EV motor question?
 

I have been reading Ben and Pauls EV build threads. Noticed both of you guys used lovejoy's on yours, Why? I was thinking of when I would do mine mount motor a little above tranny and chain and sprocket it. That way getting more end clearance and allowing battery room below motor. Do you guys think this would work? I realize I would have to build new supports for engine/tranny, but would not be a huge issue.

tranny bearings are not designed for that kind of load, a chain is going to pull on the shaft from the side.

Mounting with a chain and sprocket works fine. Ryland is right about direction of forces though. Maybe an additional bearing and support could be added to take care of that?

I don't have room in the Metro for the motor ABOVE the tranny.

Here is an electric trike done in a way similar to what you are thinking.

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...C06033/web.jpg

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...C06036/web.jpg

The electric motor sits above a Chevy S10 rear axle spun around backwards. Both the motor and axle have sprockets on them, and there is a chain wrapped around connecting the two.

Lots of different ways to connect a motor and transmission together. I went with the Lovejoys because it seemed pretty simple. Plus, that's what the Forkenswift is using, and I am "borrowing" a lot of ideas from that project.

Check out Shifty's EV car build for another type of coupler.

Ryland, thanks I was wondering about that. It got me thinking what about a snowmobile clutch instead of transmission. May not work on a car but a trike, Possible? It would allow low gearing for take off and as RPM's increase so would gear ratio. Or maybe I had a brain fart, who knows.

I chose lovejoys because I knew I was going to not be even close to 0.003 inch of center between motor and transmission shaft. With the rubber spider in the middle, it allows for a fair amount of wiggle and sloppiness. It's designed for pumps on farms or whatever, where some farmer is sort of slopping something together. haha! No offense to any farmers out there.