Firefly Electric Conversion

[Stubby79]

Good news, bad news?

Good: I managed the test fit this morning.



Bad: My back is a bit sore. But I expected that.


Good: It fits!









Bad: Ok, it only mostly fits!




Good: I only need about 3/8" to make it level.



Bad: I'll have to notch the frame rail or else cut the shaft short. (I don't want to cut the shaft.)

Good: The tire clears the shaft at full lock and the car is worth less then the motor, so it's the frame rail that will get cut.

Bad: That's more work.

Good: The rail has a good 1/2" seam that I can notch which will minimize structural weakening and work, hopefully. Frame rails don't do a lot but hold up the bumper past the shock towers, anyway.

Bad: It's not already notched, like the older models. (To get at the crank bolt, I assume)


After all that work to get it in, it had to come out again.

To do:

Finish properly/permanently bolting the plate to the trans. Requires a trip to the hardware store for bolts that are compatible with my tap set.

Make a bracket to mount the back end of the motor to the 3rd motor mount. Need to experiment with welding aluminum to decide if it'll be aluminum or steel.

Notch frame rail. Requires not having a sore back.

I'll keep an eye out for 4-cylinder mounts, shafts, linkage....but I'm not expecting any affordable luck in that department.

Yee-haw!! Progress??

[Daox]

That is good progress! You're doing great with the build IMO.

[EVmetro]

If you are willing to make all three mounts and not just the end one, You can move the motor and transmission over 4 inches closer to the driver side and use a pair of axles from an automatic 4 cylinder Metro. You already have to make the one for the passenger side frame rail, so it would only be two more mounts that you would have to make.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by EVmetro

If you are willing to make all three mounts and not just the end one, You can move the motor and transmission over 4 inches closer to the driver side and use a pair of axles from an automatic 4 cylinder Metro. You already have to make the one for the passenger side frame rail, so it would only be two more mounts that you would have to make.

Auto axles will mate with the manual trans? Hadn't even thought of that...I'm used to the auto makers having completely different shaft ends for automatics then for manual transmissions!

I might be able to find those around here...

What about the shift linkage? Move the stud over and...? or leave it all alone?

[EVmetro]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

Auto axles will mate with the manual trans? Hadn't even thought of that...I'm used to the auto makers having completely different shaft ends for automatics then for manual transmissions!

I might be able to find those around here...

What about the shift linkage? Move the stud over and...? or leave it all alone?

I did move the stud over, but the linkage still runs a little bit diagonally through the tunnel. I also chopped both rods and extended them a little. The shift linkage was pretty trivial, and making the mounts was the bigger part of the challenge. The auto axles fit just fine, but they are a tiny bit shorter. If you add the lengths of both axles together, they auto axles measure out about 1/4" shorter for combined length. I have been running them for years now, and have had no problems with them at all.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by EVmetro

I did move the stud over, but the linkage still runs a little bit diagonally through the tunnel. I also chopped both rods and extended them a little. The shift linkage was pretty trivial, and making the mounts was the bigger part of the challenge. The auto axles fit just fine, but they are a tiny bit shorter. If you add the lengths of both axles together, they auto axles measure out about 1/4" shorter for combined length. I have been running them for years now, and have had no problems with them at all.

That's good. I just finished mucking around and ordered the axles from rockauto. They were half the price of local parts place, even with a decent discount there!

Yay...more work to look forward to. But...I Really want that shaft accessible/useable, and this will do it.

Thanks for the info, EVMetro.

[EVmetro]

I am pretty sure that it is 4" on the money, that the transmission moves over to fit between the axles, but you should be able to compare the measurements of the auto axles vs the 5 speed axles to see for sure. I also held the motor and transmission where they go, hanging from a cherry picker, axles in place. This allowed me to move it from side to side enough to feel where the center point was between the axles. Since those auto axles are a tiny bit shorter, it is even more important to center the assembly between the axles.

[Stubby79]

4 19/32" difference, left:



4 17/32" difference, right:



I hate fractions. Let's call it 4.5"?

[EVmetro]

Here is a rear mount that has the bushing located 4", or whatever it is, closer to the drivers side. Ruff Stuff sells these bushes DOM sleeve kits, and you can weld whatever you like to them. They are really nice for motor mounts when you run a lot more torque than the ICE.



You can see all three of the steel motor mounts that I have with these bushes DOM sleeves, starting on post 320 on my build thread, if you are looking for ideas.

Here is the link
Tevie1

.


.

[Stubby79]

Thanks, EVmetro. Good way of doing it!

I drilled out my holes a bit more and tapped the transmission side rather then drill them out. It worked out well, and was one of those tasks that one can enjoy instead of wondering if it's worth all the bother!

I meant to take a pic of the results of that, but you'll have to settle for spying it in the video. It was pretty quiet and smooth after, which means I didn't muck up the alignment modifying my bolt holes. After an incident that annoyed my jumper pack (had it on the armature instead of the field), I got curious to how much power it pulls idling the motor/gearbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w38uJUEnPqU

Field is 1 ohm, so it's drawing ~12 amps, minus any voltage drops.
Armature is pulling ~16 amps @ 12v, so 192 watts at idle. Heck, the field is using nearly that much. So, I suppose it's pulling 336 watts or some such. Sounds paltry...and about right for idling a motor this size, IMO.
(Correct me if I'm wrong.)


So...I finally remembered to do something about the speedo gear. Trans had the gear in it for the smaller tires of the previous gen of metros. Went and pulled the one off the junk trans from the '98.



Of course, it needed sprucing up. As did the OEM bolts I am using in 2 holes on the adapter plate.



That's where I'm at. Mounts next...

Speaking of which, I measured the space between the end of the trans case and the frame rail on my '95. It was 5". Which should give me just enough room to comfortably shift the trans over the 4.5" previously mentioned. Hopefully.

Its nice when you start enjoying a project...