Paul & Sabrina's Cheap EV Conversion

[ttoyoda]

Not that it helps much, but remember that VW designed the motor/ trans to counter balance each other. the mounts under the transaxle are designed to hold the weight, the single mount on the "nose cone" of the transmission is designed to only hold the engine/ transaxle from flopping forward/ backwards (under acceleration/ engine braking is how they are typically broken).

Maybe I don't understand how the mounts are setup, but doesn't that front mount also need to resist the driving load (torque) which the engine/transmission exerts on the wheels? It's been years since I drove a bug.

(Did you know in the old days the hole in the air shield over the cooling blower was SMALLER than the diameter of the blower wheel, so when the generator spit out a commutator segment (the blower wheel is on the inside end of the generator shaft), you had to unbolt the air shield and pull it out with the generator? )

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by ttoyoda

Is it hard to change the oil seals where the halfshaft stubs come out?

I don't know what that means.
What's a halfshaft stub?

Thanks for the great advice. I'll balance it today. I had no idea about any of that stuff.

[ttoyoda]

I probably used the wrong phrase.. In this pic I did, the arrow with the A next to it (hard to see) points to the "halfshaft stub", the thingy the halfshaft bolted to. The arrow marked B points to the oil leak which I ass-u-me is coming from a worn out oil seal behind the "halfshaft stub". But I have never worked on these, and an ex GF stole my nice repair book I had on this car long ago. The B side of the tranny was towards the road when in the car, yes?
Don't worry about not knowing all this stuff. Most people know much, much less. .

I would put a nice angle iron brace with a weight on it (maybe a battery or two) to make it balance IF needed, I would not bolt anything hard to the body, or add another mount, because it is going to want to move a little, and best to let it, I figure. I would not attach any bracket/brace to the electric motor itself, I don't think it is designed to take any loads other than its own weight. I would bring any brace all the way back to the tranny, thru the spacers may be ok.

[dremd]

Originally Posted by ttoyoda

Maybe I don't understand how the mounts are setup, but doesn't that front mount also need to resist the driving load (torque) which the engine/transmission exerts on the wheels? It's been years since I drove a bug.

True. Hence my statement regarding braking under acceleration/ deceleration. I definitely should have clarified

however the load is less than on a typical FWD setup because the transmission acts as a lever

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by ttoyoda

The B side of the tranny was towards the road when in the car, yes?

yep!


I'm slightly concerned about the spacers flexing a bit and bending the aluminum. How about if I added an angle iron, with a hard rubber strip on it, not attached to the base of the motor (furthest point from the transmission), but just supporting it? The motor could still wiggle around a bit and be free, but the aluminum wouldn't have to suffer the full brunt of the motor's weight, especially when going over a big pothole?

Also, according to tacoma screw people, the 7/16th grade 8 bolts can be torqued about 80 ft-pounds, but they said I should find out what the torque limits are on the transmission, which of course I have no idea! Should I just go for it and do the full 80 ft-pounds? (or maybe 75 just to be safe?)

The funny thing is, I have no way to measure my foot pounds! haha! Now if I had a spare Oprah laying around, I could use one of her feet, since it weighs 80 pounds.

[MPaulHolmes]

Here are the first pictures of the car. The writing on it was done by my little nephew with chalk. I think it adds character. Also, I got a flat tire, and haven't had access to my bike for over a week, so I decided to move the batteries from the back to lower to the ground. It's way more stable now. I can't believe the difference! Not a horrible car for $40.

I put the transmission back in the car. It was horrible. I need a floor jack. It was horrible. HOrrible!!! If it wasn't metal, I would have punched it in the face!!! Also, if it had a face! Instead I gave it a vulcan neck pinch, and it got real quiet. Some would say that it was real quiet before, but not me.

Tomorrow, I'll put on the motor/adapterPlateCrap and test that piece of crap to see if the wheels turn.


But here's a problem:

The left CV joint is a bit not very good, but I don't want to clean it all out. Hopefully just removing most of the bad grease and adding the good stuff will be good enough for government work. I heard it's bad to mix greases, but maybe it will be OK?

[dremd]

You are a Brave man to put a transaxle in without a floor jack!

As far as the CV joint goes; I wouldn't worry about mixing grease. (That doesn't make it right). And remember the worst thing that will happen to a CV is it will wear out, make lots of noise and you will have to replace it.

[ttoyoda]

True. Hence my statement regarding braking under acceleration/ deceleration. I definitely should have clarified

however the load is less than on a typical FWD setup because the transmission acts as a lever

I think you probably did say it "between the lines" and I just misread what you said. I agree with the load being less.

[ttoyoda]

I'm slightly concerned about the spacers flexing a bit and bending the aluminum. How about if I added an angle iron, with a hard rubber strip on it, not attached to the base of the motor (furthest point from the transmission), but just supporting it? The motor could still wiggle around a bit and be free, but the aluminum wouldn't have to suffer the full brunt of the motor's weight, especially when going over a big pothole?

Make a triangulated angle iron frame from the tranny. If you hope to suppot any motor weight at all during bumps, you will have to bolt the iron fram hard to the motor at the back faceplate. To make the rubber idea work, you would have to determine what stiffness of rubber matches the stiffness of the rest of what you have assembled, and that is not going to happen

Also, according to tacoma screw people, the 7/16th grade 8 bolts can be torqued about 80 ft-pounds, but they said I should find out what the torque limits are on the transmission, which of course I have no idea! Should I just go for it and do the full 80 ft-pounds? (or maybe 75 just to be safe?)

I may be confused. (Durrr). If you are screwing these bolts into pre-made threads in the tranny, you would want a:metric bolts b:to use the tranny torque spec.
If these bolts just pass thru the old threaded holes in the tranny.. 80 ft-lbs is a lot for a 7/16 bolt. I am just *guessing*, but go maybe 50 ft-lbs? If you want to get closer to the needed value, you can go thru the calc I outlined earlier, and then calculate what torque on the bolt would give the clamping force you need.
Did you get grade 8 nuts to go with the grade 8 bolts? If not I think the nut would strip out...

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by ttoyoda

If you are screwing these bolts into pre-made threads in the tranny, you would want a:metric bolts b:to use the tranny torque spec.
If these bolts just pass thru the old threaded holes in the tranny.. 80 ft-lbs is a lot for a 7/16 bolt. I am just *guessing*, but go maybe 50 ft-lbs? If you want to get closer to the needed value, you can go thru the calc I outlined earlier, and then calculate what torque on the bolt would give the clamping force you need.
Did you get grade 8 nuts to go with the grade 8 bolts? If not I think the nut would strip out...

The tranny has just nice smooth holes without threads. I guess I was worried that the metal would be gradually smooshed, but I'm using washers, and as I write this, I think that is very unlikely. I hereby delete that question I had! Oh ya, I also got grade 8 nuts. Spared no expense! Did you know that a single 7/16" grade 8 nut is like 85 cents?! That's messed up... The nut also has that plastic ring around it (on the inside) so it won't wiggle loose. That was an extra 1 penny.

My nephew is 50 pounds. I'll just have him sit on my socket wrench precisely at a distance of 12 inches... I couldn't find one of Oprahs feet. Usually, the smell leads me right to it. Dang it!

Also, when I supported the motor with the adapter setup, horizontally, it "felt" like there was almost no force on the motor. Well, I mean it felt like it wasn't a challenge for the adapter plate thing. I am no longer worried about that. It felt way overdone. I think it unlikely that there will be any wiggle.

I really appreciate all of the awesome advice that I'm getting from you guys.