Electric Assist Project: E-charger (2000 Subaru Outback)

[brucey]

Dropped it off at the machine shop this morning, the guy said the shaft might have ballooned some at the end, preventing me from moving it off.

Here is hoping he gets it off safely.

[brucey]

Pulley is off! Work resumes sunday as I'm going to the firing range tomorrow and want to get my plinking better with pistols.

[ShadeTreeMech]

Might I suggest a good anti seize compound with the reinstallation?

I honestly would be suprised that there was much corrosion between the 2 metals in such a short time, but with the very snug fit you described, the atomically small corrosion that occurred may have been enough to make the fit that much tighter.

[brucey]

I'm going to have to sand in some places to make it fit again, gotta get a dremel knock off looks like (been meaning to pick one up since my name brand dremel died)

Anywho, started looking into mounting the controller today. My original plan was to get it in the engine bay, but with as cramped as the AC12 motor is making everything, I've ruled that out.

It likes staying cool, so that rules out the glovebox (it would barely fit anyway)

So I can put it in the passenger floor underneath the seat (not crazy about the idea, for water and general abuse reasons with passengers)

Or I can put it on top of the battery box, making for some really short battery cables. This would be interesting, as I'd essentially have a pod that holds everything but the motor/throttle in the back of the car. I just have to make sure if it's cool to have the motor leads running that far.

[brucey]

Just a quick update here:

I slotted the mounting bracket so I can adjust the angle of the motor (and pulley) by about 5 degrees. It simply slides up and down on the bracket. This should make it so I can find where I need the motor to be mounted for my final bracket build. Although I Will probably have to find another belt.

I also tried getting the pulley on, but it seems like the slightest bit on and the pulley just gets stuck. I'm going to sand the shaft some and round the corners on the pulley. I want to have it so it can slide on and off with just the split collar holding it on. That will be fine with me. Gonna need to break out the dremel for this though.

[brucey]

Now that I'm done laughing at people arguing over technicalities on the volt, I figured I'd give a quick update again:

Got my pulley to slide on (snug, but not unmanageable) the shaft. Going to drill and tap holes on the reverse face (since my original face looks terrible) and install it this week. Hopefully I won't need to belt hunt again, and hopefully all this will have solved the belt walk issue.

[brucey]

The problem illustrated:



The short term solution:



I don't have time to see if this will work. There is a storm coming in and I have to drain the coolant (again) to fix a leak from the heater I installed.

Other ideas to get the correct angle are welcome as well.

[ShadeTreeMech]

strange, my post didn't show up......

I would adjust the angle of the ac2. I'm not certain whether adjusting the angle of the plate is feasible or not; maybe the use of shims in strategic spots would work?

The outside edge of the plate (away from the engine), is this braced somehow? Considering the minute amount needed to adjust the angle, pulling the outside edge of the plate toward the front of the engine slightly should do the trick, then you just need to brace it there. Be cautious about bending the plate too much; it should easily flex enough to allow proper alignment but bend it too far and it'll tend to crack easier than steel will.

[brucey]

Welp, I'm out of ideas again. I adjusted the motor as much as I could, adjusted the slider bracket anywhere I could. Still walks off the power steering pulley. I added washers just to the top of the motor, to give it more angle. It is now perfectly alligned (In the previous picture, it was off by about 2 degrees) with the power steering pulley and it still walks off. I'm starting to think the problem is the idler pulley. Maybe there is some angle on that that I can't see.

I'm going to try the giant washer idea as a temporary fix, just to get this to the proof of concept stage sooner rather than later.

[dcb]

I wonder if turning it over slowly would help, i.e. just the starter with no ignition, or even with a ratchet on the crank, then observe carefully what is pulling what where.