Hoisting the Motor

I put the motor in this afternoon/evening. It all went pretty well. Here's a shot of the assembly hanging over the engine bay. By the time I finished, I was pretty tired, and it was too dark to get a good shot of the motor in place. I'll shoot that tomorrow.

At this point it looks like I may have a problem I was hoping to avoid. The motor extends far enough forward, and is big enough in circumference that it is resting on the sub frame. Actually it's resting on the power steering rack that's bolted to the sub frame. It looks like the transmission may be pitched up slightly. I connected the gear shift arm to the transmission, but there is another bar called the "selector link rod" that I'm having difficulty with. I can't quite tell if it's because the transmission is pushed too far back into the chassis, or because it's tilted up as I suspect.

I had forseen this potential problem when I started the project, but the best measurements I could make at the time showed that I was going to be either ok, or as much as 1/2" short of the space I needed. The worse case scenario is that I have to remove the front sub frame and put spacers between it and the chassis. Id certainly rather not do that, but I may have no option. I'll try to figure it out tomorrow.

The Transmission is on the Motor

Check it out!



Not a big post, but an important step non-the-less.

Transmission Arrives

Well, the transmission arrived today, as I'd hoped it would. It was in good condition with one minor exception, a guide plate that's bolted to it used for two hoses was bent. A couple careful whacks with a rubber mallet and it's good as new.

In the mean time, I needed to torque down the flywheel and attach the clutch and pressure plate. Realizing I needed to lock the flywheel in place, I started looking around for some way to do it. I ended up using a leftover piece of channel iron, a long bolt and a C clamp to hold the bolt down.

I realize this means I'm dangerously close to achieving the status of "redneck", but BMW wanted crazy money for the "official" tool. Anyway, here's a good picture of the whole assembly.



Next, I have to get some replacement hardware to bolt the tranny up to the motor assembly.

Adaptor Plate Mounted

This morning I attached the adaptor plate, taper-lock hub and flywheel to the electric motor. The tricky part was making sure that the distance from the friction surface on the new flywheel to the back of the adaptor plate was exactly the same as the distance from the back of the engine and the original flywheel. I took my time, was very careful, and got it right the first time. Believe me, I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of tying to get that taper-lock hub apart if I messed up.

Here's a shot of the beautiful WarP 11 motor. With the voltage I'm putting to it, it should develop approximately 220 ft/lbs of torque at 0 RPM. I'm going to have secure this to frame very well.

Next I mounted the adaptor ring, adaptor plate, and taper-lock hub. This required the most care, but really wasn't that bad.

Last, the flywheel goes on. What a stunner. 11 lbs. of sexiness, that's what that is!

Hopefully, the transmission arrives today. I need to get the hardware to mount it up to the motor, but once I get that taken car of, then the whole assembly goes into the car.

The Back Battery Box is Complete

I said I'd try and finish it today and I did. It's late at night, but the rear battery box is done. Here is a shot from inside the trunk. You'll notice the foam insulation surrounding three sides of the box. That's to keep water out. I ran out of foam, so I need to get a bit more to finish up the front edge.

Here is a shot of the back bumper from roughly ground level. You can see the battery box from underneath. It's about even in height with the trans axle. Once the car is on the ground, I should have plenty of clearance for normal driving, but I think I will have to go down steep curbs carefully.

The Adaptor Plate Arrives!!

Well, it took way longer than I'd hoped and was promised, but it's here. Check out this aluminium loveliness.

Here's a close shot of the taper-lock hub that mounts to the output shaft of the motor. That is one fine piece of machining. Notice the little raised ring where the idle bearing for the transmission shaft will rest.

I still need to wait for the transmission to arrive. Probably tomorrow or Thursday. Then I can mount the whole thing up to the car. Before that though I can start working on getting the hub and plate mounted up to the motor. When I measured everything earlier, it looked like the Warp 11 motor should just fit over the subframe. Only installing it will tell.

More metal work

I admit I've been pretty bad about posting to the blog lately. There's only so many ways you can make working with steel sound exciting! I do have a couple things to report, so here goes...

1. I'm nearly done with the battery box and all the supports for the trunk space. The truth is, that I would have been done yesterday except when I went to bolt the whole thing into the car, I discovered that I'd drilled one of the pieces wrong. There was simply no way of recovering that piece, so I had to build a new one. I did that this morning and it currently has it's first coat of paint on it. Tomorrow, I should be able to get the piece onto the assembly and bolt the whole thing up to the car.

2. I finally got word from Electro Automotive that they've finished the adaptor plate. The transmission and the other parts are on their way home, albeit 5 weeks later than promised, but who's counting. Man, did that hold me up. Once that's bolted in place, I can get the motor mounts taken care of. Then it's just a domino effect clearing the way to do all the other mechanical stuff I've been held up on.

Pictures of the completed back battery box tomorrow. Hmm, that sounds dangerously close to a commitment.