Wheels turning

Exciting news today! We finally got the motor and transmission mounted into the car. The transmission is bolted in at two spots and James is going to make a bracket for the motor mount. The motor is attached to the transmission and is sitting on some pieces of wood and the jack is under it as well. Once he makes the bracket we can attach it to the motor mount and that part of the job will be done.

Motor/Tranny mounted

Plenty of space to the right of the motor. I could have gotten the Warp 9 instead of the Impulse 9.

 One of the critical issues today was something I have been worried about for a while. I didn't know how much clearance I had between the motor and the CV joint on the half shaft. There is about 1/4 inch gap between the motor and CV joint and less than an 1/8th inch between the CV joint and the aluminum adapter plate. This is not the greatest shot of it, but you can sort of see it is a pretty tight fit, but will work.

CV joint, Motor and Adapter plate

The greatest part of today was testing the motor with it mounted in the car. It was only a 12Volt test, but it was nice to see the wheels turn. Everything spun smoothly, even without transmission oil.

I will now move on to planning the electronics board which will be mounted over the motor. Probably on a piece of aluminum with piece of lexan on the bottom to isolate the high voltage wiring from the body of the car if a wire comes loose. Also, I will order the aluminum sheets for making the battery boxes. James may be able to cut and bend them at his school, but if not, I will have a metal shop guy in Burbank do it.