First Conversion

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by EVmetro

68HP is about what a stock gasoline powered Metro comes with, and I would think that single speed would be a bit of a problem. The torque would probably be more than the ICE motor, but I would want a transmission. I run the factory 5 speed in this rig, and this is a 70Kw set up.

There are Civic adaper plates for electric motors out there, allowing the factory tranny to be drive train to the motor. ... can you shift gears while running the motor? I guess you take your foot off an accelerato and the motor spins at an ldle? Or it stopes spinning entirely?

[oil pan 4]

What type of cord do you use to get high voltage AC to the battery charger?
Are they standard 120 volt 3 prong?
Or do you use 220, if so which series of plug?

[Piotrsko]

To both above:

Your motor has mass and takes a bit to slow down to up shift, and needs a "blip" of throttle for down shift. Leaving it powered will let the motor overspeed quickly unloaded & it won't upshift..

On 220 stuff I use 220 style extension cords & standard 220 nema rated plugs because they are made to not be comingled. Nema 5 series for 110/120 up to 15 amp nema 6 for 220 up to 30 amp nema 14 for 220 @ 30+ amp. If you are not us of a, sorry I cant help.

[EVmetro]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

What type of cord do you use to get high voltage AC to the battery charger?
Are they standard 120 volt 3 prong?
Or do you use 220, if so which series of plug?

This is a regular 110v inlet. I just plug in a regular extension cord. The pins on this 110 v inlet need to be male, since the male ends of a common extension plug into your house, leaving a female end of an extension cord to plug into the car. I put one of these on every one of my conversions, since 110v plugs are in every home and building in the USA. 110v charging is the slowest way to charge an EV, but 110 is everywhere.



This is how I do most of my charging. 50 amp plug, and once again it has male pins so you can just plug in a 50 amp extension cord. I have a 50 amp outlet at my shop for my welder, and I have a fat extension cord for it, so charging is very fast at work.

[EVmetro]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

There are Civic adaper plates for electric motors out there, allowing the factory tranny to be drive train to the motor. ... can you shift gears while running the motor? I guess you take your foot off an accelerato and the motor spins at an ldle? Or it stopes spinning entirely?

Motor to transmission adaptor plates are already available for many makes and models, and it is not too big a deal to make an adaptor plate either, if you can't find a pre made one. The alignment and mating of the motor shaft and the transmission is very critical, so I had a machine shop mill out a bunch of them for me, built to my specs.

Here is what my motor adaptors look like



Since there is a lot more torque than the factory clutch can handle, I get the slightly larger flywheel from a four cylinder Metro and have it lightened and remove the starter ring. Then I get a higher performance clutch to bolt onto it.



Here is the whole set up. You can see the clutch arm over there on the transmission. This is actually a lot of motor for a car like this, so the factory 5 speed transmission looks pretty dinky next to this big motor. Now the clutch works just like it did on the ICE engine.



You don't really need a clutch on an EV with a DC motor since DC motors don't have regen, which makes them very easy to shift with out the clutch. With an AC motor with off-throttle regen, it is impossible to do clutchless shifts.

[oil pan 4]

So you use NEMA 5-15 and 6-50.

How many amps does your 220 volt 50 amp plug equipped car actually draw?

[MetroMPG]

Did you have to rework the original motor/trans mounts to accomodate the electric motor being longer than the stock engine? Was it a 3- or 4-cyl originally?

This was an issue when I did mine (had to swap over from 3-cyl to 4-cyl mounts, brackets, etc).

[freebeard]

Since there is a lot more torque than the factory clutch can handle, I get the slightly larger flywheel from a four cylinder Metro and have it lightened and remove the starter ring. Then I get a higher performance clutch to bolt onto it.

It sounds like you have it fairly well sorted. Why do people seem to always overpower their conversions? EV West is getting pretty ridiculous. We can't all be the White Zombie.

I asked about the AC single-speed because I got the Lexus LX400h third member to put in a car that originally came with 36hp. It seems like a good match.

[EVmetro]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Did you have to rework the original motor/trans mounts to accomodate the electric motor being longer than the stock engine? Was it a 3- or 4-cyl originally?

This was an issue when I did mine (had to swap over from 3-cyl to 4-cyl mounts, brackets, etc).

This motor and transmission combo is pretty big for a metro, so all three motor mounts were fabricated. There is only about a half inch of clearance to the frame rails on both sides. All three motor mounts are poly bushed DOM sleeves.



Here is the back mount on the fire wall. You can see that the mounting point is off set by several inches, (about 5) closer to the driver side.

[EVmetro]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

So you use NEMA 5-15 and 6-50.

How many amps does your 220 volt 50 amp plug equipped car actually draw?

The charger in this build has a knob that can be adjusted to draw less or more amps. Kinda nice if you are worried about popping somebody's breaker. I usually charge drawing around 20 amps from my 220 circuit. Not much of a problem for my 50 amp connection. On my most recent conversion, I use a bigger charger (EMW 12000 watt unit) that can exceed the 50 amp spec for that connection.