Things to do

Things to do for next Monday:

-Fix vacuum pump.
-Reinstall hood.

Let's play spot the vacuum pump and vacuum reservoir. Can you find them?
Engine Pic as of 06-01-2009

Test Drive

Pot Box Installation

The 0-5,000 ohm pot bot will be regulating our acceleration. We fastened the pot box in the upside down position to the middle-top portion of the firewall. The old throttle cable had one side already hooked up to the gas pedal. We attached the other side of the throttle cable onto the firewall next to the pot box. Then we fastened the cable to the swing arm on the pot box. The wires attached to the controller according to the controller specification sheet.

Low Voltage electrical System

The low voltage electrical system consists of one 12V car battery. This battery will power the a/c, heat, radio, ignition, vacuum pump, and whatever other additional electrical components we decide to install.

We removed the rust from the old battery tray, painted it, and reinstalled it in the same location.

For reference, the battery rack was placed to the left of the firewall batteries, behind the high voltage electrical system.

The NorthWest 12V Battery.

High Voltage System

Our basic high voltage electrical system was placed above the transmission. We're using a 1"X10" board placed over the high voltage rack and some screws to fasten all the components down.
The high voltage setup looks something like this:
Batteries --> Shunt --> Fuse --> Contactor --> Controller --> Motor

Manzanita Recharger

We created a mounting rack for the Manzanita recharger and fastened it above the motor, in front of the firewall batteries.

The recharger was subsequently placed in it's rack and connected by three wires to the recharging port.

The recharging port replaced the old refueling port.

New components

We've decided to replace a few of the older components in the vehicle, such as...

The Contactor:

The Pot Box:

The Synkro Motive Controller, Various Wires, and other various Nuts, Bolts, Washers, Screws

Front Battery Racks

The first picture is the three front firewall battery racks. We have a support under the first and third battery rack as well as additional supports fastened to the firewall and transmission bell housing.
The second picture is the five front radiator battery racks. They have additional supports on the sides which fasten to the frame.

The third picture is the installed batteries. We're missing the middle battery because (long story short) Bill fused the cable to the post --> I tried loosening the nut to get the cable off the post and snapped the post from the battery. Oops!

Setting up the Welder/Recharging Port

We've received our MIG welder. There was some confusion on the initial electrical setup, but we were able to weld the final three battery rack that will go into the engine compartment. I'll have more detailed pictures soon. This picture is of the new 230V plug in the garage for both welding and eventually recharging Sparky.

Cutting Excess Metal Off Left Motor Mount

Bill found another person to help cut away the marked excess metal off of our left motor mount using a plasma cutter. The metal could have also been cut using our cut off wheel (our third cut off wheel purchased from Harbor Freight).

As you can imagine, we cut away any excess metal because metal adds weight. We want Sparky as light as possible for better battery operation thus additional miles traveled per charge.

We are trying to utilize the excess metal for future endeavors. The left and right pieces may be used for motor torque mounts. The upper piece may be used as a cooling plate.

Vacuum Pump Enclosure

We know the vacuum pump will be one of the loudest, if not the loudest, piece of equipment on Sparky. So we decided to build a box for it out of wood and line the box with the sound dampening carpet. Hopefully it will dampen the noise from the vacuum pump. The question remains... where to put it?

Left Motor Mount

We decided to bolt the motor mount plate to the original motor mounts that held the engine up. In order to do this, and to cut down on weight, we chopped about a 7" bar off of the original motor mount.

We took some measurements once the motor was level and drilled holes into the upper portion of the motor mount plate. Then we drilled coinciding holes into the original motor mount as well as cut off the excess metal end that we wouldn't use. Three bolts, a spacer nut between the plate and motor mount and three more washers, lock washers, and nuts and we were done for the day.

Motor Installation

We attempted the first installation of the motor into the engine bay. We knew the axle would get in the way of the transmission adapter plate, so we made the cut as close as possible to the transmission bell housing. Unfortunately, we didn't make the cut close enough. The transmission adapter plate was interfering with the axle into the transmission. Another mark, cut, and re-installation and everything fit.

Director's Side Notes

Ya know, building an Electric Vehicle, we get the sense that we're doing something good for the environment. Why don't the big car manufacturing giants build them yet? And here we stand.

There are many challenges when building an electric vehicle. Most of them require 'thinking outside the box'. Fortunately, some of us are seasoned in this area. Others, not so much. Then there's the ever useful tool, the internet.

We can price compare, look up information on problems we're having with the car, view other EV builder's vehicles, and ask questions to those more knowledgeable than ourselves. Kudos to the internet and to those who are more seasoned and willing to share their knowledge.

If we all were so inclined and gave it our all in converting an internal combustion engine vehicle into an electric vehicle, the task may be done in a month. However, I consider myself an amateur, and those who are willing to take the task on themselves as individuals. For us, it takes longer. We're approaching the 11th month since the idea of an electric vehicle popped into our heads, and we haven't even installed the motor into the vehicle.

In the end, we convince ourselves, it will all be worthwhile. I agree in this notion. It will be worthwhile. That is because we have demonstrated to those car manufacturing giants that the future of technology resides in alternative fuel methods. These include electric, hydro, bio, air, and more. Our one obstacle that remains is the petroleum giants.

I'm open to suggestions.

Mounting Motor Mount Plate onto Motor

We bought a piece of 3/6" stainless steel sheet metal measuring 12"X24" to use as a motor mount. We cut a square into the sheet metal at one end with a cut off tool as well as drilled 4 holes to match the 4 adjoining holes from the motor.

Finished Right CV Boot

We ordered a CV boot off the internet which arrived April 2nd. By April 4, we were attempting to change the boots. The new CV boot did not fit due to 3 crescent shaped rubber pieces sticking out on the inside of the CV boot. After 2 days of fighting with it, we went to our local auto parts store, bought a new boot for even less money, and hooked it all back together withing a matter of 2 hours (including a lunch break).

I know you can't see it in the picture below, but there are three puncture holes in the boot.

Transmission Spacer Plate Finished

This is the completed spacer plate, before and after. This was cut using a jig saw and hand file. It took quite a bit of time, but that's the nature of the beast.

Tranmission and axles

We remounted the transmission back into the engine bay. A four inch in diameter half moon shaped piece was cut out of the transmission for future battery mounting space. The left axle hooked back into the transmission easily, however the right side had some difficulties. Unfortunately, we ended up ripping the rubber boot, so we'll have to order and install a new boot assembly.

Rear Springs

We switched the rear springs to see if there was perhaps a problem with one of the springs. However, we found that the left side (2.75") was still sitting lower than the right side (3.25"). We're not going to jump to any conclusions since the the front end is still up on jack stands which may be causing our problem.

Manzanity Micro Battery Charger

We received our Manzanita PFC20M Battery Charger!

Details:
Manzanita PFC20
EVSource.com/PFC20Series

Two month catch-up

So, we actually achieved some huge hurtles in the past two months.

For starters, Bill hooked up the high voltage electrical system. It was relatively easy with the directions supplied by our controller manufacturer Kelly. However, our initial high voltage test on the motor was problematic. The motor has no limiting factor and goes from O rpm to 5000 rpm instantly. All components are hooked up correctly (we think), but we could not figure out our problem. Bill has contacted Kelly several times, however, they have not given him a definitive answer to the problem. Our main objective was to get the motor spinning at a low rpm, so we could balance the coupling and transmission on top for alignment. We ended up using one low 6 V battery which spun the motor to suit our needs. From there, we stood the motor upright, and placed the transmission on top with the spacer plates between them to mark holes to be drilled into the transmission bell housing spacer plate.

The transmission and motor have been successfully mated together. We have four 2 1/2" bolts going through the 1/2" transmission bell housing spacer plate, through the three 1/2" aluminum spacer plates, and into the motor.

A few odds and ends include cutting the keys for the motor and transmission couplers. Bill's welder came over on Friday and put a bead of weld on the transmission spline so the coupler would not move depth wise.

First Testing with Transmission on Motor

We're currently testing out the rotation of the motor and coupler to the transmission before we bolt both pieces together. Again, since this is one of the vital pieces of the EV, we want to get it right. We've decided to stand the motor upright (all 156lbs), and mount the transmission (all 75lbs) on top. We will test the coupler alignment using one of our depleted batteries. This test will help align the motor and transmission through the coupler to ensure accuracy. The transmission bell housing holes will be marked, then drilled through the spacer plate. We understand that the coupler pieces won't be exactly aligned, however, we're relying on the spider insert between the two coupler pieces to help with the accuracy