Paul's how NOT to convert a Metro

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by dcb

Well, hook up enough golf cart motors and you will might have something. Do some series/parallel shifting on 'em. When they are all in series they get all the current your controller can give and are at max torque, when in parallel they get their fraction of the current but more volts and can spin faster. Poor mans EV shifting.

Hmmm, I'm frying my brain trying to see how two motors could work together. There's a Solectria van on eBay that uses two with belts:

Other Makes:eBay Motors (item 260464883145 end time Aug-28-09 18:43:29 PDT)

And I know that the hub I bought as a coupler was actually made to have a gear welded on it. Something like that might actually work..GM would be angry. Maybe I'll do it after I fry the current motor

[Christ]

You can couple a dual shaft motor and a single shaft motor, then couple the other end of the dual shaft motor to your transmission. You can also use a planetary gear drive.

[vpoppv]

So I spent the weekend cleaning out the carport. Now I have a clean area to work in with plenty of room. I have already started to make money on the conversion: my wife's car ate the air conditioning belt last week. I pulled the one out of the donor car and now it's blowing nice and cold again. The conversion saved gas (no trip to the parts store) and money (didn't need to buy a new belt). So there you go, I'm already profiting from my conversion. Here's a video that shows me almost fall on my butt. If you listen closely, at the end, you can hear my daughter's complete confidence in my ability to convert this car to electric.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aJzmySGqL4

[bennelson]

I thought for sure that the last video was going to be called "Geo Metro driver side mirror removal"!

Seriously though, nice to see another Metro EV conversion.

That motor and coupler are looking pretty good.
I removed the flanges on my clutch plate, but I think you should keep them.

In fact, you should add some of those little kids turbine whistles to the flanges on the clutch hub. When you spin the motor, it will make a great siren noise!

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by bennelson

I thought for sure that the last video was going to be called "Geo Metro driver side mirror removal"!

Seriously though, nice to see another Metro EV conversion.

That motor and coupler are looking pretty good.
I removed the flanges on my clutch plate, but I think you should keep them.

In fact, you should add some of those little kids turbine whistles to the flanges on the clutch hub. When you spin the motor, it will make a great siren noise!

S'ok if I trim the mirror, it'll save weight. Besides, I have spares! I even have deck screws that I can use to reattach them. Sure, they may stick out a little, but it wouldn't be the first time someone does that (Did that on my 95). The flanges are certainly staying, as removing them would entail work. I hate work. My life's theme is avoiding work.
Maybe I can buy one of those eBay Geo Metro "turbo simulator" whistles for my coupler? Come to think of it, it should make plenty of nice noise when the set screws work their way out. (Insert smilie of crash here).
On a completely different subject, the Geo I am converting came from Wisconsin. I think there's some cosmic relevance there....

[vpoppv]

I just got done pulling out the motor; I have never done that before and it went very smoothly. If I could just locate some aluminum plate for cheap, I could have something going by the end of labor day....

[Christ]

Originally Posted by vpoppv

I just got done pulling out the motor; I have never done that before and it went very smoothly. If I could just locate some aluminum plate for cheap, I could have something going by the end of labor day....

You can usually source aluminum plates of decent size and thickness from salvage yards. They sell it for more than scrap price, usually.

Also, find a welding shop in your area - they'll be able to hook you up clean metals at a price only marginally higher than their cost.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by Christ

You can usually source aluminum plates of decent size and thickness from salvage yards. They sell it for more than scrap price, usually.

Also, find a welding shop in your area - they'll be able to hook you up clean metals at a price only marginally higher than their cost.

In California, I know a few places I could have hit up. Here in Oklahoma, I have called every listing under "wrecker" (the equivalent of salvage here), "recycling", and "welding" (lots of welders, this is oil country! But they all do steel only). No one has what I need, nor could they get it. One offered the number of a place in Tulsa. They could special order what I need for $134!! Now, there are a few listings on eBay that come close enough to what I need, but with $20 shipping it's about $50. If worse comes to worse, I'll go that route. I have a lot of feelers out, so hopefully someone can come through. Plywood is sounding better and better every day.....
Actually, I really could go with steel, and that's more abundant here than fried foods, but I'm too lazy to drill and cut that stuff....

[Christ]

For steel, you could always sandwich a couple pieces of body metal together, and glue laminate them, drill/mill as necessary. It would hold up just fine.

It would end up exactly like a MLS head gasket, only with sheet metal that would normally be used for body work.

For mocking up purposes, if you have nothing else to work with, a couple straps of steel bent and bolted to the face of the motor, then bolted to any of the mouting points on the transaxle would allow you to straighten things out and mock them up until the plate gets there, and plywood or 1/2" MDF would probably work as well.

Whatever you use as a temp plate until your stuff gets there, make sure you account for thickness of material, or else you'll end up with a "how not to measure twice, cut once" thread.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by Christ

For steel, you could always sandwich a couple pieces of body metal together, and glue laminate them, drill/mill as necessary. It would hold up just fine.

It would end up exactly like a MLS head gasket, only with sheet metal that would normally be used for body work.

For mocking up purposes, if you have nothing else to work with, a couple straps of steel bent and bolted to the face of the motor, then bolted to any of the mouting points on the transaxle would allow you to straighten things out and mock them up until the plate gets there, and plywood or 1/2" MDF would probably work as well.

Whatever you use as a temp plate until your stuff gets there, make sure you account for thickness of material, or else you'll end up with a "how not to measure twice, cut once" thread.

You know, I was totally joking about the plywood, but you make an excellent point: I could make an adapter plate out of the wood, make sure things line up pretty well, and have a great start for when I get the aluminum I want. Thank you....