EV season done for 2010

November 20, the last ride for 2010. The car rolled up 6630 kms (3770 miles) this year. Total EV kilometers is now 9160 (5730 miles



The only incident I had was coupler came loose, and slided toward the motor, and jammed itself in the motor faceplate. A spacer will now prevent that. I also needed to replace the potentiometer due to erratic acceleration.




Showed the car at some events during the summer: Here at the All British car show



Cruizin-Downtown show



Queuing up for the Flashback Weekend parade.



Just driving around

Winter updates

An extended fall season has allowed driving my car till November 29, 2009. Driving and charging every day could maintain the batteries at ~15 to 20 Celcius, despite sub-zero outside temperatures. Skipping a day or two of driving, and the batteries got below 10C, and range would be seriously affected. A heat source in the battery boxes is needed.

As a heat source, my plan is to use the heating wires from automotive battery warmers. These consist of filaments looped and glued on an aluminum foil backed with a fibre insulation and packaged in a sealed bag. Here, I am stripping out the heating elements components from the bags.


To help dissipate the heat across the bottom of the box, the foil will be contact with a thin aluminum sheet (roof flashing, actually).


Here, the aluminum sheets are sized to cover the bottom of the boxes, and the batteries go overtop. hopefully, under the weight of the batteries, the foam will give way and not crush the heater wires. This is front battery box.


The rear battery box.


The heating is controled using a terrarium temperature controller, one for each box.


The long wires for the power and thermocouple permit mounting the temperature display just below the dash.

To help have a stable temperature measurement by eliminating drafts, the thermocouple is suspended in the a form doughnut.....


.... which is stuffed in between the middle two batteries.



It takes about 4 hours to get to 20C from 10c


Modifications were made to method of mounting the motor and transmission, to use a cage structure that support points that use the original rubber motor mounts.


The motor-transmission assembly in the car.

Keeping it simple, the spash guard for the motor.....



... installed.

1300 miles and counting

Its been a while since my last post, as I've been driving my ev. The driving season is almost done as I won't be driving in the snow. I have done about 1300 miles so far with no problems.

I got my saftey inspection done with no problems, and rolled up about 50 miles on the car and got some ideas on how to fine tune my design. I figure a better location for the controller would be nearer to the front of the vehicle. Taking the controller out out of the car to start on this work, I notice something loose is rolling around inside. Doesn't sound good, so I return the controller for warrantee repair.

I found a new home for my old engine and associated parts with someone I met who is planning to restore an A40. Its good to see these parts may get reused.

The car is out of commision while the contoller issue gets resolved, so I work at making the covers for the battery boxes.

Also after driving the car, I found the transmission to be rather noisy. The transmission mounts are rather hard, so perhaps something more pliable would be better, so here is motor coming out.

Using the opportunity to inspect the coupler. While only after 50 miles, they look like new.

The transmission reinstalled, with mounts made from nested rubber hose.

A larger aluminum plate in the new location, ready for the controller to arrive.

The controler finally arrives, in time for a gathering of classic and special interest cars that happens every Wednesday in downtown Winnipeg during the summer. Its within range, so I brought my car. With the hood open, the absence of an engine draws quite a bit of interest.

Finally, on the road....

Here is the car after 8 miles running as an ev, with a temporary permit. Still some work to do, like what to do with the old gas filler hole.

Getting closer to finishing......

Connecting up the high voltage (96V) cables to the controler and motor with 2/0 cable.

The front battery box is a modular unit, so it is more or less easy to remove to have access to the motor. It also has the DC/DC inverter, charger, and horns attached to it.

The front box mounted in the car.


Batteries installed and connected.


Rear batteries intalled and connected.



Lifting up the rear wheels for a first test of the drive system.

Progressing to moving the car in the driveway under its own power. Just few more details to get the car reoadworthy, and it should be done.

Details, details...

Seems like the last 20% of the job is taking 80% of the time.


Fabricating and putting together the cooling kit for the main controller. This consists of a fan on a poly board, that blows on an aluminum sheet to which the controller is mounted.






Mounting the controller over the firewall.

side view showing the spacing of the plates.




Accelerator linkage. The pot is contained in a electrical juncton box for extra protection.



Making a new speedometer faceplate. The old one is yellowed, in MPH, and would not be calibrated because of the new transmission.


The dash mostly installed. Although they're irrelevant, the old gages are still there.
The gages for the EV functions are mounted where a radio used to be.


Putting on a door

lining the rear battery with styrofoam.
Installing PVC conduit for the the high voltage cables going to the back battery box.

Pushing the cable through the conduit at the back battery box. Baby powder makes it slide in much more easily.


Running new wiring for the low voltage side.
Laying out the control components on a board.