Tank lid motor

I have designed a couple of safety features in order no avoid someone driving away with the car when it is connected to the charge cable.

1. Starting the motor controller is only possible if the tank lid is closed
2. It is only possible to open the tank lid if the ignition is off

For 1. I will have magnetic contacts the tell the controller if the lid is open or lcosed. For 2. I managed to integrate with the motor that opens the tank lid and disable it when ignition is on.

Connecting a relay on the cable that controls the tank lid motor

Integrating with ACC

I started off this summer with some electronics stuff. I managed to fry my Arduino computer last fall so I had to buld a new. This time with pre-built relay cards. Not messin with transistors and resistors on breadboards!
I am tapping in to the car in several different places to integrate with the existing systems. One such place is the ACC (Automatic Climate Control). The ACC has a temperature flap which opens when heat is demanded and closes otherwise. In order to have my electric heater only run when heat is demanded I want to sense the position of this temperature flap. Luckily the ACC also wants that so there is a potentiometer on the flap that the ACC reads in order to know the position of the flap. I found the cable that connects to the flap potentiometer on one of the connectors on th ACC control in the center dashboard.

The ACC control dismounted

The cable from the temp flap potentiometer

When full heat is demanded the output from the pot reads 0.6 V

When no heat is required about 4.7V is output (This was a warm day, around 28C so 22C means no heat)

 

I have removed the AC (Air Condition) pump fron the car. It was driven with a belt from the engine and in order for the AC to work I might need an electric pump. Anyway I am not sure it will fit in the engine compartment so maybe there will be no AC, only heat.

It's been a long winter...

... and I haven't really been doing much on the project. Too much work and a little lack of inspiration were the main reasons.
But with summer came summer leave, free time and lots of inspiration so the project is on again!
:)
The inspiration was not enough for both building and blogging so the build was prioritized!
But now, and will make some posts on the things I did this summer and the stuff I am working on now.

The motor is in!

I got the left transmission mount today and fabricated a motor mount in 40x40x4mm angle steel. I'm not 100% sure about the geometries since I used the bottom transmission mount from the gasoline transmission. It doesn't fit the diesel transmission that good but at least it holds everything about right. I have ordered a used diesel bottom transmission mount so when I get that I will adjust the motor mount a well.

Installing the motor and transmission using the hoist

The motor is in!

When I decided on the Kostov K9HV motor I really took a chance when it comes to its size. I see now that it is a perfect fit! There is only half a centimeter between the front side of the motor mount and the frame of the car. The back side of the motor mount I actually had to reduce by a centimeter to get it in there. The rear axle of the motor is protruding under the frame. So a larger motor would not fit. At least not a longer motor.

A tight fit between the motor mount and the car frame

Integration test no 3 - succeeded!

I made two integration tests today and tried to mount the motor to the transmission.
After my frind Ola had machined off a centimeter of material from the flywheel it was balanced enough to test. I have been thinking of getting a special tool for centering the clutch plate to the flywheel bu now I just used a vernier caliper to measure the distance between the clutch plate and the holes in the flywheel and centering it manually. That turned out to be good enough. The garage hoist was a bless to use for navigating the 55 kg heavy motor/adapter/flywheel/clutch assembly.

Mounting the motor to the transmission

 

It turned out that the fit is so tight I could not get the motor and transmisstion together. Maybe the flywheel for the VW New Beetle, for which the adapter is originally made, has a smaller flywheel.
So, test number two failed as well.
I then removed the gear ring on the flywheel to make it smaller and shaved off a small indent on the inside of the transmission that seemed to be in the way.

After removing the gear ring from the flywheel

I used a simple propane burner that I normally use for an (other) outdoor stove to heat the gear ring and then a hammer and chisel to beat it off.

The indent before and after shaving with a angle grinder

Without the gear ring and indent I managed to push the motor and transmission together! Horray!
After reading several electric conversion blogs I now know that if you convert at car to electric you have to make a video with the first test run of the motor and transmission together ;) So, here is mine:

First integration test - failed

Since the flywheel that matches my diesel transmission is unbalanced I tested the flywheel and clutch from the gas engine. The flywheel fits the adaptor allright, but the clutch is too small. The center hole formed by the clutch fingers is too narrow for the release bearing and the oil seal in the transmission. So its back to trying to balance the diesel flywheel. I think it can be machined into balance with a milling machine. I just have to find someone who has one...

The gas clutch

The diesel clutch

After I split the engine and transmission I had a chance to compare the original gasoline transmission with the diesel trans that I plan to use. I realized then that they use different drive shafts. So I have to get new drive shafts that fits the new transmission. So much for praising the VAG component system. :(

The drive shaft flange on the gas transmission

And the same on the diesel transmission

I could also make certain that the gas transmission does not fit the adapter plate. It was tempting for a while to use the existing transmission, but now it just to bite the bullet and get the diesel trans to work.

The adapter does not fit the gas transmission

A good thing is that I have now discharged all 68 lithium cells. I'll let them rest during the weekend and see on monday is they need further balancing.

A small step for man, but a huge leap for mankind

The A2 is now officially deiced. That is the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) has been removed together with the exhaust.

I bought a garage hoist that did the job beutifully. I first had a plan to just let the engine down on a small garage trolley but I realise now that it would never have worked. The hoist cost about the same as two lithium cells ;) Maybe I can sell it later on.

The only thing left on the car now that has to do with gas propulsion is the gas tank which I will remove tomorrow.