There is a product that may help with the battery terminals and corosion generally.
It is a lanolin based product called Lanotec.
Lanolin is the oil produced by sheep for their fleece.
I use it at my work where it coats the lift and pulldown chains on my Overburden drill.
This stuff does not attract dust etc and still hangs around after over 9 tonne of force is placed on the chains!
Worth a try I think.
I got my controller back from Flight Systems on Friday and installed it today, went for a short ride and IF it holds up it will give me more miles than I got before I sent it in. The car ran nice tonight. When the controller went out the spike in the line did something to my charger too! I am going to check it out tomorrow to see if I can figure out what went wrong, maybe the bridge rectifier is bad?
[QUOTE=new dawn;5311]I got my controller back from Flight Systems on Friday and installed it today, went for a short ride and IF it holds up it will give me more miles than I got before I sent it in. The car ran nice tonight. When the controller went out the spike in the line did something to my charger too! I am going to check it out tomorrow to see if I can figure out what went wrong, maybe the bridge rectifier is bad?[/QUOTE]
I was going to say, sounds like something prematurely shorted or something…
Hi, I am also doing a Saturn SC2 conversion and hoped you could help me through your experiences figure out how to mount the motor. What did you use to secure the motor to the frame? My kit came with a motor ring for around the motor, so I think I will try to mount the bottom half of the ring to the axle mount and the top half of it to the frame on the firewall. My mechanic was thinking we should use a rubber bushing and mount the end of the motor to the sidewall. I have heard that you need to use torque rods that have rubber bushings at the ends to prevent loud metal on metal vibrations from the electric motor spinning rapidly. Should I mount motor from the back or around its middle, or both? Thanks for the help.
I am working on figuring that out too. I had it mounted with a strap from one of the origanal motor mount holes above to the motor, a flat solid steel bar and bolted it to the motor. Also a bent bar on the bottom in a straight s shape bolted to the bottom and laying on top of the frame. since I got my controller back it seems to have more torque and I needed to modify the way I have it hooked up so it has less freedom. I took the bone and bracket and turned the lower bracket 180 degrees cut one side off the bracket and drilled the threads out of the bracket hole. I ran a bolt thru the bracket, small end of the bone and into the motor, then I tightened the bolts on the lower bracket holding the bone. I also have to cut the bone, as I only used one of the holes. I had to drill another hole in the top bracket for it to line up with the hole in the motor. I am not sure if this will work or not. It seems pretty tight. I am making some modificatations to my car, the Thomas vacuum pump is not working out and I am looking for a better pump for my car. I took it out today and don’t have a replacement yet. Also the charger is not working too. So it will be a couple of days before I can check out how well the new mount works. I would not mount the bracket to the firewall, instead use the frame for mounting, the firewall is thin metal and not made for stress. You can fabricate some type of bracket to transfer the weight and stress to the frame directly.
Yea I think I will see what I can do with fabricating with some angle iron to the factory motor mounts which are on the passenger side fenderwell, the one below and the one above. Also I might look into getting a torque rod similar to these to go from the motor mount ring to the frame bar about 6 inches up towards the front of the car.
I have been talking with my friend who is an electrical engineer and he has all kinds of lathes and grinding machines and whatever you need and he said he could grind down the flywheel to just the solid center piece that bolts onto the motor ring since you don’t really need the teeth or that entire outside part anymore, but still make it dead center on its axis with his precise machine equipment. He said you could possibly grind down the back of the flywheel and the clutch, and this would save weight and make the setup more efficient. I agreed with this philosophy as I didn’t see why not grind down the dead weight. But my mechanic believed that I should leave the clutch and flywheel like they are, as it is all bolted up and spins freely and smoothly by hand, and is ready to be dropped in the engine bay. He said that the flywheel dissipates heat that builds up in the clutch and it would be best not to mess with the setup and that we want the weight because it acts as momentum when the vehicle is in motion. However, I plan on installing regenerative braking some day on this vehicle and I was thinking that for the maximum efficiency I want as little weight as possible in the form of spinning parts so that it takes the least amount of power to get the vehicle up to speed, and when I let off the throttle pedal I want the least amount of momentum in the form of a spinning motor assembly so that I can maximize the amount of charge obtained from the regenerative braking circuit. I have read the book Regenerative Braking in Series Motors by G. Jackson and it can increase range from 5%-30% depending on the variables.
I got my controller back from Flight Systems a couple of days ago and with this deep freeze I haven’t got it back in the car yet. I really hope it is right this time. They say three times is a charm. LOL I will be posting more pictures soon. new dawn as in the dawning of a new era, Cheers!!!
Hi, Just a note. My wife had the day off and we went to the auto show today. We beat the croud. I have lots of news in case you want to give me a call. Ford has a cut away hybred engine that is very interesting. The red Telsa Roadster that Arnold Shwartzinager drove is there and I got detailed informatation on it. I saw the Chevrolet Volt, nice looking car! Toyota had a Prius Drivetrain there very interesting and lots of infro… Mercedes had a electric cutaway car it was called blue something or other. They also had a display of the drivetrain and a hands on visual sort of thing that told about the hybred drivetrain. There was a Bat ll there a Disney car that was recreated. very futureistic and areodynamic, but not a hybred car. Downstairs there are hybred cars you can take a ride in they drive around the basement on a course and the drivers answer your questions about them and will keep driving the course until all your questions are answered (Sorry you have to be over 12 years old to do it) LOL. The U of M Solar car is also downstairs, I had quite a talk with one of students with the car. The Smart car has a display there but the people know little about the total electric car on display. the DUB car is really decked out a real show car for thier product. Fisker Karma Hybred is very impressive but there wasn’t anyone answering questions. on our way back up the escalator we think we saw the Tiger orginazation on it’s way downstairs for a rally? I am sure there is more but I am ready to call it a night. Give me a call 734-972-3592
Bob Gurk New Dawn as in the dawning of a new era
Here is a note I got from gsullivan I thought would be of interest to the forum.
New Dawn, I need to get new springs, my rear end is almost dragging on the ground! Hahaa, not really but it is slammed to the frame and no suspension left. I saw from your thread “The first picture is of the springs for the rear they are +360 lbs custom wound”. Where did you get your springs? How did you figure out what kind to get? I have 12 70 lb batteries in my trunk (840 pounds). Any advice is greatly appreciated, I will hopefully be driving this car in a week or two and don’t want to drive it too much with its current suspension.
Thanks, gsullivan
and my reply’s
#1
I’ll have to do some digging but I roughly estimated the need of what I took out from the trunk area and what I put in. The batteries I have in the trunk area are 8 84 lb batteries, 672 lbs plus the extra frame I welded in 30 lbs plus 20 lbs of wire for welding minus the sheet metal plus the sheet metal I replaced it with cancelling that part of it out plus a gate to reinforce the sheet metal approx 40 lbs plus the plate steel I used to transfer the stress to the center of the car 40 lbs? equals 800 lbs. the spring man then calculated the correct wind and thickness needed and the car looks like any other Saturn driving down the road but rides much better. Give me a couple of days to pinpoint the guy I had make them for me.
Bob new dawn as in the dawning of a new era.
P. S. I can’t believe the price of gas, How much longer will it be that way though, Keep up the good work.
#2
Also, Dave Kohler sent me this site, http://www.saturn.offical.net/node/326 You might be interested.
#3
I looked in my ev folder and found the address for you!!!
Coil Springs Specialties, LLC.
PO Box G
St. Marys, KS 66536
and the phone number is 785-437-2025
My invoice number is 8474 ase you want them to look up the specs for my springs. I also took into account the weight of the gas tank full, and the exhaust being removed.
Cheers, I hope this will help, new dawn
I just came across some pictures of the Ann Arbor Green Fair 2008 and the Michigan EAA Display, I thought I would share them with you. I jacked up my car and put jackstands under it and two mirrors for viewing the underside also.
More of the Green Fair There was a Electric Motorcycle and a Electric Tractor also there. The tractor was not compleated yet.
My car in the Snow. I had to remove over a foot of snow to move the car at one point this winter!!! It was -20 degrees wind chill and it ran fine.
I upgraded the front brakes today for better faster braking. Here are a couple of pics. Also a bracket for the motor from EV of America, since I had the controller rebuilt the motor has lots more torque and I need to control it.
I can’t use the bracket because of the half shaft. I have to use a dog bone on the motor. Oh well I really liked the bracket, very well made.
[QUOTE=new dawn;6114]I can’t use the bracket because of the half shaft. I have to use a dog bone on the motor. Oh well I really liked the bracket, very well made.:([/QUOTE]
Thats too bad about that bracket, it is a good looking part. If you need to find a dog bone motor mount I found a big solid one from checker for $10, its for a GMC truck. If you want I can get you the part number. See my thread for a photo.
I am using the one from a Saturn it is about 40 dollars but I already have the brackets so it is easier for me to use. I’ll post pics tomorrow. I like the price of yours better but it is easier with the Saturn part.
This is a post I did at michiganeaa.org
by New Dawn on Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:25 am
I was just wondering if you guys would like to do a Electric car clinic at my house? I have a hoist and would devote a Saturday or Sunday twoards this. In case you don’t know I have a hoist in my garage and it would give you a chance to put your car on it and get a look at the underside. pop off the wheels and look at brakes and idietify other possible suspension or steering problems. if you need to tow we could push it on and off the hoist and back on the tow dolly. I think it would be a good idea, let me know what you think. Maybe tie in a meeting and have a pot luck picnic to boot, like bring a dish to pass. Depending how many cars show we would limit time on the hoist accordingly.
New Dawn
as in the dawning of a new era
New Dawn
Posts: 38
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:22 pm
Location: Ypsilanti, Michigan
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If anyone in the area is interested let me know it doesn’t have to be restricted to the Michigan area.
I just bought a SD350D-12 for 151.80 it runs on 10 12 volt dc batteries and converts the voltage adjustable from 12 to 16 volts dc. Had a issue with my converter and it needed to be replaced. Here is the link, lots of different converters available at reasonable prices. I talked to John Landeau.
Hey new dawn, I came to this site because of this thread :). I’m pretty sure I saw your car last summer in Jackson at a shop doing saturn conversions. I’m looking into doing an EV conversion sometime soon. I’m trying to aquire a 96 sc2 with engine problems. It has a manual trans and power steering. I had a couple questions about your conversion that apply to what I want to do. Your car originally had power steering didn’t it? How did you deal with that? I also wasn’t sure how you are using the clutch either. Can you explain it to me? (Sorry if you already did and I missed it).
thanks