Sunday, May 3, 2009

The first dry fit

When I'd cut the crossmember and refitted it the problem of the cutting out the chassis became to great and to have the motor mounted underneath the shelf and the shaft directly coupling onto the gearbox input shaft would involve removing the front end and completely remaking it on the drivers side to accomadate the end of the motor. Seen here is the latest idea of mounting the motor overhead. It's just resting there so I could take clearance measurements to the bonnet Etc. Couple of obvious advantages to this arrangement is the ease of ducting the heated air around the motor into the cabin and the possibility of fitting some sort of generator under the shelf for on road charging of the 12Volt control battery (DC1) Disadvantages, the loss of power through using either belts or chain. Bit more work before this gets on the road!!!




Here it is on the first dry fit. (Left click on the image to expand it and then use the "back" button to return) This is the bracket tacked together and temporarily fitted to the gearbox/bellhousing. The dry fit showed the problems with the crossmember and chassis underneath. The cross member was marked up removed and cut out to fit the motor in. The intention was to mount the motor upside down with the shaft going through the hole in the adaptor plate mounted against the bell housing.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

A quick summary of the last seven months

* The engineer saw the vehicle and took some details from me, called back the next day with a few more questions and agreed it was a viable project, a little underpowered but, it'll be a goer! ( Not quite in the Tesla sports car league but then the budget is lower on this one )
* The approval came through almost exactly on the 30 days as promised from D.P.I.
* The petrol engine and associated parts came out leaving the little gearbox and the petrol tank to come out. ( will publish the weights chart and pictures later on )
* More measurements and planning took place over some weeks and the project stalled because of extreme heat in the workshop and me finding with the petrol motor finally out, it was going to be a very very tight squeeze to get the electric motor fitted in with the gearbox without some body modifications or fitting the electric motor above the gearbox and coupling with chain or V_Belts!
* While working on mounting arrangements for the motor position. I realised the fan cowling on the end of the ASEA motor was in fact going to give me the extra room if I took it off.
* Off came the cowling ( 4 small M6 screws ) and I have 7-10mm clearance to the chassis.This is OK as long as you dont run along side the vehicle with the bonnet up and put your fingers in there it'll be OK.
* Out came the gearbox, bellhousing & differential shown here alonside the ASEA motor. You'll notice the centre from the clutch plate has been taken out and is sitting on the gearbox input shaft and the pulley from the motor is at the bottom of the photo

* Measurements and more measurements, 5mm steel plate was hastily ordered and the centre spline removed from the clutch plate for mating up to the V-Belt pulley off the ASEA motor. This is the idea as a picture,

Found it!!!

Was a bit worried there for a while, I'd put the password in such a safe place.

Well things have been happening slowly for various reasons and for months but, lets talk Emove -