I have reached the 1000 mile mark of 100% electric driving. This is equivalent to about a month of commuting to work which took place over about a 7 week period. Thank you to those who have commented and given thoughts about the coupler/alignment situation. At this point I know there is a problem, and I have done what I can to remedy it without major expense. The best solution is to get a proper coupler and adapter plate made at an expense of about $1000. I would also need to open the tranny and fix whatever bearing is making noise. If the tranny or coupler fails again, I will probably sell the vehicle or all the parts, since I can not put any large amount of money into the project without harming things that are more important to me, like my family. I have not heard the problem get worse, but that does not mean it is not slowly getting worse.
In the meantime, I am driving to work on a near daily basis and the car is performing well. Based on the numbers I am seeing on the Expert-Pro meter, I think the car has about an 80 mile range at 65 mph. I have gone about 66 miles on a charge a couple different times, but that is as far as I want to push it until I get my pack bottom balanced. I have also taken it up to about 75 mph, but since the wheels are not aligned and balanced yet and I don't have the vacuum system installed to give me power brakes, I don't really want to push the car to see what it can do. I have not had a chance to tweak the controller setting to see if I can get better acceleration from the car, but hope to soon. My transmission was built for super efficiency, so there may not be much more power I can get from it.
I had one issue that stopped me for a week. About a month ago, I was charging at home and checking various cells near the end of charge to see what voltage they were climbing to. I decided to check the battery connections to make sure each bolt was tight, so I just started checking them by hand first. I put my palm on the battery box and checked a bolt with my fingers and got a small shock. This baffled me for a while since the high voltage system is closed and should not be getting to the frame of the car or battery boxes at all. After some investigation the next weekend, it turns out one of the high voltage cables going from my controller to the motor was touching a piece of angle iron and the outer layer had either rubbed or melted enough to allow the inner cable to come in contact with the angle iron. My hand completed the circuit and luckily it was a very small amount of current able to make it there. I have been very vigilant about safety when working on the car and never thought there was a chance that the high voltage would be getting to the frame. I wrapped the section of cable with electrical tape, put plastic split loom tubing around all the cables going to the motor and glued some heavy bike tire rubber to the angle iron where the problem occurred. I also re-worked how the wire is run so it will not touch any surrounding metal.
This incident has re-enforced the rules of EV maintenance. Don't touch anything unless the battery pack is disconnected, the Controller capacitors are discharged, you have checked the area you are working on with a volt meter, you are wearing rubber gloves and you are using insulated tools.
Next up - I need to bolt down the charger since it is just sitting in the trunk and moves around a bit. I need to install the vacuum pump for the power brakes and also need to replace the seat belt buckles which are tough to get latched. The wheels need to be balanced and aligned. My meters are just sitting in a dash compartment and are not installed properly, so I need to figure out how and where I am going to install them. I have a couple struts for the rear hatch that need to be installed so I can take the long stick I use to hold the hatch open out of the trunk. Hopefully I can get some time on it this weekend. I also need to check mounting bolts, battery connections, etc. to see if anything has wiggled loose or moved around during the last couple months.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
On the Road Again
The ERX is back on the road and I have driven to work on the freeway two days in a row. A little bit of white knuckle driving, but she seems to be functioning well so far. Previously, I had heard some noise in the motor/transmission that occurred when I took my foot off the accelerator and also as the motor spun to a stop. I took the motor off to investigate the sounds I was hearing and here is what I found:
The coupler had walked itself down to the transmission housing and shredded the aluminum housing a bit. We cleaned that off and decided to do two things to stop the coupler from walking. First, my friend Paco, who made the coupler, said he would put a washer-like slug inside the coupler, so if it started to walk, the transmission shaft would run into the washer and stop walking down the shaft. Second, he drilled and tapped two more holes in the coupler on the opposite side of the two already in there for the set screws. Then we drilled two small divots in the motor shaft and put two set screws through the coupler into the divots. Combined with the lok-tite on all four set screws and the washer, I think this coupler will stay put.
After mating the motor back onto the transmission, we gave it a spin and still heard some noise coming from the transmission when the accelerator was released. The other noise we heard when the motor came to a stop was gone, so it appears we solved one issue, for now. I am still not sure what the noise in the transmission is, and it will probably eventually cause a problem, but for now, the motor and transmission are working well. Under power everything appears to be working as desired and as planned. I use first gear for accelerating from a stop and usually stay in 3rd on the freeway at about 60mph. It is running at around 3000 rpms at that point which I believe is the most efficient rpm for the motor.
The next major task is to either re-top balance all the cells, (easier, but risk of over-discharge and killing a cell or two if I drive too far) or drain them and do a bottom balance (harder, but safer in regards to over discharging a cell.)
My commute is only 42 miles round trip and if I have my meter set correctly, I can make that trip twice before recharging, but I will charge each day as it seems the cycle life of the batteries are put in jeopardy if I discharge them too far. Once I bottom balance the batteries, I can then do a full charge and do a range test without fear of killing a battery.
There are still a bunch of details to finish like finding a permanent solution for mounting the meters, permanently mounting the charger, putting a lexan sheet over the rear battery boxes, fixing the radio so I can hear some music, etc., etc.
For now, I am cautiously making my way to work and back and hoping the transmission holds out for a while.
 |
| Coupler and Transmission input shaft |
After mating the motor back onto the transmission, we gave it a spin and still heard some noise coming from the transmission when the accelerator was released. The other noise we heard when the motor came to a stop was gone, so it appears we solved one issue, for now. I am still not sure what the noise in the transmission is, and it will probably eventually cause a problem, but for now, the motor and transmission are working well. Under power everything appears to be working as desired and as planned. I use first gear for accelerating from a stop and usually stay in 3rd on the freeway at about 60mph. It is running at around 3000 rpms at that point which I believe is the most efficient rpm for the motor.
The next major task is to either re-top balance all the cells, (easier, but risk of over-discharge and killing a cell or two if I drive too far) or drain them and do a bottom balance (harder, but safer in regards to over discharging a cell.)
My commute is only 42 miles round trip and if I have my meter set correctly, I can make that trip twice before recharging, but I will charge each day as it seems the cycle life of the batteries are put in jeopardy if I discharge them too far. Once I bottom balance the batteries, I can then do a full charge and do a range test without fear of killing a battery.
There are still a bunch of details to finish like finding a permanent solution for mounting the meters, permanently mounting the charger, putting a lexan sheet over the rear battery boxes, fixing the radio so I can hear some music, etc., etc.
For now, I am cautiously making my way to work and back and hoping the transmission holds out for a while.
 |
| Charging with new fuel inlet charge port |
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
A series of unfortunate events
It has been a while since I have posted and many might think it is because I am driving ERX everyday and reveling in the success of this incredible project. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The main reason I have not posted in a while is it was the holidays and I had many family events on the weekends which limit my time with the car. And, THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS ARE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!! OK, back on topic. I do not have charging set up at home yet. I rent a house and have not worked it out with the landlord to get an electrician in to run the line and install the outlet. The outlet in the garage has a 15 amp breaker on it and is also tied to the lights in the house. My charger trips that breaker since it pulls about 14 amps continuous from the wall. So, I am limited to charging on the weekend using a long extension cord running out of my daughter's room and therefore, not much driving of the EV has occurred.
I am also getting frustrated with the car. This blog has detailed the long process this has been for me and it just keeps getting longer. One evening I went to pick up my daughter from a friend's house and decided to take ERX. All was fine until I hit a speed bump at 35 mph. I did not know it was there since I do not drive that road often and the headlights on the car, although adequate, are not quite as bright as I would like. It did not help that my ride height in the front of the car is a little low and I have been very careful around bumps and intersections since I have not had time to adjust it. I believe this speed bump jolted the motor/adapter plate slightly, and it is misaligned just a bit now. The reason I have come to this conclusion is I hear a high pitch metallic rubbing sound when I release the throttle. I had a similar experience with my first motor/transmission coupler, but the sound was slightly different. That coupler broke and the input shaft bearing also got shredded. I am concerned I am putting strain on the input bearing to the tranny again and do not want to have to take it out and replace it for a second time, so I will need to remove the control board, hoist the motor slightly and loosen the nuts on the adapter plate. Then, wiggle the motor around a bit, give it 12 volts or so and see if I can get the sound to go away. If I can get it to stop, then I just need to tighten the adapter plate bolts and check again with 12 volts to see if it is properly aligned while re-tightened. This is causing me a lot of frustration for a couple reasons. The first is, the adapter plate and coupler I originally bought were wrong, then new ones were sent, but the adapter plate was still off, so I adjusted some of the mounting holes. Now the extra space in those holes may have allowed the motor alignment to slip. The coupler I received failed and I had a friend make a new one which I believe is working well. All of this headache would not be occurring had I received a properly machined adapter plate and coupler that fit my transmission. I would like to go back to Evolve Electrics and ask to see if I can get the adapter plate and coupler replaced for free, but I purchased my parts over 3 years ago and am not sure if I will get anywhere with them or if it is even worth my time.
Next frustration. I have two battery boxes in the hatch area of the car. I cut holes in the floor to sink the boxes down to keep the weight low and leave space in the hatch for cargo eventually. A friend made 1" angle iron frames to bolt to the car and then my boxes have lips on the top that hang on the angle iron frame. The angle iron frames fit very snugly against the hatch floor, and I have come to discover that snug is not good. Every little bump in the road causes loud metal on metal scraping sounds and drives me crazy, so this last weekend I decided to attempt to remedy the situation. I removed all the batteries from the rear boxes, and removed the boxes and frames. I got the angle grinder out and cut the hatch floor a little more in spots that the frame was rubbing. I had some old bicycle tubes and decided to cut some pieces to put in between the frames and the hatch floor as well as between the frames and the boxes. This took some trial and error, but I completed the smaller, rear most box as well as trimmed the hatch floor for the larger box. It took me about 6 hours though and a lot of climbing in and out and checking and re-checking. In a couple weeks I will get back out to the garage and try to finish up the large box. This was all very tiresome and because I am already frustrated about the motor alignment, which still needs to be addressed, I finished the day wondering whether this was still worth it.
When do the care-free commute days start? When can I tell my wife that the war with the car is over and now I can just enjoy it and spend more time with the family? How many times am I going to have to tear the car down to fix something? Once I adjust the adapter plate and motor, will it stay put and last for a decent period of time before I have to fix it? How many more weekends is it going to take for me to finish this thing? As it is, I only work on it about every other weekend for about 6 hours. Some days, like Monday, I wonder if I should just sell the car and move on. I have been to this point once before and almost did sell it. I realize I am just venting here and am not really trying to discourage people from this type of project, but it may help me get past this "speed bump" and keep motivated to finish the job. If I were to give any advice, and maybe I have written this already, but I would say to make sure it is the right time of your life and you have the 500 hours or more available to do the job before starting. I got married 4 years ago, moved 3 years ago and had a baby 2 years ago along with raising a 15 year old as well. This was not the right time of my life for this, but at the time I started it, I was obsessed with the idea and a bit ignorant to the amount of time, expertise, and dedication it takes to complete this project. The thought of selling and taking the money and paying off some debt or putting a down payment on a Leaf, Volt, or dare I dream, a Model S or X is very tempting. I know that once I get the car to the point of daily drivability I will be very proud and have a very unique item. It is just hard to see past these troubles right now.
Thank you, in advance, for the encouragement I am sure I will receive after posting this.
tl;dr - (too long; didn't read) - Frustration with repairs, charging, time, entire project
I am also getting frustrated with the car. This blog has detailed the long process this has been for me and it just keeps getting longer. One evening I went to pick up my daughter from a friend's house and decided to take ERX. All was fine until I hit a speed bump at 35 mph. I did not know it was there since I do not drive that road often and the headlights on the car, although adequate, are not quite as bright as I would like. It did not help that my ride height in the front of the car is a little low and I have been very careful around bumps and intersections since I have not had time to adjust it. I believe this speed bump jolted the motor/adapter plate slightly, and it is misaligned just a bit now. The reason I have come to this conclusion is I hear a high pitch metallic rubbing sound when I release the throttle. I had a similar experience with my first motor/transmission coupler, but the sound was slightly different. That coupler broke and the input shaft bearing also got shredded. I am concerned I am putting strain on the input bearing to the tranny again and do not want to have to take it out and replace it for a second time, so I will need to remove the control board, hoist the motor slightly and loosen the nuts on the adapter plate. Then, wiggle the motor around a bit, give it 12 volts or so and see if I can get the sound to go away. If I can get it to stop, then I just need to tighten the adapter plate bolts and check again with 12 volts to see if it is properly aligned while re-tightened. This is causing me a lot of frustration for a couple reasons. The first is, the adapter plate and coupler I originally bought were wrong, then new ones were sent, but the adapter plate was still off, so I adjusted some of the mounting holes. Now the extra space in those holes may have allowed the motor alignment to slip. The coupler I received failed and I had a friend make a new one which I believe is working well. All of this headache would not be occurring had I received a properly machined adapter plate and coupler that fit my transmission. I would like to go back to Evolve Electrics and ask to see if I can get the adapter plate and coupler replaced for free, but I purchased my parts over 3 years ago and am not sure if I will get anywhere with them or if it is even worth my time.
Next frustration. I have two battery boxes in the hatch area of the car. I cut holes in the floor to sink the boxes down to keep the weight low and leave space in the hatch for cargo eventually. A friend made 1" angle iron frames to bolt to the car and then my boxes have lips on the top that hang on the angle iron frame. The angle iron frames fit very snugly against the hatch floor, and I have come to discover that snug is not good. Every little bump in the road causes loud metal on metal scraping sounds and drives me crazy, so this last weekend I decided to attempt to remedy the situation. I removed all the batteries from the rear boxes, and removed the boxes and frames. I got the angle grinder out and cut the hatch floor a little more in spots that the frame was rubbing. I had some old bicycle tubes and decided to cut some pieces to put in between the frames and the hatch floor as well as between the frames and the boxes. This took some trial and error, but I completed the smaller, rear most box as well as trimmed the hatch floor for the larger box. It took me about 6 hours though and a lot of climbing in and out and checking and re-checking. In a couple weeks I will get back out to the garage and try to finish up the large box. This was all very tiresome and because I am already frustrated about the motor alignment, which still needs to be addressed, I finished the day wondering whether this was still worth it.
When do the care-free commute days start? When can I tell my wife that the war with the car is over and now I can just enjoy it and spend more time with the family? How many times am I going to have to tear the car down to fix something? Once I adjust the adapter plate and motor, will it stay put and last for a decent period of time before I have to fix it? How many more weekends is it going to take for me to finish this thing? As it is, I only work on it about every other weekend for about 6 hours. Some days, like Monday, I wonder if I should just sell the car and move on. I have been to this point once before and almost did sell it. I realize I am just venting here and am not really trying to discourage people from this type of project, but it may help me get past this "speed bump" and keep motivated to finish the job. If I were to give any advice, and maybe I have written this already, but I would say to make sure it is the right time of your life and you have the 500 hours or more available to do the job before starting. I got married 4 years ago, moved 3 years ago and had a baby 2 years ago along with raising a 15 year old as well. This was not the right time of my life for this, but at the time I started it, I was obsessed with the idea and a bit ignorant to the amount of time, expertise, and dedication it takes to complete this project. The thought of selling and taking the money and paying off some debt or putting a down payment on a Leaf, Volt, or dare I dream, a Model S or X is very tempting. I know that once I get the car to the point of daily drivability I will be very proud and have a very unique item. It is just hard to see past these troubles right now.
Thank you, in advance, for the encouragement I am sure I will receive after posting this.
tl;dr - (too long; didn't read) - Frustration with repairs, charging, time, entire project
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