Wednesday 11 July 2012

Back on the job....

After a spell of almost a year related to a small matter of money, I have got back to work on the electric hilux. As we use the hilux nearly every day, the plan is to assemble all the components that need to go in the engine bay and build a battery box before removing anything from the donor vehicle. First stop is the motor and associated mounting frame. To make things as simple as possible, I intend to retain the original gearbox and the clutch.
The design calculations indicated a 9inch DC motor would be able to provide sufficient power and torque. Both Advanced DC and Netgain make suitable motors.  The information available for the Advanced DC FB1-4001A indicates a rating of 144V while the Netgain WarP9 is rated at 196V.  So a WarP9 is now in the shed.
WarP9 Motor
Canadian Electric Vehicles (www.canev.com) manufactures off the shelf adaptor plates for many different types of vehicles including a Toyota S22 engine. They appear to be on sold by a number of other companies. As I like to buy from the original equipment manufacturer I ordered one and 6 weeks later it arrived from Canada. These adaptor plates come with a coupling to fit the original flywheel and clutch onto the electric motor shaft.
Adaptor Plate and Flywheel Adaptor
I plan to mount any reciprocating auxiliary components together with the motor on the original engine mounts. As the electric motor is a bit shorter than the original petrol motor, I will try and fit all the auxiliary components at the front of the motor to take some load off the gearbox mount.
I will need a power steering pump and a vacuum pump as new equipment and I plan to keep the original air conditioning compressor. 
12V Power Steering Pump

Vacuum Pump
As the motor controller should also be as close as possible to the motor, it will be mounted on the motor assembly as well, directly above the motor. Time to order this.
Next task is to take some measurements of the location of the engine mounts and the arrangement of the air conditioning compressor. I also need to source a suitable v-belt pulley to mount on the free end of the motor for the compressor and some steel to commence design and fabrication of the engine mount.