Electric conversion: Project ForkenSwiift

[Silveredwings]

Metro, sorry to sidebar your thread but my goal really is to sell the Healey to fund (and free up my garage for) an EV project. Such are my good intentions anyway...

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by JanGeo

Best to measure what is coming out of the controller for voltage to the pot and go from there.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough knowledge /

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Silveredwings

Metro, sorry to sidebar your thread but my goal really is to sell the Healey to fund (and free up my garage for) an EV project. Such are my good intentions anyway...

Don't worry about it! It's interesting. And perfectly related as sidebar material with the "EV funding" angle.

[JanGeo]

Connect the pot to the controller and turn it on - in the 0 rpm position and read the voltage across the wires on the pot. Something comes to mind that there was a safety feature on the controller that would shut it down if there was no pot connected in case the wires broke or something. Anyway there should be plenty of info on the controller on the web about the inner workings and how the pot connects to the internal circuits. You do want to use a good pot that will not wear out under constant use. Yes I saw the resistor across the power relay - that should do the trick.

[MetroMPG]

Minor update: just pursuing a few leads on potentiometers that will both work inside the potbox, and talk to the Curtis.

Taking my time. The fact that it's -20 out has removed a lot of the urgency for getting back into the garage.

[Silveredwings]

Oh man, you sure do get the lake effect, don't you. I do hope you are talking about degrees C, not F. It was a balmy -17 C at my house this morning in still air, but now it's ~-21 C with the wind chill.

[SVOboy]

When I walked to class this morning it was a cool -24C and now it's up to -17C, dunno with the wind chill though,

[MetroMPG]

Yep, that was in C. Just walked downtown. Got a ride back. Temperatures like this sure make you appreciate the 25% efficiency of the ICE. Gimme some wasted heat - NOW!

[MetroMPG]

Well crud. Just missed out on an eBay auction for a potbox that had all the right specs.

Got another price for a Curtis replacement pot: $45 CDN. That, to me, is just insane, considering you can go into radio shack and get a 5K pot for $2. But the standard seems to be 300 degrees of rotation, not 50.

It's looking like buying the replacement will be the route to take.

I just hate spending 5% of our total budget on a wee potentiometer

[The Toecutter]

Gimme some wasted heat - NOW!

What's good about EVs is that you can install ceramic heaters. No need to wait for any ICE to warm up. you can get your heat as soon as you want it.