John Allen's EV conversion

The Revamp continues....

2012-02-09T09:58:00.001-05:00

I have spent the last few months pulling the EV to pieces. It seems like this process will never end. I am starting from scratch as there is nothing that I want to keep the same. These new LiFePo4 batteries are so different in every way that it means that I can put them in places that I couldn't even consider with the Lead Acid T1275's that I had before.

I have been sending video segments to Jack and Brian at EVTV for their weekly show and I want to share these with you all. I sent them five parts and 4 have been on the show.

Part 1, which is about what I am proposing to do with the Redux.

There is quite a long road ahead with this project and I can see light at the end of the tunnel

I have started the upgrade

2011-12-16T09:02:00.000-05:00

Yes! Finally.

The space is cleared out and the table saw disassembled and the EV is in. I am privileged to have Jack and Brian of EVTV, let me show the progress on their internet TV show.
My EV's spot is about 15 mins into the Dec 9th 2011 show.

The hard part for me is the fact that I am now driving the kids around in the Suburban again.

Converting a car to electric drive in the UK

2011-10-17T10:08:00.000-04:00

I just spent a week in England and drove from London to County Durham, then Somerset and then on to Brighton. It seemed that everyone is in agreement that burning fossil fuel, to get around the few miles that most of us drive, has got to change. They are all excited that Nissan Leaf is making 100% electric drive cars, but hardly anyone could afford them. Nobody that I spoke to had even thought that they could convert their existing car into an EV.

So I decided to do a little digging for my fellow countrymen and see what was involved in the legal side. I called the DVLA and played out a scenario once I managed to get a live person on the end of the telephone ( that took about 10 minuets). I told him that I had taken the engine out of my car and replaced it with an all electric drive system. I asked him what I needed to do to make it street legal.
He said that you have to fill out form V10. Submit it to your local DVLA office with your proof of insurance and your MOT (vehicle inspection). He said there is no road tax on electric vehicles, and that someone may want to inspect the vehicle just to see that it had been converted. No cheating please. There are no fees for this service.

I also asked him if there were many people who have been doing this and he said that he had never heard of anyone doing it. I was quite taken aback.

So come on you boys and girls in Great Britain start to clear out the space in your garage. There are plenty of resources for you to get the right components and batteries, and build yourselves some EV's so we can all kick the dinosaurs out of our lives and regain control of our precious economies etc.

Most people are stretched in this economic climate and I think that a solution for many, may be to start sharing an EV. A bit like the idea they are having in Paris, which was recently aired, on Fully Charged episode 31, by Robert Llewellyn.

The trickle of parts has started to arrive

2011-10-05T14:00:00.000-04:00

Just received my battery connector strips from EV Works in Australia. Seems like a hell of a long way to go to get something like that. I can't believe that I can't get something like that made up down the road. Anyway I have them and they are the best way to connect the batteries together in the shaky environment of the automobile.

My engine hoist arrived from Harbor Freight. It was missing all the assembly hardware, so I called them and they are sending all of that to me. Luckily I ordered this in advance of when I was going to need it, as I am stuck with an unforeseen delay of 10 days.

I still can't get over the fact that my batteries arrived 4 days after I ordered them. I thought I was going to be waiting 3 months. No wonder the Chinese are running away with the economy.

EVCCON

2011-09-29T00:30:00.001-04:00

The convention was a great success. The energy was incredible, having over 140 attendees all with the same interest in EV's. I think we all felt that it was a special place to be, and that this was the beginning of a new way of life. I felt that there was an air of hopefulness, something to look forward to. I am sure it has to do with the fact that when you meet people that believe in the same things, you no longer feel alone.

I was very happy to meet Chris Payne. His Documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car" was pivotal in the way I wanted to live my life. That is why I dropped everything and converted a car to electric drive before I could move on. Now that I have been to EVCCON, I want to help other people do it too.

Thanks again Chris for a great presentation and for showing us your new film "Revenge of The Electric Car". This is a must see for all when it comes into a theatre near you.

Packing for EVCCON

2011-09-20T12:36:00.000-04:00

Yes it has come already. Time flies when you are having fun. I look forward to meeting a lot of like minded souls at this convention.
Sadly I am not going with my EV. I have had no time to get the LiFePo batteries put in. I think this has worked out to be a good thing as I will learn a lot and may want to make some changes to the upgrades I am planing.

The EV is not running at the moment as there is a problem with the Netgain controller. I will be seeing Ryan Bohm from EV Source at the convention. It will be nice to meet him. He is very helpful with all the trouble shooting I have had in the past. This controller is obviously still in development, and I am happy to be one of the guinea pigs. I still find it annoying to have to drive the gas guzzler when things go wrong, what to do? I think that maybe I will have to have another controller as a back up especially when there are other cars out there that I have put together for someone else. People will not be as patient when their EV is down for the time it takes to ship from one side of the country to the other and back again to get the controller fixed.

New batteries

2011-06-10T15:59:00.004-04:00

180 Amp hour CALB LiFePo4

I plan to use at least 48 of these in the EV. I should get a 100 mile max range and 80 mile range for extended battery life. ie. 2000 charge cycles at max range and 3000 plus if I only use 80 miles max before charging again. If you do the math these batteries should last between 200,000 and 240,000 miles if not more.
Lets do some more number crunching to compare a gas car to an EV.

Gas Car
How many gal of gas at $4/gal
240,000 miles @ 30 miles/gal= 8000 gals
8000 x $4= $32,000
How many oil changes @ 1 every 3000 miles
240,000/3000 = 80 oil changes
80 x $30 = $2,400
Total cost of gas and oil changes for 240,000 miles is $34,400

EV
How many KwHr per charge
48 x 3.4volts x 180 Amp Hours = 29.376
29.376 kwh x $0.11/kwh =$3.23/charge cycle for 100 miles
240,000/100 x 3.23= $7,752 electricity for 240,000 miles
cost of replacing batteries after 240,000 miles $11,000
Total cost of batteries and electric to charge them for 240,000 miles is $18,752

So over the expected life of the battery the difference between the two drive trains is $15,648.
It only gets better as gas prices will only go up.
Not taken into account is the maintenance costs of an internal combustion engine (ICE). Something that you will not have with an electric motor as it only has one moving part (expected life of electric motor 1 million miles). You might have to change the brushes after 100,000 miles (a 15 min job).
You might put solar panels on your house and offset you electric bill so your kwh cost will go down.
Now you are driving on sunshine. How good does that feel
Sure it is expensive to set it all up but it is cheaper than a new corvette or mercedes.

The Lead Batteries are having problems

2011-04-26T09:44:00.000-04:00

My range is not what it was and so the batteries are all out of the EV and back at Northeast Battery getting tested to see how they perform under a load. They have also found some grey sludge in them and they are being very helpful to try and find out what is causing the problem.

I am also working on a new DC to DC converter for the 12 volt system. I am using some Vicor bricks and some heat sink and should be able to eliminate another 30 lbs of weight.

EVCCON

2011-03-31T09:06:00.000-04:00

Excited to be going to the EV Conversion Convention in September. Seems an age away. The Keynote speaker will be Chris Paine who made the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car"

My Lead Sled is not welcome and I don't think that I will have switched out he batteries by then. However there will be at least 10 other conversions there plus Jack Richards cars. It is going to be a great show.

All things take time and planning

2011-03-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

In May I will have been on the road with this EV for a year. I don't have a sense of how long the Lead Acid battery pack is going to last, so I am researching and planning for the inevitable change over to LiFeYPo4 batteries. I follow Jack Rickard and Brian Noto on EVTV avidly, and they are fast becoming the EV gurus of the world. Anyone who does a conversion at this stage is an early adopter. We are not doing this to save money on gas alone. There are many great reasons to do this. Geo political, Economic to list a few. Wonder why our economy is in a shambles, just look at how much money we send out of the US for our oil.
The great news is that with the lithium batteries electric cars are now viable.
I am about to experience the advantage of having done my own conversion. The Batteries are more powerful now(power to weight ratio), and they will always get better. By the time I am ready to switch my batteries I will be able to get 150 miles on a charge (and that is with the present technology). The only time I would ever need that is to get to my country house on a weekend, which is 100 miles away. You need to educate yourself on these batteries. They are not what you think. Go to EVTV.ME and look at the Dec 18th 2009 archive video. The time is right for you to be an early adopter. All you have to do is pick a car that you love to drive and watch all the videos on evtv.me. That in itself will probably take you a couple of months.

Back on the road

2011-01-24T08:37:00.000-05:00

I have been back on the road for over a week now and last week the temperature ouside warmed to 38 deg F. The batteries had more capacity, also the roads were in better shape, so I was able to use it more.
However the temperature this Monday morning was at 1 deg F, and the power steering pump was laboring because the oil must be thicker. The batteries were not showing a full charge so I didn't want to take a chance and took Analisa to the train in the Suburban. LiFePo4 batteries would not have this problem.

The Controller is back!

2011-01-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

It was a very quick turn around and I got it back on Monday. We were hit by another snow storm so I am glad that the EV is in Jim Gutzmann's garage. Thanks Jim. I hope to get it back on the road by the end of the week or early next week.
Jack Rickard's Friday show was great this last week. Try to take a look at it at www.evtv.me, it is a great show. You get to see some of the bare bones of the Tesla.

NetGain Controller recalled

2011-01-06T09:05:00.000-05:00

I got an email from Ryan at EVSource to send the controller back for a fix. So I managed to borrow a space in a friends garage to park the EV for a few days while this takes place. I am burning gas like crazy in the Suburban again. It was cold this morning when I drove Analisa to the train station. I have grown accustomed to the almost instant heat in the EV.

The Controller is one of the big ticket items in the EV, at around $1,950. This industry is in its infancy so there will be some modifications along the way which will take the EV off the road.

The Lead Acid batteries are struggling in the cold. The range has dropped dramatically, another reason to switch to LiFePo4 batteries.

The Journal News writes about the Electric Vehicle.

2010-12-10T08:48:00.000-05:00

We made it into the paper last week. Thank you Journal News for a great article. The more people know that it can be done with any vehicle the better. There is a lot of amazing work being done at the grassroots level. You can basically learn everything you need to know from Jack Rickards videos online at EVTV.me. He will be the first to admit that they are long and in depth. His research on the available batteries and everything else to do with EVs is very informative. I personally can't wait to convert my Lead Acid batteries to Thundersky LiFePo4. I would lose 400 lbs of weight and have a range of 100 miles. It just makes sense. I can still use my Lead Acid pack to store energy and to quick charge the EV in about 20 minutes. Now that would be interesting to do.

But for now I have to finish my kitchen. All I can do at the moment is dream.

3,740 EV miles

2010-11-18T21:19:00.000-05:00

For an EV that has a range of 30 miles on Lead Acid batteries, I am managing to consistently to do over 50 miles a day, meeting all my needs. I charge between uses and it feels good to drive a Zero Emissions Vehicle.

Time to review the process.

2010-11-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

A lot of people are asking me what I would do differently if I was to do a conversion again. So what I think I need to do is go over the problems that I ran into so that it might help those of you who are thinking of taking the bull by the horns and reducing your gas addiction significantly by starting your own conversion. Over the next few weeks I shall list the things that went wrong and what I did to overcome the problems that presented themselves. I will also make a list of parts and stuff that I had to buy to get the job done, so that the cost of the project becomes tangible.

But for now lets start at the beginning.
Choosing the car, It has to be something that you are going to love driving, comfortable, aerodynamic and with great handling. The body is going to need to be free from rust so that it lasts a long time. I have fallen in love with my EV and can't stand the thought of it being off the road for any length of time. It is such a different driving experience. As an EV it has great acceleration and it holds the road on cornering like nothing else due to its lower center of gravity and extra weight and the way it is distributed.

Having a space to work on it is the key to success. It needs to be inside out of the weather. You are going to be pulling it to pieces and you will need to keep things organized and so a clean space is very important. Getting muddled and losing bits and pieces is frustrating and time consuming.

Research as much as you can, I found Jack Rickard and Gavin Shoebridge's YouTube movies a great place to start. There is a ton of information available from those two people. Jack approaches everything in a thorough and scientific way, so spend the time researching all you can.

The point at which you will find yourself stuck and alone, and feeling a little helpless, is when you want to get the motor married to the existing transmission. There are some companies that will do it for you, but you have to send both parts to them and it can take 3 months. That is really painful and I opted to go it alone. It wasn't the adaptor plate that posed the problem so much as the coupling and where to get it and which one would work for my application. No one could help me. On Gav's site he used a Lovejoy coupling and so I called them up and asked which one they recommended. They said they could not recommend one as it was being used in a vehicle, and that could have potential liability issues. That got me a little frustrated. So anyway I ended up having to just pick one and give it a try. It turned out to be too small and shattered within the first 200 miles. It was back to the drawing board and I called Lovejoy again and told them that one of their couplings had failed, and this time the rep did give me a recommendation. Maybe he sensed that I wasn't going to go away.

I had to get the splined insert that had been welded into the smaller one machined and re welded into the larger coupling. The larger coupling was made of sintered iron which you cannot weld onto. I then had to order one side of the coupling made out of stainless steel. It took over a week to arrive and then a few days at the machinist to get it worked on. In the meantime I had to change the spacing between the motor and the transmission by adding more spacers ( 2 pieces of 1/2 inch aluminum), which meant the bracket where the other end of the motor fixed to the chassis also had to be changed.

It has not been a problem since then. It seems to be a really hardy coupling that can handle the tremendous amount of torque that an electric motor generates.

Chevy Volt meets Grassroots EV at NYU-Poly

2010-11-14T08:50:00.000-05:00

On Friday I was invited to make a presentation of the EV at an NYU-Poly workshop about 'Rebooting the Grid'. One of my friends, Dhirendra Ashar, who is an electrical engineer. set up an invitation with Dr. Andres Fortino. It was a full day event, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The problem that was discussed was, what the Power Grid will look like in 30 years when all cars in the US are powered by electricity. There were a lot of very interesting and smart people there, and we had a great time brainstorming this subject.

We also had an Engineer from GM who brought a Chevy Volt along for everyone to see. Thanks to Jason Taylor for giving me a great walk through of the Volt. It is a lovely vehicle. It has a range of 40 miles on electric power, which as I have found with my EV, with a range of 30 miles, is plenty for all the local running around. And if you need to go further than that, then the back up gas generator will get you to your destination where you can charge up the car again. I think that it is going to be a great transitional vehicle for the consumer who is very nervous about running out of power. Once people experience the joy of driving on clean electricity, they will become more confident with all electric vehicles.

Some of the main ideas that I loved the sound of were, that cars would be a way of storing energy and that they would share it with the Smart Grid. The technology for this type of sharing is apparently there. In other words say you had a range of 100 miles on a charge, and your commute to work, and other daily needs, was 60 miles. You could program your car to let the grid use say 30 miles worth of you energy during the day while you are parked at work, leaving you a buffer of 10 miles. Your car charges at night while you are sleeping and at a time that is off peak and there is an excess of power being produced by the power grid.

So what happens when you need to go further than 100 miles. The most attractive idea was the battery swap stations where you drive up to what looks like a car wash and the battery is taken out and a fully charged one gets popped in its place. This process would take about 5 mins, enough time to get a nice cup of tea, or coffee.

Here is a presentation of this idea by Shai Aggasi.

3,400 miles

2010-11-08T10:41:00.000-05:00

Just went over 3,400 miles on clean electric power.

Last week my coolant pump quit. I got a new one and if it turns out that the pump was faulty I will get reimbursed. Thanks Ryan from EV Source for getting me the new one so quickly.

I was still able to use the EV but had to keep an eye on the controller temp, if it started to go up to 150 deg F then I would have to slow down or stop to let it cool down, but it never came to that.

An Award!

2010-11-04T13:48:00.000-04:00

I received this award at the Harvest Festival.

Thanks to Chris Berlow from UMAC for instigating that.

Gretchin Dizer with me and the EV

Gretchin draws the numbers on the New York Lottery.

Sources for information and Parts

2010-11-04T12:10:00.000-04:00

YouTube movies to be inspired by:-

Gav’s EV conversion 1

1 A Convenient Response to an Inconvenient Truth – EV

Converted 1975 VW Bug to electric power

Who Killed the Electric Car (Netflix)

Parts:-

EVsource.com

Granger

Radio Shack, Ossining

Home Depot

Melrose Lumber, Ossining

Ortiz Welding, Hawthorn

FenBar, Hawthorn

Northeast Battery Corp., Hawthorn

Books:-

Electric Conversion Made Easy, by Gavin Shoebridge (ebook)

Websites:-

www.EVsecrets.com

2010-10-03T11:40:00.000-04:00

I have gone over 2000 miles with the EV. The longest distance traveled in one day was 77 miles and I could have gone further. The power steering is installed and works great. I have a switch which means I can save the power for range.

We had a huge rain storm and I had no problems with the EV in wet conditions.

2010-08-17T20:17:00.001-04:00

1040 EV miles today. Getting prepared to install the power steering. I managed to get the correct relay for the heater, so I now have heat ready for the winter.

The motor compartment

2010-08-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

This is a heavy duty extension cable from Home Depot

I am running 220 volts through it.

The EV will take both 110v or 220v so any outlet works

The charger has an Amps knob on it so you can dial in the draw on the

line if sharing with other things on that circuit

It's a thing of beauty. I am loving the EV. The fact that I can just unplug her and jump in a drive off to run an errand or drop one of the kids off at Gymnastics or go to the duka (shop in Swahili). I get back home park and plug her back in. It's that simple. It has taken the strain off the Suburban and I feel free from the constant visits to the gas station. The Suburban is used for what it was intended now which is to transport a large load from one place to another. Don't get me wrong I love my suburban. It is a real tough workhorse. The EV just feels so right for all the other stuff, and let me tell you there is a lot of it. The 30 mile range is perfectly adiquate for my needs at the moment, and as I tell everyone who asks me I am just waiting a bit longer for the battery technology to change and then I will be in there. I could have put the Lithium Iron batteries in for an extra $7K. and got over a 100 miles on a charge. I just didn't need that at this point.

2010-06-11T14:16:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day. I pushed the EV to it's limits. I had to get the empty weight of the vehicle to have the registration change officially to Electric. The closest weigh station was 15.5 miles away. The batteries have not been broken in totally so the range is still uncertain. I got all the way there with no hassles. The weight has increased by about 900 lbs. (Hefty batteries). I consulted my battery state of charge chart and it said that I had about 70% remaining. So I decided to give it a shot and try to make it home. Well I got to the 29 mile mark and she started to lose power, so I pulled into someone's driveway and waited for 15 mins to let the batteries recover. I had to get over a couple of hills to get to the nearest gas station. Waiting worked and I made it over the ridge and met the owner of the gas station in Pleasantville and asked him if would let me plug in for a bit to boost my batteries in order to get me home. Well Thank you Joe Fanelli, what a great guy. I spent about a half hour there showing off the car to interested parties, and then was on my way again and made it home.

The next hurdle was to get the last bit of information to the DMV. It did cause a bit of uncertainty among the supervisors and agents there. They did some checking with various higher authorities and finally gave me the green light and now my registration and title reflect the fact that the car in now a 100% electric car with Zero emissions. I am now officially totally street legal. Does that mean that I can apply for the Federal tax rebate, I wonder?

It's been a totally exciting day. Maybe I said that already.

2010-06-03T20:00:00.000-04:00

I have driven 200 EV miles and have had some bugs to sort out. None have been too serious and I was able to fix them quickly. One bug was more serious and took 24 hours to get the EV back on the road.

The car accelerates very well. It seems to be a lot smoother than with the old engine (I.C.E.)

I start out in 3rd gear and don't change until I reach 45 mph, then to 4th up to 55 mph, and finally 5th gear up to 70 mph. I haven't pushed it any further as the rpm dial is not yet working (the wiring is a little beyond me, so I am getting some help with that)

It is a total pleasure to drive. The music sounds great because the car is so quiet.

I am going to have to modify a few things to make it better.

It needs power steering in order for my wife to be able to park it. It is too heavy for her at slow speeds.

The controller is getting too hot so I have to make some changes to the cooling system. So the guys and EVsource.com are helping out with that.

The motor to transmission coupling was too small for this application, so I am changing it to a much sturdier one. This is taking a bit of time and it is killing me that the EV is off the road. I am having to exercise my patience.

The part came in today and is at the machinist having the splined part welded into it. So I hope the car will be back on the road next week. Then I shall be wearing my EV grin again.

Test Drive

2010-05-12T09:29:00.000-04:00

Well it is time for the test drive

Backing the EV out for its first test drive

This is the Battery box in the trunk with the lid removed.

The box holds 8 batteries at 82 lbs each. The frame is

welded to the chassis

2010-05-12T09:25:00.000-04:00

Bill Melnychuk, Thanks for giving me a hand with the batteries and getting

the EV hooked up. I was nervous about the 144 volts DC as it is more dangerous than AC.

Bill showed me that there is nothing to be afraid of if you do things right.

Basically don't include yourself in the circuit

Rear battery pack

Quick disconnect, this is used when I need to do any work on the components.

It takes the main drive pack out of the equation.

2010-05-12T09:22:00.000-04:00

Installing the component platform.

I used some plywood, which is light weight, painted with POR 15

Nearly there, just a few more things to add.

The main Pack fuse on top of the DC to DC charger.

Welding the bracket to hold the potentiometer

which is attached to the existing throttle cable

The battery racks under the hood.

The motor is covered for protection.

2010-05-12T09:18:00.000-04:00

Starting to work out how the 4 front batteries and all the components will

fit into the space available

I used a cardboard mockup of a battery in order to size the

battery racks during welding.

Thanks for the tip Gav.

Fixing the motor to the chassis.

The cloth is covering the motor for obvious reasons

This is the fan assembly welded from a tin can which houses

a brushless fan and will be fixed to the lid of the rear battery box

for venting while charging.

The trunk, spare wheel well.

installing the conduit for the main traction pack.

Bringing power from the rear to the front.

2010-05-12T09:11:00.000-04:00

The transmission all cleaned up and connected to the motor

I rented an engine hoist to install the motor

In she goes

The rear battery box

Buying the batteries

2010-04-08T14:01:00.000-04:00

Moving the motor around is no easy task

I needed to do a little bit of extra grinding to allow for the transaxle

to fit in without rubbing on the adapter plate

Adapter plate fitted onto motor first

Motor and tranny joined together for test run.

I have been chasing around getting the welding wire and the lugs to connect the batteries. There is a recession so the price of copper is going up. At least that is what someone told me.

Great news is that I got the adaptor plate back from the machinist and it is fantastic! I bolted it all together and gave it a test run with a 12 volt battery. It all worked fine. The next thing is to put it into the EV.

2010-04-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

side view of rust repair

I added sheet metal and treated with rust killer

2010-03-29T11:14:00.000-04:00

I have cut away the bad rust patch on the rear wheel well

This is the other side and it is in good condition.

I have to match the other side to this. I will use sheet metal

and build up a base and then use bondo to get the details.

2010-03-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

Soldering the wires for the new radio.

soldering wires

This is satisfying and quite easy to do.

This is the finished radio adaptor now ready for installation.

2010-03-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

This is the transmission with the other half of the lovejoy coupler.

The spider is also shown (the white thing)

2010-03-28T23:41:00.000-04:00

I used some old pieces of aluminum as braces for the new ceramic heaters

the two are joined together

I have them all wired up with #12 wire which will handle the 144 volts system

installing the new core.

I made a sheet metal cover and routed the wires where

the old pipes used to run. It is now ready to be put back in the car.

2010-03-28T23:30:00.000-04:00

This is quite a puzzle. I have to remember how it all goes back.

There is still some engine coolant left in the heater core.

This is the core box with all the baffles for directing the air

to the different areas of the cabin

The open heater core box

2010-03-28T23:17:00.000-04:00

I had to remove most of the Dashboard to get to the old Heater core

This was the hardest part of the whole job so far.

This is the evaporator core which had to be removed first to get to the heater.

Finally I can at least see what I am trying to get to.

2010-03-28T23:09:00.000-04:00

Giving the rear drum brakes a revamp.

Trying to make sense of all this existing wiring.

Most of it will remain untouched but I need to find ways to activate

some of the new components.

2010-03-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

The other half of the coupling is on the motor.

I need to take these parts to a machinist to create the coupling

The first Lovejoy Coupler was too small.

It failed on me in the first 2 weeks and had

me off the road for over a week.

This shows the shattered coupling.
This is a later blog entry and happened in the first 200 miles of driving

It is removed

I need to remove the center splined piece from the clutch plate.

The Transmission is out and being cleaned

2010-03-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

Removal of the right transaxle

Transaxle is out

Battery box mockup

The transmission needs to be removed too

2010-03-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

A lot has happened since the last post.

My friend and master mechanic, Emilio Zullo, removed the engine and all that goes with it. I dragged it home on a trailer and rolled it into my workshop (garage), just before the 4th largest snow storm since the 1860's hit us.

I have managed to remove the transaxels and the transmission.

All the struts and shocks have been replaced. I also removed the coil springs and sent a sample of the front and back to 'Coil Spring Specialties' a company in Kansas.

Here is their website.

http://www.coilsprings.com/electric.aspx

I have also made cardboard battery mockup's so that I can plan the battery placement.

Most of the parts have arrived. This means that there should be no delays on that front.

2010-02-06T20:52:00.000-05:00

I have been getting the garage cleared out so that I can fit the car in once the engine has been removed. This engines days are numbered.

This past week I have managed to upgrade the tires and wheel rims. I have also ordered new struts all around as they are all shot and need to be good to handle the extra weight of the batteries. I have also found a great company that custom make coil springs which will be engineered for the new weight. I have to send the old springs so that they can copy the shape and get the fit right.

Here is the link to that company
http://www.coilsprings.com/

It does take a long time so put your order in as soon as you can (about 3 months).

2010-01-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

Why am I converting a car to all electric?

I have a Chevy suburban and I use it a lot. I pull trailers with it and carry my family and pets on weekend trips of about 200 miles. I also use it as a daily run around during the week where I just have to go distances of less than 10 miles to drop my kids at one thing or another. I rack up about 50+ miles a day. It's a lot of gas, which I am unhappy about. So I was looking for a way to change, and Ben, my son got a remote controlled electric car which is so impressive and fast, we just had to see if anything like it came in a larger size. This is where Youtube stepped in and has become a valuable source of information. And so the journey has begun.

It has been a long road deciding which make and model car I should use as a donor vehicle. At first I was all set on a modern VW beetle, as I wanted the car to be noticeable and have a modern and appealing line. The disadvantage seemed to be that I would lose the rear seats to battery space. I binned that idea and started the long process of research again. Many hours spent looking through the classified lists and craigslist. I finally spotted something that I liked and tried to find other EV converters who had done the similar make and model. Bingo! I found two others who have made theirs work. It is a 1994 Toyota Celica ST.

I am at the stage where the car is sitting outside in the drive and the major parts have been ordered. I expect them to be here in about 3 weeks. In the meantime I am getting the tires, brakes and suspension figured out. The car is in great shape. The engine has 188,000 miles on it and seems like it is brand new. Very powerful with no problems, so I am looking for a buyer. They can come and see it running in the car before I remove it. Yes, it's gas guzzling days are numbered.