Sunday, May 25, 2008

Time To Get Serious...

May 18 – May 24, 2008

I received news that my WarP 9 was shipped Monday and it arrived at school on Tuesdays – yeah Fed Ex. Even better, it went to the front office and it was delivered to my room. There it was, all wrapped up on its little pallet just waiting for me to open it up – and I did. My fake motor model was pale in comparison to the real thing – all red and clean, but less I digress. Being only Tuesday, I figured why take it home for my wife to trip over, so I elected to leave it at school to show my students and friends. For those of you who have never taught school, the last two weeks are crazy. Students finishing projects, tests to prepare and give and all of those grades – thank God they just use 5 letters (but I do know a few that would get a “Z” if it were possible). Friday came and with a three day weekend ahead, it was time to take the motor home (as opposed to a motorhome).

It’s Saturday morning and I am mentally preparing to get it installed. I was only dreaming when I thought I could do it in an hour, but in reality it took less than five. First things first – get the fake motor out. Poster board and wood are not that heavy, but when you add the adapter plate, clutch, flywheel and motor adapter and stick it in a small hole, even this can be a challenge. Remember, it was all on the cradle when I installed it last time. I tried using the engine hoist, but it only got in the way. So with brute strength and those few choice words (please back, don’t fail me now), I got it out and was ready to install the real thing. I took all of my parts off from the fake motor and got my tools ready. The WarP 9 received a brand new lift bolt and took flight via the engine hoist. First up was the motor adapter. It slid right on and I tightened the set screws. The first one went in with no problems, but number two split at the top. I couldn’t get it out either, so a trip to the hardware store was needed anyway to get some shorter bolts for the adapter plate and a screw extractor small enough for the set screw. Seven dollars later I was home and got that screw out. Next up was the adapter plate and it fit perfect. My Plexiglas template worked great and every hole lined up on the money. Next the flywheel – and this is where problem number two arose. The spacing (and spacing is probably as critical as alignment) was off – by .157 inches. On my motor model I did not know exactly how deep the drive end pilot ring was so I guess and was off by .157 inches. The motor adapter was too long so another trip was in order – to my classroom so I could shorten it on the lathe. As you might have guessed, these two trips cost me an hour, but it was a beautiful day! So after taking it all apart, and reassembling it, I added the clutch and it was ready to go. Now I recruited my son and wife to finish the installation. I really did not want to take the trunk off so we opted for plan “B”, the squeeze play. One of us pushed while the other lowered it to clear the trunk lip. Once in the whole it was a matter of getting things to align. I knew this was critical because of my efforts to get it to work in the classroom with the fake motor. The clutch and transmission shaft and that darn spline all have to be right there in order for it to fit together. We tried several attempts and different positions before it slid in - and what a joyous moment it was!!! I was able to pull it together with just my hands afterwards and started to install the bolts. One after another they all fit and it was installed. The adapter on the other end aligned perfectly also, so it was four bolts and everything was secure. Weeks of planning with my fake motor paid big dividends in the end. Having to wait for the motor was a blessing in disguise. I can’t imagine trying to do all of this with the added weight of the real motor, either at school or home.

What’s next – battery racks… so until next week…

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Together Again

May 11 – May 17, 2008

With rain predicted for several days this week I decided to balance work and conversion a little better – rainy days at work and dry days at home. I really wanted to get the car back together again (sounds like a good song title) and with only one day that was guaranteed dry, I hurried home Tuesday and got my tools ready. I got the big jackstands out and raised the car so I could slide everything underneath. Without the struts attached, it was much easier. I had the cradle on roller carts but soon realized that it needed to be on the legs of the engine hoist. After a few adjustments, I was ready to re-install the cradle. With bolts cleaned and greased, wrenches in hand, I positioned the cradle for the first bolt and it was in – no problems. To the other side and same result. Repositioned the hoist and the two rear bolts went right in – what a great day. Next came the new struts. Good old Harbor Freight to the rescue with a set of spring compressors and I was ready to put on the new struts. I have heard terror stories about these huge springs flying wildly through the air when they escape the confines of the compressor, so my main concern was my wife’s car in the driveway. I pointed everything away from it and used my body as a human shield. I can go to the hospital, but have you been to a body shop lately for repairs??? Anyways, again a great experience – both struts changed and ready to install. I do believe the struts on the car were original, evident by one that failed to create any compression. Five bolts per side and they were installed. They warn you that you will need an alignment when done and they are not kidding – the rear of my car looks bow-legged now. Feeling cocky, I figured why not re-install the brake calipers and the new rotors – big mistake.

New rotors are thick! I get out my C-clamps and try to compress the piston – no luck. I call my brother for some sage advice and still no luck. I try to get logical and still no luck. Even Mr. Hayes and Chilton are of no help. One caliper was not as good as the other and I figured Autozone to the rescue. With two new (remanufactured) calipers in hand I tried again. I had brake fluid all over the place – frustrated and tired, I closed up shop for the night. I just hate it when things like that happen. Wednesday was supposed to be rainy, but it missed us. Got home quickly and started over again. I finally got the piston compressed enough to get things to fit and got the drivers side installed. Feeling cocky again, I headed to the other side. The dry weather turned to a light drizzle – I was not going to be beat. Things went together fairly well and when I installed the brake line, brake fluid was running out all over the place. I tried to find the source to no avail. I took it off ready to take it back to Autozone when I realize the error of my ways – I put the copper washers on the brake line on wrongs and they never sealed. Once properly positioned all was well, except I did the same thing one the other side. The drizzle was more persistent but I wanted to put the wheels back on. This was the easiest thing I did all day. With everything back in place (or so I thought) it was time to get the Fiero back on terra firma. One side down – yea, but when I went to do the other side, the jackstand was positioned so the car was now balanced on one side – driver’s side on the ground, passenger side in the air. I grab my trusty (old) bottle jack and try to lift the front end while holding the rear up with a floor jack so I can get the jackstand out. My old (and not so trusty) bottle jack was not cooperating – and did I mention it was now raining! I finally get all four wheels on the ground and in the process on cleaning up I found a rubber washer from the passenger’s side caliper (a few choice words). I did not want to jack the car back up, remove the wheel, take apart the caliper and re-insert the washer. Instead I used the Braille method, reaching behind the wheel, taking off the bracket on the caliper, putting the washer back on and reassembling it by feel – and yes it was still raining. I will double check my work when I take the wheels off in the future, but for now, it was time to quit. As mentioned early, the car is now bow-legged. I remember way back whenever you saw an old VW with this same appearance it was because the motor was out and I thought this might be the case with the Fiero – not so. I would imagine it is a combination of not getting the struts properly aligned and the weight difference, but I won’t truly know until I get all of that battery weight installed.

I also got a new (at least new to me) Palm Pilot IIIc to try and use with E-meter. I found a program called EVDASH by Peter Ohler at ohler.com. I have yet to install it and try it out, but it is on my list of things to do. Until next week….

Sunday, May 11, 2008

The Dreaded W's

May 4 – May 10, 2008

The dreaded W’s – weather and work. If April showers bring May flowers, what does it have to say about EV conversions? As stated earlier, I work on the car outside and when it rains, I stay inside. So as you can guess, it’s been a rainy week. As far as the other “W” goes, it’s the end of the school year and a time when the fancy of all young (teenage) hearts are looking to hanging out at the pool or trying to salvage their grade. Some are busy (makes me happy), while others are lazy. I could go on for pages about the current education system, but I will save it for another blog.

El Fiero received a little attention this week. First, I came up with a system (hopefully) to assemble the Warp9 to the transmission. It involves a short section of pipe, a couple of extra hands and a few of those choice words when things go wrong. I should have realized that something was going to be tough when I removed the ICE motor from the transmission. It required a crowbar and other tools of ICE destruction (TID’s). That ever critical alignment was an issue then and it carried over to the reassembly. As for my system, I get the motor near the spindle on the transmission while attached to the engine hoist. Next I take the pipe and put it under the adapter plate and bounce in up and down until the shaft and clutch align. Next I use those extra hands to slightly turn the CV shaft until the spline of the transmission shaft and clutch go together. On top of that, I also have a couple of clamps keeping light tension between the adapter plate and transmission so when all of the stars (and parts) align, everything just slides together. It’s not scientific, but it works. Once I got all of that figured out I finished the adapter to mount the motor to the frame (near the old ICE motor mount). Just to be on the safe side, I slotted the holes for both vertical and horizontal adjustments. Until I got this done, I figured there was going to be some movement in the whole assembly. But now the entire assembly is straight, level and more so, solid – I’m a happy guy. With all of that done, I took advantage of the best day of the week and brought everything home. I snagged a couple of students to help me load it into my truck and recruited the help of my loving wife to unload it at home. Now it sits on my back porch under a tarp awaiting another nice day to put it back in the car. I still have some wiring issues to take care of while the engine bay is empty, but I again am awaiting the rains to stop.

So until next week (3-4 days of rain predicted)….

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

What's An EV'er To Do....

April 28 – May 3, 2008

A busy week at school. I took a small group of students to a robotics competition and worked with a few more getting ready for prom. On top of that (we are near the end of our school year), we are in the serious project mode in all of my classes, so time was at a premium. I did go back and try to remount the adapter with my motor model and the alignment was off a bit. I modified the clutch alignment tool to more precisely install the clutch to the motor adapter and it helped. I seems that this whole alignment thing takes patience and I need to come up with a good system to ensure that the motor (with all of it add-ons) will slide in with the greatest of ease when I have everything ready to install – looks like another jig! The whole assembly should be around 200 lbs when done. With the motor eyebolts and an engine hoist I do not see any real problems, but it is easy to guess while planning.

The other area of thought this week was electronics – in particular, monitoring. I now have two E-meters, a serial model and a non-serial model. These do a good job of keeping track of volts, amps, amp hours and time, but I want to see it all at the same time. I first wanted to try and come up with a home built solution, but after days of research and some good feedback from the discussion list, I decided to go with the E-meters. Now I am looking at different devices to display and data-log the information from the E-meter. These devices are small touch screen computers – a Palm Pilot is a good example. Processing the data is done through a few equations and then transferring the processed data to a screen image. This is an over simplification of the process, but when I get it figured out, I will update this section. So until next week….

Adapting To My Motor....

April 21 – 27, 2008

With all of the parts cut and ready to go I double checked my hole placement (with the plastic template) and started drilling. I knew I was within a few thousandths, so I only drilled the holes one size bigger. The first dry fit was good, but the smaller holes (lower side of bell housing) were a strange size. At first I thought metric, then standard. I tapped them for both and was wrong twice (how lucky!). All the other holes were fine and the stock 12mm fit them all. I went with nuts and bolts because of the ¼” plate I used. Those pesky bottom holes were all re-drilled and tapped for 5/16-18 bolts and now everything fit. I installed the flywheel, motor adapter, clutch assembly and guess what???? – it rubbed against my adapter plate. There is a very close tolerance in there between the throw out bearing and adapter plate. Too far in and it rubs internally on the bell housing – too far out and it hits the adapter plate. My solution was to increase the size of the opening on the adapter plate just were it rubbed. I knew the welds would more than cover it up, so back to the grinder. It only took three tries to get it done this time.

Next came the welding. With my motor adapter, 2” bar stock was the perfect size for the spacing. My motor adapter is on the big size, but better safe than sorry. I proceeded to tack weld these pieces to my motor plate first to make a nice hexagon box - so far, so good. I then took and aligned everything to the adapter plate on the bell housing. I figured if I aligned all of the parts a one assembly, clamped and welded it all aligned, it should be aligned. With everything now tack welded, it was time to remove it from the transmission. With everything unbolted I went to pull it off and it was stuck. The passenger CV joint is real close and I did not factor that in. The good news is the CV joint pops right out and I was able to get the whole assembly out and it was time for the good welds. I cranked up the juice on the TIG welded for the ¼” plate and away I went – welding is fun. Only a couple of booboo’s (long welds get hot!). I still am confident that this will be stronger than the ½” aluminum and it is very customized for the application. A good week indeed if I do say so myself – next up, getting it all installed and making the adapter for the other end of the motor. I think I will take the weekend off – ahhhhh.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Just Fake It....



April 14 – 20, 2008

Because of the backorder on the motor I decided to do the next best thing – make a full scale model. Netgain has real good specifications online so I figured why not. I cut two 9” circles on the band saw and turned them nice and round on the lathe. I machined the parts that make up the shaft, cut a keyway in one end and press fit them together. I used 2x2 to support the plywood circles and cut thick poster board to make up the outer shell of the motor. I guess I could paint it red and fool everyone. I was even able to drill and tap the plywood to locate the mounting holes on both ends. I feel confident that if I make everything to fit the model, I should be able to swap out the real motor when it arrives and easily be within a 1/32 of an inch – we’ll see. I also took the time to prime and paint the cradle and finish installing all of my parts. At home I crawled under the car and removed all of the A/C and heater tubing, the gas tank, radiator and whatever else I could get out. I have my pile ready to sell and will try to get it posted this week.

The adapter plate is still on my mind. I was hoping to use a plasma cutter from another teacher, but he thought the ¼” plate might be too much for his small cutter. I then thought about using a torch (oxyacetylene), but the one I have at school is very old and does not cut that well. I have a small cutting torch at home and took it to school to hook up to my tanks there, but the fitting were wrong. So I went with my old stand by, a Milwaukee Saw-All. It was slow cutting, but I got the rough piece from the larger chunk of plate steel. Next I went to the metal cutting band saw and it cut but was very slow again. I knew the torch was still my best bet, so I brought everything to school on Sunday and it still would not fit the tanks. I went back to the band saw and got everything close. Next came the 4-1/2 hand grinder (gotta love those sparks) and before long I had the whole outside done. I finished it off with a flap-wheel grinder (sandpaper type on the same grinder) and it turned out really nice. Now comes my hexagon – boy I wish the torch was working. I drilled out the six corners so I could get a saber saw into the piece. The metal cutting blade I was using worked, but again, reallllllly slow. I found a more aggressive blade which sped things up a bit, but it was a lot of work for this small of a saw – time from Mr. Milwaukee. I cut just a long enough slot with the saber saw to get the bigger blade in. What would have taken me less than 10 minutes with the torch turned into about 40 minutes with the saws, but the cut was very minimal and just a little touch up with the hand grinder and I was done. All-in-all a good day. Next up – drilling the holes for the motor plate and transmission adapter. Until next week…

The Waiting Game

April 8 – 13, 2008

I am going to condense the work week into one entry to keep life simpler. I can only get a few minutes here and there during the day and after work is hit or miss.

First the bad news – the Warp 9 is on backorder. It may be until the beginning of June before it arrives, so it is on to other things. The rear cradle is in need of some general repairs and with it at work I can do this as it comes. The short CV joint was actually bad, so it has to go - $60 at Autozone. There is one ball joint that is an original (still has its rivets) and I figure for as cheap as they are ($11) I might as well replace it. One of the transmission mounts was broken and at $9 each, both are being replaced. With all of the stuff off, I can get the cradle thoroughly cleaned and prepped for some fresh paint. I know that with a little internet shopping I can probably beat Autozone prices, but there is the convenience of just going down the street and picking it up versus the waiting game – and if something is wrong, you can take it right back. Parts were ordered and most were installed this weekend. I will finish the upgrades this week.

The other mission of the week was working on a motor adapter. I know I can get on premade for $700-800, but what fun is that. I really believe the cost to make one should not exceed $100 if you have access to tools – and the tools you have will only improve what you make, not change its function. So many people use ½ inch aluminum plate. Some machine it (or have it machined), some just cut it an go with a basic square piece and drill the holes. Since I can weld, I am going for a steel version – ¼ inch plate steel with some type of spacer. I am trying to create a template of sorts for others to use so I spent several days trying to get some accurate numbers. From what I have read, the transmission shaft to motor shaft alignment is key, so I am basing all of my measurements from the center of the transmission. There are only about ten holes that I have to align – it can’t be that hard. I tried a poster board template first – rough cut it, clamp it to the bellhousing, trace and rub the profile and hole locations and measure. I then translated the numbers into Autocad and came up with a first drawing. Print it out and check it, correct and print and check – I was always close, but not close enough. On to Plan B. I had some 1/16 inch plastic – thick enough to not bend, but soft enough that it wasn’t brittle. I took the poster board template and rough cut the plastic. Now I could see what I was doing and made a new template. This was going to work better and next week I will make another plastic on and re-measure and hopefully get the numbers I want to get an accurate drawing. The key to this adapter is not to cut a round plate for the motor, but a hexagon. I am hoping to cut this out of the center if the plate, determine my spacer thickness and just re-weld back to the original plate – that’s the beauty of a theory – it good until proven wrong. Based on my calculations, the ¼” plate will actually be stronger than the ½” aluminum, especially after it is welded into a structure as I am planning to make – more to come….

A New Week

April 7, 2008 – Parts is Parts….

My classroom has a basic machine shop (mill, lathe, drill press, grinder…..) and I actually know how to use most of it. I also have welding equipment, CAD software, CNC capabilities and space to work. So today I started the motor hub coupler – this is the part that makes your electric motor able to accept the flywheel and clutch. A few measurements to get the bolt circle from the flywheel, take it to AutoCad for a working drawing and over to the mill for a little work. The choice of machines I believe is a preference. My mill and lathe have digital readouts, so finding the right place to drill is fairly easy. The mill is easier for me to locate all of the holes off a common center and then turn it on the lathe to get it to the right size. In hindsight, I probably should have started on the lathe and used a transfer punch to mark the flywheel holes. I did not get it finished today, but everything lined up ok. When looking at the flywheel, I decided to get rid of the big sprocket that engages the starter motor. I noticed it was pressed on and a few good whacks with a hammer and chisel and I dropped two pound real quick – the EV diet. I am hoping my motor arrives this week so I can get to work on the adapter plate. And I now retire to a nap in front of the TV.

The Saga Continues....

April, 6, 2008 – End of the ICE age, Part 2

Fully rested and ready to go, I drag my tools back outdoors and prepare to drop the cradle. With all the wires and hoses done, I get the engine hoist and secure the load. One bolt on top and four down below – and these were easier than expected. I figured 24 years of accumulated rust would make this a chore, but happily I was disappointed. We (my wife is such a good sport) drop the cradle on the legs of the engine hoist and El Fiero is now ICE free.

Now comes the next trick – getting the cradle out from underneath rear of the car while still on the legs of the hoist. Those wonderful folks at Harbor Freight just love seeing me come. I purchased a set of jumbo jack stands – 24 inches of pure elevation. I now hook the chain to the vacated engine bay and proceed to lift, and lift, and lift. I needed every bit of those jack stands to get the needed clearance to slide the cradle out with all parts in tact. As a bonus, the entire strut tower came with the cradle. They were as tall as the engine and the added weight may have killed one of my CV joints – a possible causality.

Next came the separation of motor and transmission, A little tugging and a few choice words and they were forever apart. I did not realize just how big and heavy all of this stuff was until I had it right in front of me. The engine was strapped to a cart and will go on Craig’s List in the very near future. A little industrial strength degreaser and the cradle and transmission are once again touchable. My son and I loaded up the cradle and engine hoist to take it to work. I teach a pre-engineering program at a local Career Center and figured with all of my tools at work and a clean and climate controlled place to work, this was a wise choice. Plus think of the added benefit of answering the same question over 50 times in one day – I would imagine that I’ll answer that many again tomorrow. Time to call it a day, put up the tools and get the smell of old grease off from me.

I think that now that the Fiero is in parts I have made a commitment to this project, so here are the details for now.

1984 Pontiac Fiero – 4speed manual with a leaky sunroof.
Warp 9 DC electric motor – http://www.go-ev.com/
Belktronix 144V conversion package (more on this in a bit) http://www.belktronix.com/
Deka 9A31 12v batteries – 100Ah, 144V system http://www.deka.com/

Now back to the package – I did a lot of searching for the system I wanted to use. The Warp 9 choice was made quite a while back, but next came a controller. The Zila is really a kick-butt controller, but a bit out of my price range (I did mention my wife!). Grassroots EV is carrying the Logisystem controller and I almost went that route. Curtis is the standard, but are getting harder to get (plus carry a premium for a price. Kelly is a now making 144V, 500A controllers a quite a bit cheaper than Curtis. Next came the charger – Manzanita Micro, Nivan, Russco as well as a few more. My head was hurting. The PFC-20 is expensive, but very worthy of the price. Zivan has potential, but has a quirk of being dedicated to a particular battery pack and requires an upgrade/update to change batteries. Russco is the cheaper charger, but when you add all of the extras on, it compares in price to the other. Somehow I found a link to Belktronix. I started reading and then I found his system package (see below).

(1) 144VDC, 500A DC Motor Controller(12) Battery Monitor Boards(12) Power Resistors(1) 144VAC PFC 1kW Charger with Isolation and DC/DC 650W Converter with Isolation(1) Throttle Interface Module(1) Vehicle Integration Module(1) Charge Detection Module(1) BatMon Isolation Module(1) Contactor(2) Cooling Fans(2) Mounting Brackets and hardware(1) Installation and Wiring Guide

Bryan is the new guy on the block. Check his site and http://www.evalbum.com/ and you will quickly see that there are not too many of his systems out there. But when you see what you get for the price of a Zila and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see its potential – I bought the whole package. It’s all integrated – the guesswork is gone. You need batteries, a fuse, cabling, motor adapter and a motor shaft coupler. I can make the last items at work for next to nothing, which brings me to end of day two.

The Saga of El Fiero


April 5, 2008 – The end of the ICE age

Even though El Fiero came home on November 3, 2007 from our local Goodwill auction, its days as an ICE vehicle have always been numbered. The only thing keeping me from starting this was the weather (record snow in Ohio this winter). But the sun finally came out and the temps rose into the sixties – a wonderful day to disembowel my car.

I had a long talk with Mr. Haynes and Mr. Chilton’s prior to embarking on this voyage – both of them concluded that reading the book was better than winging it so I turned to the appropriate chapter and went for it. The Fiero is a cool vehicle – 2 seats, mid-engine layout and space at both ends for everything. It also has a cradle that supports the engine and transmission that comes out in one unit. I figured I would much rather do this work from a bench top as opposed to crawling over, under, around and through (isn’t that some kind of knot?) very tight quarters. Five bolts, a bunch of wires and a few hoses and it was ready to remove (but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

After surveying the situation and long talks with Mr. Chilton, I pulled the plug (several plugs). A bolt here and there and a few cut hoses and that is where day one ended – dinner was ready and I packed it in for the night. By the way, I do not have the luxury of a two car garage and my wife has dibs on the one holer, so all of this conversion is being done in the fresh air, the way God intended it to be done.