This is a 5 page pdf only 65 KB. I could understand some of what they were talking about and I know very little on this subject. With what you have been thru in the last year, you should have a pretty good understanding of it. Interesting comparisons and graphs even if you don't use it.

Tell me how to get it to you and I will get it done.

Sure thing: fire it off to darin [at] forkenswift.com. Thanks!

Just noticed 2 separate visits from "Shanghai Kowin Automotive Components Co. Ltd" in the forkenswift.com traffic log.

First ever visitor I can recall seeing from China on any of my sites (that I monitor).

I sure hope we're not giving anyone any ideas for production vehicles! :)

Even with the censorship -- not bad! But yeah beware, they tend to take ideas and manufacture their own version (limited International patent enforcement). But -- if it helps keep them from buying a bunch of Cadillacs to reduce their Carbon footprint, then I guess "by all means".

Ya, they'll start buying up rusty old Swifts and drive up the prices for the rest of us. :-)

Or worse: cornering the market on used 6v batteries!

Nah, they could never afford the freight. ;-)

So I forget whether I mentioned: we're going to take the car up to the

I've been chipping away (literally) at the body

Meh, it's safe to say body paint isn't part of an EV conversion :p EV or not, you'd be doing the same thing :D

Time to recycle more batteries!!

There will be some more batteries to recycle soon. I still haven't tried the "new to us" Ranger EV batteries in the car yet, but there's no doubt a number of the old forklift co. floodies will be recycled.

Here's a thought for anyone else considering a conversion. If you're going to try hypermiling your EV, you might want to=

True enough. If I exclude all costs that aren't strictly EV parts related, we're WELL under $1k!

So you don't normally shift when you drive it? You just pick a gear and stay in it?

I shift, but upshifting seems much easier than

Should add: some "proper" conversions don't need to be

Okay, I see. I'm sure that it would be easier with a tach. Have you thought about putting one in?

Thought about it, yes. It would be useful in more ways than one. Question is: how to do it on the cheap? :D

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Good news on the build cost front!

For anyone counting (I am!), that brings the net cost of the parts we kept from the old Baker (2 pump motors, cabling, EV-1 controller, fuses, contactors etc) to $34.95 after recycling refund & the drive motor sale.

Don't ask me! You're the smart one! :-)

I think that some really smart guy would say something about sticking a rare earth magnet somewhere as a pickup, and then some sort of chip, and some sort of counter circuit, and some sort of display. It was really easy for the Electrical Engineering geniuses on the Prius groups, but it made no sense to me.

Personally, I'd be searching junkyards for an old timey mechanical tach, and then figuring out where to hook it to the motor...

Oh, and great news on the torque monster...

Yay for 700th post, looks like everything is going okay for you, darin.

This thing is ending up so cheap, perhaps you can upgrade it's range/top speed a bit?

One thing I was thinking: just attach a tiny dc motor (or a magnet and coil pickup) to the drive motor's end shaft and calibrate its voltage to the motor RPM (which we can back-calculate based on vehicle speed, knowing the transmission ratios). Then make up an analog volt gauge that ties it all together....

If the car came with a tach, then it probably is an analog votmeter. The way they worked with mechanical points is that the low voltage coil wire would send pulses to the tach. Inside the tach is a capacitor with a bleed resistor. The pulses would charge the cap and the resistor would discharge the cap. The faster the pulses charge the cap, the higher the voltage and resulting needle indication. As the pulses slow down, the continuouse discharge through the resistor allows the voltage (and needle) to fall. It's so simple that something similar must exist on electronic systems using a hall-effect device that gives the ECU it's engine position information. The ECU probably sends a cleaned-up pulse from the hall-effect device to the tach (that's my guess).

Since there's no ECU, you may be able to simulate the pulses by using an optoisolater which is a colocated LED and photo-transistor with a small separating gap between them. Mount the optoisolator close to a rotating part of the motor (like the coupler) and some kind of shutter glued to that part so that as the 'fin' revolves, it interrupts the gap. To avoid balancing issues with the rotating mass, the shutter should be made out of something opaque but lightweight like a small piece of aluminum flashing. The tach is calibarated to a specific number of pulses per revolution according to the number of cylinders the ICE had. You would want that same number of interruptions (pulses) per revolution. Does any of this make any sense??

Yeah, that makes sense. Unfortunately neither the red or blue cars had tachs. I'm pretty sure some computer mice used optocouplers connected to the ball to detect movement - was thinking if I were just a bit smarter/more motivated, I could hack one of those to do something useful :)

Say... how's the Healey?

The Healey patiently waits. My oil pressurization attempt didn't work (20W50 with stabilizors was too thick) and I seem to need to rebuild the starter...but the lakehouse has a new roof and life goes on... ;)

So... is a junkyard tach an option? If so, I'm fairly certain you could make one work. The advantage (besides asthetics of an oem part) is the nice big 270 degree sweep of a tach movement. Also, if the inertia of the movement is high enough, you can skip the capacitor and resistor I mentioned above. See this most helpful article: https://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/Cheap...x.shtml#Theory

Cool - thanks for the link. Glad to hear about the new roof too :)

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hello,this is my first post on this forum and i would like to hello to everybody.after reading what's been done to build the forkenswift I too are considering the same sort of project,while looking through the US ebay sight I came across the listing which I thought might be of some interest to somebody.
https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...2757298&rd=1,1
anyway all the best,cheers---palu

Hi Paul - welcome to the site.

That motor would be fine for a large vehicle - it's a beast @ 375 lbs! (I thought the Torque Monster was heavy @ 240.) The main challenge would be finding / making a controller for it, since the field is separately excited, rather than the more common series setup (some people run 2 controllers - one for the armature, one for the field. You can also buy dedicated Sep Ex controllers).

The shipping cost will be the other big challenge.

Funny: I've had 3 inquiries about the Torque Monster since receiving the deposit for it. Which makes me think that, as usual when I sell stuff, the price was probably a bit too low :o

So I had to replace the Healey starter. It was a crude little series-wound motor that could be rebuilt, which I attempted, but the commutator was WAY out-of-round so I surrendered after almost a day of effort. Maybe I'll log it as training for some future EV work. :)

As for the rest of it, it'll have new: carbs(x3), fuel & water pumps, belt, door latches & strike plates, trunk lock (its the only thing that does lock), hoses, thermostat, cap, rotor, condensor, plugs, points(x2), and fuel filter. Rebuilt starter, speedo, temp/oil combo guage, gas tank, and a whole lot of et cetera.

BTW, congrats on your 4,000th post. ;)

I don't know that 4000 posts is a thing to be celebrated! :confused:

So, do you have to come up with another means of pressurizing the oil now? Could you pressurize it with something lighter just to get it lubed & turning over, and then drain & refill for the big fire-up?

Pictures! I demand pictures...

I'll take some on Sat at the EVent. :)

That's probably what I'll do but I need a container that I can easily pressurize (only about 20 psi). I tried a big liquid laundry detergent container but the plastic stretches and looks like it's going to pop. :(

Those stripes and paint detailing sounds great. I can't wait to see it. :thumbup:

A 2-liter bottle can take a lot of pressure. If it worries you, put it into a 5-gallon bucket of water to contain any "blast force". Like they do when they are filling SCUBA tanks, if you have ever seen that.

Something I heave read about on small block chevy engines is to remove the distributor, attach a drill to the distributor/oil pump shaft, and spin it with a drill.

Will we be seeing more pictures, Mister CBR125 Exporter Sir

Is that an old picture? It looks like autumn.

Mr. CBR 125 exporter says:

- Ivan took his camera.

Great pictures.
 

Forkenswift sure is shiny now. Wheels, tires, underside of hood is amazing; must have spent hours scrubbing and polishing there alone. Kept looking for the stripes, must be along the bottom sides??

Looks like you had a warm, sunshiney day and a lot of people.

Should of had a Low $$$ prize. I'll bet no one would else was close.

Congratulations on getting it spiffed and running for the show. Proud of you.

Ah - now I see what you were getting at.

It's recent as in sometime in the past couple of years.

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