EV Trans Am

Not much change on the actual car, but I have been up to some stuff:

• Made wood mockups of motor mounts and then sketched them up. I’ll remake them and assembly from the sketches to see if it still makes sense.
• Thought a lot about the power steering and A/C pulley system.  They rotate opposite directions so it’s a little more involved than hoping.
• Realized the placement of the battery terminals means that a cable won’t fit between the batteries unless I purposely use an odd battery arrangement.  I have an idea on solving that…
• Got a new shipment of parts – battery lugs, plastic terminal covers, contactor, circuit breaker, fuse and holder
• Found the oversized 40 amp fuse at a boat store
• Found out the boat store has a cable crimper to make battery cables that customers are allowed to use, preferably if you bought your stuff there but they were pretty nice…

More later.

Tomorrow I’ll mail the check for the adapter plate and hub. I also ordered a Raptor 1200 controller, 35 ft of cabling and a PB-6 throttle. The feeling of mailing a large check to order something is a bit unsettling. I first noticed it after dropping some G’s for my motor, now again as I prepare to entrust the USPS with my next order.

So used to the internet and instant order confirmation. This must be what it was like decades ago when sending away for purchases was more common. Was it more common? I definitely have more anticipation because of the unknown. I think the motor took 6 weeks after estimates of 2, and then I wasn’t even in town for the delivery.

My vendor says the parts are in hand for this order, so it should be on the way to me within a week or so. Rumor has it that my friend who lent me the engine hoist is going to want it back soon. I guess the race is on to see if I get everything installed first or have to figure out another way to lift 300 lbs in a controlled manner over my fenders.

I worked on some drawings for a battery tray for the rear fuel tank area and am now confident about getting 6 in there. I’d suggest buying a sample of the battery you plan to use for actual dimensions. I have a lot more room than I thought based on the online dimensions. It’s easier to visual when you’ve seen the actual battery too. Heavier though.

Some other factors based on having the actual battery:

• Depending on the terminals the height may be greater
• I’m not sure how much clearance should be provided between the terminals and the metal frame, is there a potential (ha) for arcing, even if covered in plastic?
• May provide more room to mount the batteries sideways, I’ll layout both options and mockup with wood

Maybe pics or scans of layout tomorrow.

I unpacked the motor and was curious to see how well my model matched up to the real thing. It looks pretty good to me, so hopefully everything will fit like it should in the engine bay.

Model Comparision

Here are some more pictures of the motor. I had a heck of a time finding photos of the drive end when I was trying to visualize how the adapter would work. I plan to take a few detailed shots of the motor and create a page for those to help out anyone considering a WarP 11.

This weekend I cleaned more gunk out of the engine bay. I’d like to remove the steering rack and get the k-member as clean as could be before placing the motor, but we’ll see. I’m still debating a manual steering to avoid a second motor that runs the power steering pump. From reading it seems those are best for skinny tires on drag cars and not daily drivers. I’ll still call a vendor and see what they think about it. The other alternative may be to run an electric pump instead of driving the mechanical pump with an electric motor, that may be more efficient.

I placed an order for the vacuum pump for the brakes. I’ll also need to tap into it for the A/C system because the vents change from dash to feet and windshield be vacuum. I’m not sure if that is as air-tight a system, so I may not want them attached. Not sure how I’d switch from floor to dash though, maybe a straw system I can suck on or something… I’ll worry about it more when this things gets out of the garage.

One day this week I’ll go by and pickup a battery I can use to begin laying out racks to hold them. Once I see the terminals I’ll be more comfortable ordering cabling and connectors and a crimping tool.

Got word that the adapter should be machined near the end of this month. So February could be a big progress month. Time to get started on he battery racks for sure.

Got a call just a few minutes ago that the motor is being shipped. Hopefully it gets here in the next 10 days or so and we’re in business!

It’s been kind of slow. Still working out the order for an adapter and controller. I found a local store that sells the batteries I’m interested in so I may go pick one up and start on hard battery rack design. I’m planning for February to be a good month. I’d like to get a start on the following then:

That’s probably enough, I don’t want to be too ambitious since I’m also hoping the motor will be here by then too.

Lots of calling, emailing and list making. Motor has been ordered, hopefully the adapter and controller will be soon. Time to start listing all the other parts and quantities needed.

The 8 battery configuration won’t fit in the fuel tank location. There wasn’t enough clearance to the rear axle housing, especially once axle movement was considered. I still think I can fit 6 in there pretty easily.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of visualization of how the motor and transmission will couple. I plan to keep the clutch and transmission so I’ll need an adapter to mate the flywheel to the motor. Electro Automotive’s site was very helpful to me in understanding how the pieces fit together. The taperlock bushing was a new concept to me. I know how the pieces will fit together, but don’t have a solid idea of the depth of the adapters – that will determine the distance from the flywheel face to the rear of the motor.

I found a drawing that is the layout of the rear of my engine, front of the bellhousing. This is extremely helpful because I’d previously matched up the bolt holes to holes I made in a used pizza box.

This is a drawing of the type of adapter I’ll need. The dimensions are just working numbers to help me understand how the gap closes. I’ll leave it to the machine shop to determine the actual bushing dimensions.

[I removed the image because it wasn’t accurate and don’t want to confuse anybody]