Electric conversion: Project ForkenSwiift

[MetroMPG]

The Metro drivetrain could have come out

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by onegammyleg

This would fail a police examination immediately in Australia.

Hmm... Based on past experience, I suspect a funny image is not showing up...

[Silveredwings]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

The Metro drivetrain could have come out the top or the bottom. It only came out the way it did because we had the right tool for the job: Ivan happens to have a manual pallet lift rated for the weight. (If we'd had a swing-set it might have come out the top!)

All things considered, it probably is as easy to lift a metro off the motor than to remove the hood and lift out the engine.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Next step: re-install the transmission with the trans mounts, axles & shift linkage from the red 4-cyl. car - same transmission casing in both cars, but the 4-cyl mounts offset the transmission about 3 inches more to the left of the engine compartment. That'll leave us more room for the electric motor (which is slightly longer than the 3-cyl engine block, but not quite as long as the 4-cyl block).

Then we need to fabricate an engine mount for the e-motor.

I can't wait to see this thing come together.

[Silveredwings]

If you're going to put racks of batteries and/or the controller module above the motor/tranny in the engine compartment, you might want to mount them both so you can remove them from the bottom as with the oem ice (I know, you're waay ahead of me ). As I think you said, you expect to break things.

[MetroMPG]

That's a good idea.

In fact, the only reason we're

[Silveredwings]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

That's a good idea.

In fact, the only reason we're going to the trouble of using the engine/tranny brackets from the 4-cyl car is so we can remove the electric motor later without having to remove the axles & transmission also.

I re-installed the transmission today with the 3-cyl mounts just to confirm measurements: we only have 1 inch of clearance between the end of the electric motor and the "frame" on the right side. Not enough room to wiggle the motor off the transmission inside the engine bay should we ever need to.

So are you saying that with the 4-cyl mounts, you do have enough room to slide the motor off the tranny? Does that mean it would come out the top or the bottom of the car? Just curious.

Where are the batteries going? Are you able to keep the CG low? There are so many less dense things taking up valuable space up front on a car like that (trans, rack, etc.). Or can you reclaim gas tank space?

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

But before I can locate everything in the 4-cyl spot, I have to head back out to the bush lot to take another part off the red car: apparently the driver's side tranny mount is different. Not just the bracket, but the mount that's bolted to the frame.

Hopefully it's a straight bolt-in. I don't think they would have used different holes, but I'll find out for sure tomorrow.

All this junk will become clear when I post photos, for those who care.

I'll be watching.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Silveredwings

So are you saying that with the 4-cyl mounts, you do have enough room to slide the motor off the tranny? Does that mean it would come out the top or the bottom of the car? Just curious.

That's it, yes - room to slide it off the tranny,

[MetroMPG]

I didn't actually install the motor. Ev

[MetroMPG]

BTW, apologies for the crappy picture quality. Antique 1 mega pixel camera.

[Silveredwings]

Great progress! It's taking shape!

If I had the garage space, I'd love to do something like that myself. In the meantime, it's all I can do to find time to breath some life back into my Austin-Healey. If I can get some pending projects done on that beast, I may 'free up' the space it's hogging in my garage.