Motorin'

Motor in, more or less

The aluminium adaptor plate came back from Jetcutit in Glasgow, and fit perfectly onto the dowels. Phew! The tooth pattern to accept the motor required the slightest bit of fettling but soon went snugly together.

The next step was to reattach the assembly to the car.  

A suitable means of supporting the motor end from the original engine mount had to be devised, and this required a bit of head scratching. In the end I used (recycled) a length of lightweight box section, as a bridge between the engine mounts, supporting the adaptor plate and the overhanging weight of the motor at the mid point. This is not the normal approach but it is straight forward, reasonably light and seems strong enough.

Abracadabra

I've got a horrible cold this week so haven't felt even slightly like doing anything, but I did have a think about how to attempt the next task on this project, that is, joining the electric motor onto the Honda gearbox.  

There you can see the gearbox bell housing, which would normally surround the clutch and flywheel.  We're not needing either, but the bell housing is cast as part of the gearbox so we have to work with it.  Simple enough - slap a metal plate across the front with suitable mounting points for the motor. The devil is in the detail of course - the first problem being how to replicate the outline to cut the plate so that it fits neatly.

I decided to try tracing the outline onto a sheet of cardboard, and use a hammer to tap through the dowels so that they are replicated precisely (like making a gasket).

Then somehow get it into the computer.

Just like magic! Or Tron, possibly.

The unusual castelated detail on the front of the motor can also be cut in to the plate, centred on the driveshaft, so that it just slots in and clamps up easily and accurately.

Lump

Time to remove the faithful little 3 cylinder engine. Definitely had mixed feelings about taking apart a car that was running reasonably well, especially as it's been totally reliable. 

Well past the point of no return now though! Seemed easiest to remove the complete transaxle, it looked like it would exit downwards after removing all the pipes and wires and the under-trays, and it wasn't too bad, taking about 4 hours in all.

It was a lot heavier than I expected!

Should be interesting to find out how much of that the hybrid motor accounts for.

The next step will be to separate the gearbox from the electric motor and engine, and then see what's involved in attaching the shiny new motor.

Mode: metal god

Spent an afternoon wrangling £70 worth of aluminium sheet into what I will choose to call 'a box'

As the dimensions were too big (and the sheet too thick) to work in my metal folder, had to resort to large chunks of wood, angle iron and a big hammer to form the corners. As a result it's not terribly beautiful, but it'll do the job. Here it is in situ:

Whilst under there I also removed the exhaust, miscellaneous bits of heat shield and a 10 kilo lump of ballast!  Certainly the car is pretty light in the rear - you can actually lift the back end off the ground by hand.  But not for long - the batteries will weigh it back down!

Elements

Not a huge amount of progress since the last post due to some long days at the office, but I did pick up the needed sheet metal. My old favourite metal supplier in Perth (Peddie's) having closed down I had to go to Dundee instead. 

However the weather has also been pretty grim so today was spent hibernating inside with the wood stove on, building the battery management system PCBs which will look after the expensive lithium cells. 

This is a pretty simple system of my own design which has evolved slightly from the last car it was used in.  Each board has 12 channels and can be grouped together or spread out over the pack with a communication bus linking them together and to the vehicle's charge and drive systems.

Holey rusted metal, batman

...is what you find on steel parts of a car which has been used in Scotland during the winter. Because we like to put as much salt on the road as we do on our chips.

Even though you might expect a bit of cathodic protection of the steel, this bit was badly corroded and fit to fall off.

Anyway never mind, we can happily remove all that because it was only holding on some vapour emission control stuff.

A required hole also appeared, as predicted:

There is pleasingly very little in the way and a nice big rectangular battery box will fit snugly here between substantial crossmembers. The car will end up with much more rear load space than it had as a hybrid.

Of course it's important to remember that it's always easier to dismantle than it is to create, and the next step is going to involve some creative aluminium origami, so stay tuned for that riveting fun.

Day one

I've finally decided it's time for a new electric car project. The last homebrew one I had was back in '99, and the recent rate of progress with technology and batteries means it will soon be pointless to build your own (I mean, it technologically is already pointless now that the Tesla model S exists, but I can't really afford one of those).

So I'm converting a Mk 1 Honda Insight. It will get a 100kW drive, which should give the light and aerodynamic donor vehicle new wings, and make my new, longer commute a bit more bearable than in my 55mph top speed Peugeot 106 electric.

First of all, the poor car had been sitting idle for a few years, and the drum brakes had *completely* seized. It took some effort and a set of bearing pullers to get the drums loose (dragging the car and hammering on the drums having failed). Drumroll...

Next, the huge and complicated IMA package (including NiMH battery) came out.  About 100 fasteners had to come out first though. It's proper quality engineering this, a beautiful job for what was a rather limited production run.

It's pretty heavy, 50kG at a guess.

With this and the fuel tank removed, there is a promising battery shaped cavity between the beam axle and the back of the floor pan.  I will remove the glued and spot welded "hump" and sink a battery box in here, to hold about 100 of these little guys:

The intention is to keep the batteries in a single block behind the seats. This will make thermal management as well as electrical considerations easier.  The weight will be as far forward as possible, inboard and low down for reduced roll and a small polar moment of inertia, and the spare wheel and tools etc can move to under the hood, to restore balance.

That's about it for today. Plug in for more!