990 Metro Auto $1950.oo
1991 Metro Auto $1300.oo
Insane. I offered them each $400.oo
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I'll keep my eyes open.
soon one will rear its head I can get for under $ 100.oo
then one of you'se guys can come&getit.------
S.

[bennelson]

I finally had a little time and got to take the drive end plate off the drive motor from my forklift.



Is there a rule of thumb for what weight vehicle you can push with what size motor? This motor weighs 90 lbs. I have another that weighs 130, but it has a female connector instead of a driveshaft.

The windings on this motor look pretty good to me. They are a heavy, flat copper. Aren't windings usually more of a wire? These windings look more like buss bars! They should be able to handle some high amps, right?

You can see more photos of this motor here.

OK - wierd question - what is the "bubblegum" on the rotor? Is that some sort of high-tech repair epoxy, or did somebody actually drop some chewing gum into this motor?

Any and all comments on this motor are welcome. I am learning as I go, and do well by combining hands-on tinkering with experienced person's advice.

I also got one reply from the Craigslist posting I put up asking about the Cow Car. A guy said that he had seen it driving around in the area I thought it was in. Would be fun to go find it again sometime.

Before taking the drive motor apart, I did bench test it with a 12 volt battery and a pair of jumper cables. Spins very nice - good and quiet - no sparks or anything from the brushes.

I also notices after taking it apart that the brushes are angled. I thought they would be at a 90 degree angle so that the forklift could drive forwards and backwards just as easily. See? This is how I learn new things!




http://web.mac.com/benhdvideoguy/iWeb/Home/ev_02.html

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Is there a rule of thumb for what weight vehicle you can push with what size motor? This motor weighs 90 lbs. I have another that weighs 130, but it has a female connector instead of a driveshaft.

I can drive my 1830 lb Firefly with its 5-10 lb 12v starter motor. Not very fast or far, but it does work.

I'm confident you could drive a small car with that drive motor. It's not ideal because it doesn't appear to have paired brushes, and the comm is kind of small, but it would work. Depending on how many volts and amps you want to stuff through it, you might have to add external cooling.

PS - did you keep the corresponding male shaft that mates with the pump motor?

---

Drat, drat, drat. 250217800024 That's the eBay item for a 24/36v 400A golf cart controller. Sold for $36. You could have used something like that as one half of a super cheap "hybrid" PWM & contactor 36/72v controller.

I missed the end time on the auction, or else I would have bid on it myself!

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

- did you keep the corresponding male shaft that mates with the pump motor?

The male shaft WAS the pump that went on the motor. I did not yank that whole pump off. I felt it added to the resale value of the forklift to have working hydraulics.

There was a little spacer doo-hicky that fit into the end of the motor. I DID make sure to keep that. I figured it could be used as a template to cut the matching shape into the end of a shaft or some sort of other connection.

I still haven't had much luck on finding a donor vehicle. Mostly just been checking Craiglist every night. I have found a lot of vehicles that would be perfect, but then have one deal-breaking quality to them: Auto tranny, too much rust, too pricy, wierd car that I will never find parts for.

Must........be..........patient..................w ill.......eventually..........find.......car...... .

[bennelson]

What do you think of this one?

http://madison.craigslist.org/car/587793295.html



It's too bad about the dent on the hood. I guess for the price range I am looking in, I should expect to learn to do a little body work.

Otherwise, I like the hatchback design. Does anyone know if this is one of those "backward transmission" Hondas?

Does anyone know a good web page to look up the weights of cars? Wikipedia is good for general car information, but seldom lists the weight of the car. If you know a specific good web site for listing car weights, please let me know.

Is a bad clutch a negative in a car I am looking for? Since I have to take out the engine and transmission, I may just end up removing the clutch anyways, right? If I did need to replace it, I could do that while everything is taken apart anyhow.

[bennelson]

Here's another listing:
http://madison.craigslist.org/car/587602611.html

Wish the guy had a photo, that would tell me a lot more. What exactly is an STD!?!? (No, not a sexually transmitted disease...)