Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[bennelson]

I just had a thought on a potential reason why the forklift motor has a rattle and a little wobble to it.

I noticed there are two small bolts left over. (ie. NOT inside the motor!)

There was some small plate in there on the drive end of the motor that was held in place by those two bolts.

Since the end plate was put on to test fit to motor to the transmission, I didn't bother to pull it back off to check things over first.

I will pull it back apart, tighten down that little plate with those two screws and see if that makes a difference!



EDIT:
I pulled the end off. That little plate thing in there is loose for sure and might be the source of the wobble as well. Once the end cap is on, there is no way to get fingers or anything in there to hold the plate still to get the screws into it. Really not sure how to put it back together?!!?!

[MetroMPG]

Things are getting interesting. When's the first motor power up?

[bennelson]

I already spun the motor - by itself - on the floor - the wrong direction - then the right direction.

Daox and I are doing some welding this weekend.
I was originally hoping do to some engine mounting while he was over, but I still need the coupler and the spacers from the machinist.

He is a hot rod builder and off to the races this weekend, and my little project is lower on his priority list than $50,000 custom-builts. Plus, he's a really nice guy, and I don't want to push him for parts when he's busy working on his stuff.

The only real work that needs to be done for the motor/tranny setup is:
1) A bead of welding between the lovejoy coupler and the parking brake splined bit.
2) Need six 1-inch long spacers to go between adapter plate and the motor end cap.
3) Need to chop off the tail-shaft (won't fit otherwise, and I couldn't turn my passenger wheel left!)

Then if I can just get that little inside washer bit thing a majigger pinned down with those two little leftover bolts, the motor could be ready to mount.

And since I have a controller sitting right in front of me....

MWa ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

Sorry, just getting all excited about this project again.

[MetroMPG]

Duh. You already did your first motor power up. And made a video. I missed a few posts...

Anyway - I had a chuckle when I read about your motor turning the wrong way. The ForkenSwift's did too at first, but it was harder to fix than yours. The field/armature connections were internal, and silver soldered together. So we had to pull the motor apart, make jumper wires, and re-solder it.

[MetroMPG]

Jinx! Posted at the same time. Pretty much.

[MPaulHolmes]

I had the same trouble with getting the bolts through that hold down the plate inside the motor. I drilled the hole through to the outside of the motor, and put the bolt through the plate so the bolt popped out through the new hole, and added a nut to the end (on the outside of the motor). Ghetto, but it worked really well.

[bennelson]

That's a "leed" on batteries! I know, it comes across as a visual pun...

I just got an e-mail from an area EV group leader saying another member has some

"Deka GEL, 31 deep cycle batteries that he will sell you for $9 each. He has about 20 of them and he indicated that they are good batteries..."

Woo-Hoo!
Of course this guy didn't say WHO had the batteries or WHERE the were, so I still have to wait for a reply to the e-mail I sent back, basically saying "YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES!"

Hmm, that maybe sounds desperate. Well, those weren't my exact words anyways.

These batteries sound like EXACTLY what I need for this project. The only thing I can think of is you have to be a little more careful charging gel cells, they have fairly specific charging voltage requirements.

I will let you all know if I get these batteries!

[bennelson]

I got to go into south Milwaukee today to meet with two other guys who are building electric cars!

It was held at a warehouse run by the one guy who is a computer recycler and great scrounger/ electrical engineer. He is converting a Dodge Neon to a 300-some volt A/C drive electric car.

The other guy is converting a Toyota picup truck to 288V DC.

Both these guys are way smarter than me. The one guy is an electric genius, and the other works at a place that manufactures brushes for electric motors.

I went there with my brother Wayne, who is visiting right now. He helped me take the transmission out of the Metro originally.

There were also two or three other people there who were just generally interested in electric vehicle building, and were just helping out, or standing around watching.


We figured out a way to get the bolts back into that bearing backer plate thing that was loose. I ended up getting threaded rod, pushing it through the hole, threading it into one of the holes in that little plate, then sliding the end cap back on, smacking it on all the way, then put the other bolt in, take out the threaded rod, and put the first bolt back in again.

Wow, that was a long sentence, but that's what it took to do!

Once the motor was all together, we hooked a battery up to it using an Anderson connector as a power switch. It spun pretty well, and DIDN'T have the wobble and clang that it did the first time I spun it.

The bad news is that the motor FAILED the "high-pot" test. That means that some part of the motor is grounded to the cast iron body of the motor. That's a bad thing, but the motor does work.

Supposedly, if I pull the coils out, clean them and re-wrap them with some sort of thin, non-conductive material, that should solve it.

I also got some great freebies at the workday. The computer salvage guys gave me a couple of Anderson connectors, a bed frame (for battery brackets), and some big shrink wrap (red & black!) for all my cable connectors, as well as about ten feet of 1 gauge cable.

I also brought my 72V controller to show off.

It was a fun day. We were there from 11 am to about 4, including going to lunch at the Chinese buffet.

When I got home, I put the motor on the floor and hooked it up to a battery and charger to run it. I was told to run the battery for about 24 hours and then check to see if the "high-pot" problem was any different.

They also thought that the bearings were probably fine for now, but I should replace them before I really hook everything up for the official setup.


Here's some photos:




Motor with an Anderson connector added and a much better serial jumper cable between the posts.



Pile of stuff Tom gave me at his warehouse.




Bench testing the motor



The motor as it looked when I pulled it from the forklift.
The left end of the motor is the same end as faces the camera in the photo above. The thing on the left end of the motor is a drum brake. I pulled that off and cut it down to make the coupler to go on the other end of the motor.

More updates soon!
More photos at:
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy#100161



EDIT/UPDATE:
After running the motor for about 45 minutes, the outside of the motor is a little warm. Feeling around on it (being careful not to accidently stick my fingers in there!!!) it was cold in the middle, and warm on the ends. Touching as close as I could to the where the bearings were seemed to be the warmest.

Looks like I will need to replace the bearings.

[MetroMPG]

Bearing heat is normal. The ForkenSwift's is the same way. I'm sure I asked Jim Husted about it, and he said "don't worry about it".

I used a bed frame for the batt racks too, but be warned: the stuff I got seemed to have lots more carbon in it or something, because it ATE UP drill bits and cutoff wheels. Definitely not mild steel. Also, it was harder to weld nicely than mild steel.

[bennelson]

Well, I am starting to get smarter.

I finally bothered to INSULATE my conductive socket wrenches.




I also went to the hardware store and picked up a set of M10 by 80mm bolts which will mount the mounting plate and spacers to the motor.



These are some beefy bolts. They stick out about 2 inches. The adapter plate(s) are two 1/2 inch thick aluminum plates and then there will be a one-inch spacer on each bolt as well.

That's what's needed to get the correct spacing for the coupler to go between the tranny and motor.

Looks like Wednesday night I might be able to go see the machinist and chop the tailshaft, weld the coupler, and make the spacers.

I still haven't heard anything yet from the guy with the batteries. He might be out of town or something.

I am also planning on visiting a guy tomorrow night who is building an electric trike. He hooked it all up, but it isn't working, so I am going to troubleshoot it for him.

(Note to self - bring camera)