Motor is in, wheels have turned
EV Trans Am has officially gone 0.15 miles on battery power.
Friday afternoon my wife and I did a dry run of the motor install. We assembled the spacer ring and adapter plate, checked the adapter plate on the bellhousing and did some measuring to be sure everything would clear. Everything measured up well, so we figured up all the bolts we’d need to get it into the car and went to Ace and Napa.
Starting at about 9:15 Saturday morning, myself, neighbor Mike and brother James started assembling the motor. We got it in the car and bolted up about 4:30. After some miscellaneous bolt tightening under the car and reinstalling the clutch hydraulics we got the test battery and planned to hook it up to the motor terminals.
We supported the rear end on jackstands, about an inch off the ground. First, with the car in neutral we just spun the motor on a single 12V battery. It vibrated a good bit, maybe reaching 1500 rpms. Keeping in mind that it isn’t attached to the k-member yet, we don’t think it’s too big a deal. We disconnected the battery and placed the transmission in 4th gear, then we manually rotated the tires and it transferred to the motor shaft without any grinding or restriction. We reapplied the positive cable and the motor whirred back up, turning the rear wheels. We estimated 15-20 mph and didn’t see any wobbling in the driveshaft or wheels, quite a success.
Detailed writeup on motor installation will follow, including tips and installation techniques that would save some time. For now, here is a gallery of today’s photos.
Tags: motor
March 27th, 2009 at 5:50 am
I’m curious why you went with a warp 9 ?
March 27th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
We went with a WarP11. It was the biggest that would fit with the stock k-member, maybe even the biggest that would fit with a tubular k-member.
Overall I want grunt down low and am willing to give up higher speeds because the bulk of my driving is below 45 mph. I’m hoping to replicate stock feeling where the LT1 was a torque monster at 2000 rpms but ran out of breath near 5000.
The limitation will be battery space because the Trans Am is a hatchback – I don’t have a trunk and don’t want to put batteries in the passenger compartment, even though the back seat was removed by a previous owner. Given the voltage constraints, I figured bigger motor would be better. We’ll find out.
March 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
oops sorry it just looks smaller next to the tranny then mine and i got confused with the red camero on the DIY site sorry my bad . I figure rough numbers about 300 ft lbs of torque on 156volts when u say GO . i’m cutting out the back under the hatch to put batteries where the gas tank was and leaving enough room to clip in the targa top just like before (i hope).