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
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Step back and take a deep breath! The motor alignment problem is going to be tricky. As noted in a earlier comment, it's very difficult to align the trans. and the motor just by feel. In the ICE form, the engine and trans. are aligned within a few thousands of an inch with dowel pins - forgetabout doing this by feel only. The horror stories abound on blogs and forums of people who chose to ignored this problem. Wasted trans., ground out couplers, and even broken motor shafts have resulted. Most people seem to be in a complete state of denial about this problem, and keep destroying equipment.
ReplyDeleteTry talking to the original supplier, and hope for a high pity factor. If that doesn't work, you'll have to take the trans. and motor to a machine shop. They might be able to use a dial indicator to line up the shaft with the motor mounting hole in the adapter plate or machine an alignment spacer tool for you. The good news is that your type of trans. has a well supported (for alignment purposes) input shaft. A typical front engine, rear wheel drive vehicle would be more difficult to set up. Talk to the shop about putting in dowel pins like the ICE set up once every thing is lined up.
The battery box noise. One, you cut huge holes in the unibody frame structure. Usually adding a box in this situation isn't a problem. It could actually stiffen and strengthen the frame. But, the box has to be stiff enough itself and well attached to the perimeter of the hole with closely spaced bolts, screws, or welds. Plus, with water and dirt coming in, your probably better off with bent and sealed sheet metal boxes. Second, you have to clamp everything else down or it's going to shake, rattle and roll.
Keep going and you'll be telling boring commuter stories and bitchin about gas guzzlers blocking the charging stations in no time.
Not sure who this is, but thank you for the comment. I have sent an email to Evolve Electrics to see if they can do something for me regarding the adapter plate and coupler. Not sure if they will, but you gotta try.
ReplyDeleteI got the battery box noise fixed, so that is nice. Hoping to get another car day in here soon to check out the adapter plate and motor alignment.
Cars are supposed to be powered by explosions, not electricity. I think you should put the gas engine back in it. Electric cars are weird.
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