92 replies to this topic

[fuzzy-hair-man]

My own opinion is that if electric cars had exchangeable battery packs (or 2 or 3 for bigger cars) under the car then you would be able to drive in to a "battery station" and the battery packs would be changed out by a machine.
You wouldn't own the batteries but instead you would have a contract with a battery company and pay every time you changed your batteries.
There you go, I've solved the problem!

There's a video of a Tesla model S getting it's battery changed out at a charging station (set up for the demonstration) in half the time it takes a petrol car to refill, or 2 Tesla's battery swapped in the time it took to refuel a Audi or some such, the robotics for installing the battery pack were already done so they used them in the Tesla charging station.
The choice was recharge for free from the super charger or pay for your battery to be swapped...

https://www.tesla.co...tery-swap-event
It does sound as though the option is not likely to be something that goes ahead in the short term as thier California swap station saw little demand apparently.

Edited by fuzzy-hair-man, 09 September 2016 - 02:33 PM.

[Anchoright]

 

 

Brilliant work.
The idea of an electric car as an every day driver is quite appealing as the running costs are pretty low here in the UK.
The only thing that would put me off is the charging time. We are so used to taking the 5 minutes to put petrol in our cars that we would all struggle with the idea of anything different.
My own opinion is that if electric cars had exchangeable battery packs (or 2 or 3 for bigger cars) under the car then you would be able to drive in to a "battery station" and the battery packs would be changed out by a machine.
You wouldn't own the batteries but instead you would have a contract with a battery company and pay every time you changed your batteries.
There you go, I've solved the problem!

Fantastic idea! They do that in races. (Sometimes. Other times they switch cars.)

 

Should I patent the idea of a "battery station"?

 

 

Yeah if you're going to, do it fast before Tesla does!

[Anchoright]

Love it, really nice conversion.

 

Your range at 110 miles is very good - exceeds the mainstream cars ... I had a fully electric Ford Focus for the weekend and could only get 55 miles out of that, was told if I went to a Renault ZOE I could expect about 70 miles - still not as good as yours.

 

Will you have problems with registering it as an electric car, maybe not as their seems to be many more suppliers and modders in the US than in Europe?

 

That's a whole other story. My car was legal in all states except California with my Suzuki G-10 swap. When I went to get it registered here, they sent me to the smog, who sent me to the referee, (yes they call them referees!) who told me that I had to go see George. 

George is the only guy in Southern California who could pass my car. Well I went to see George and he told me that he had two other Minis sitting there for over 6 months waiting. That it would be $6000 for him to do engine modifications (basically just a better catalytic converter I think) and then a week long smog test including storing the car in a shed to see if it emitted any gasses or stuff. 

I figured for a little more I could get an electric car and never see George again. Which is one of the main reasons for the job. 

 

Anyway after I had the conversion, I was told that I needed to go get it approved as an electric vehicle first, because if you go to a smog station they would FAIL you because they would claim that they could not read your exhaust pipe!!!

 

It was easier than I thought to have it verified as an electric vehicle. Just popping the hood at the DMV office and the guy put an E on the form. But then they wanted to find the second VIN number and I didn't find that until you guys on this forum helped me out. 

 

Finally I have California plates. It was a long path!

[Anchoright]

So after I got the car driving I've come across the bugs in the project.

I made the stick shift linkage too short so it wouldn't go in reverse. I decided that I didn't like the shifter that I had before and decided to rig up a modified short shifter off a mustang, and I fixed the linkage so that it would reach ok.

The next thing I noticed was that my indicators weren't working. It took me forever to figure it out, because having done all the wiring I was sure it was not a wiring problem! (Not!)
It turns out that LED lights need a special blinker relay, which has the usual three prongs plus two more. The two extra prongs are for power and ground.

The motor was just not happy with the mounts. It tore up the new mounts in no time, so I ordered some polyurethane mounts and they would not work.

I ended up making my own mounts.

The key mount that killed the movement was the one I made that screwed to the rear of the transmission and grabbed the subframe like a sandwich. I welded it out of steel, and then used windshield sealant urethene to make the rubber part. Fast drying urethene took a week to dry! I reinforced the rubber by submerging wire mesh into it.



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[Anchoright]

That pretty much gets me to today. I've driven the car 250 miles on the electric motor. I'm still ironing out the clicking noise in the front suspension. Nicklouse helped me figure out that it's possibly the CV joint, and I'm waiting for the parts to arrive to do that job and find out whether yes or no.

I still need to finish the interior, including the center console, the dash, and cover the batteries in the back seat.

I'm thinking of doing something like this for the batteries:

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Then I want to figure out about the exterior. I took it for a quote to have it painted and it was not cheap - in fact it was more than the electric conversion. So I'm thinking of doing the basic body work (a couple rust spots and closing up the gas tank hole) and then having the car wrapped in vinyl. That will buy me three years (that's how long they say vinyl lasts) to decide whether and how I want to paint it.

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[Scousemouse]

Now all you gotta do is move to UK and open your own factory,using F/Glass bodies (to double your mileage).

Then we can say we all knew you when you were skint.  

[Anchoright]

I had a couple hours free yesterday morning and I figured it would be enough time for the CV joint and axle job.
I had ordered a Suzuki axle to merely pull the joint off the motor side, and a new CV Joint from Minimania.

I have a problem with measuring. Always have. So the axle I had made was slightly too small. Not much, about a centimeter and a half, so it still worked but sat a little further out in that inner joint near the transmission.

Anyway, when I had both axles side by side I noticed that the Suzuki axle happened to be just slightly longer than the one I had made. In fact, the perfect length. So I thought I'd give a shot of using it instead!

Anyway, for half an hour I was trying to hammer off the Suzuki CV joint from the Suzuki axle. And I was swinging hard! I busted my rubber mallet, switched to a metal mallet and sparks were flying, eventually the CV joint busted apart and the inner gizzards were still stuck to the axle, so I went for my grinder... kinda primitive, I know, but I got it off. And then lo and behold! The Mini CV Joint went right on perfectly! It ended up being a perfect fit for everything!

I had to pack up everything and run for my meeting, so I couldn't put oil back in the transmission or test to see if it fixes the clicking noise, but I have a couple hours free today to go do that.

[McMini 22]

Buy a lottery ticket before your luck runs out!

[Richie83]

This is so awesome. I wish I had this much talent.

[Anchoright]

My arm still hurts from the hammering haha!!! (I'm actually not kidding, my arm really hurts!) I was pounding that Suzuki CV joint off really hard!!!

Ok so the verdict is that the clicking was the CV joint. I took it for a spin today and it's healed! Total silence!

Except that, note to self, when you change the axles, change the seals into the transmission.. it's dripping pretty bad. So I have to take the thing off yet again, another time, to replace the seal (which incidentally I have, I just didn't think it needed to be replaced!)

I'm really starting to hate this suspension!!

Edited by Anchoright, 16 September 2016 - 05:59 AM.

[Anchoright]

I'm a little concerned about the oil that came out of the transmission during this process. So it's a rebuilt (Suzuki g10) transmission. It has 300 miles on it when I drained it for this axle job. I had put Synchromesh Oil into it, based on what blogs recommend even though the people who did the rebuild said to use "straight 30W" motor oil.
I've got the straight 30 in there now, however the oil that came out had a lot of metallic waste. More than what I'd consider normal from a first oil change after a rebuild, but then I'm not sure.

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It's shifting fine, so I'm not too worried, but I'll do another oil change at 1000 miles and see what comes out then.

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Edited by Anchoright, 16 September 2016 - 02:58 PM.

[Scousemouse]

Yeah the guy probably missed a nought off the 300 miles.

But then again could be just the "breaking in swarf" of a newish g/box,you changing it prob best,just lob some Lucas in there.

All the best.

[DomCr250]

I'm a little concerned about the oil that came out of the transmission during this process. So it's a rebuilt (Suzuki g10) transmission. It has 300 miles on it when I drained it for this axle job. I had put Synchromesh Oil into it, based on what blogs recommend even though the people who did the rebuild said to use "straight 30W" motor oil.
I've got the straight 30 in there now, however the oil that came out had a lot of metallic waste. More than what I'd consider normal from a first oil change after a rebuild, but then I'm not sure.
IMG_0243.PNG
It's shifting fine, so I'm not too worried, but I'll do another oil change at 1000 miles and see what comes out then.
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On my G13b I use transmission oil, it should last for tens of thousands of miles. Also filling it up via the refill hole in the back of the diff is hard in a mini .... Try removing the gear selector tower, it's only four 10mm bolts and makes fill the gearbox up easy.

[Anchoright]

I finally got around to putting the roof on the other day. It is a carbon fiber and Kevlar roof made by Rogue Se7ens. It glues on. It is SUPER light - about the weight of a piece of cardboard that size.

The ragtop can be deceptive - you would think that it wouldn't weight anything because there's nothing up there! However the metal framing weighs a ton! I think it weighed around 80lbs, just guessing. With that off my center of gravity would go down a fair bit - which I need, since the batteries are in the back seat.

Anyway, first I pulled off the ragtop and threw it away

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Then, following instruction from Rogue Se7ens, I cut around the roof leaving space to glue the new roof on, and then grinded through the paint to the metal - that way the glue will stick to the metal and not the paint.

There was four layers of paint!! The original off white, then pink, then yellow, then the white I painted on.

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Then I used epoxy that is rated for 3500 lbs, with a working time of 8 hours. That way you have enough time to position the roof etc without the glue drying on you!

To hold the roof down I put bricks in bags and put them around the roof.

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And the final product (well, kinda. I need to get my epoxy finger prints off it and polish it.)

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I was tempted to keep it without lining because the underside looks so cool. However I figured lining would be a barrier for wind blowing up on it when I'm on the track, risking the glue popping off. So I went ahead and ordered lining. Then I realized that I needed to tuck the lining into the rear and front windshields. After biting the bullet and getting psyched for that job I did that yesterday.

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I put insulation under the roof to help with blocking heat from the sun

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Edited by Anchoright, 18 September 2016 - 03:43 PM.

[Anchoright]

One of the reasons for doing the conversion to electric was to kill the dripping under the car.
It's nice to look under the car now and see it perfectly clean and no drips!

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I have an appointment to get the car wrapped this coming Wednesday. So I have to get it prepped in time. You can see any flaws under the wrap, so I'm sanding down my last bad paint job and making it all smooth. There were a couple spots of rust, so I'm fixing that too.

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