Your environment friendly homemade electrical vehicle (EV) might have clutch and whether you carry on with it or not, is entirely up to you. However, there are advantages as well as disadvantages to any method that you adopt.

You are going to feel that with the help of a clutch, you can change gears of your EV faster during emergencies or even otherwise; however, setting up the gears can prove to be too complicated for you.

You might feel that without clutches you reduce the weight of your vehicle by 25 pounds, which allows you to install extra batteries without exceeding the vehicle’s permissible weight.

But this might again make you feel that you are taking double the time to shift gears and therefore, take your decision after considering as to whether you want to have your vehicle clutchless or not.

To drive your DIY electric car without clutch, you have to connect your car engine directly to the gearbox. For this purpose, an adaptor made from old clutch plate can prove to be useful. It connects the motor shaft tightly with the gearbox input shaft, thus nullifying the chances of the engine getting disengaged.

Remove entirely the assembled clutch section – the flywheel, peddle, etc. since in modern manual transmission method none of these are used and instead a system called syncro’s is in place between each gear. This system does the work of a clutch for the gears.

When you press or release the gas pedal of your car, these syncro’s create a perfect synergy to match the speed and crunch-free meshing before the gears come into contact, thereby bringing the gears to the correct speed. The fact that electric motor has very little mass as compared to an internal combustion engine; it enables the syncro’s in the gearbox to match the internal speeds quite quickly, thus allowing the proper gears to be selected.

If you want to change gears of your vehicle, first take your foot off the accelerating peddle and then put the leaver into the neutral mode. After this, introduce the gear leaver to your desired gear; however, you should do this gently and slowly and should not exert too much pressure.

Allow the syncro’s to match the gear speed and as the gear falls to the desired place, you can feel the gears meshing. Then starting accelerating and enjoy the ride.

Though, initially, you might find this process a bit complicated; however, with practice you can master it and you are going to find out that changing gear with this system in place, actually takes you a second or two longer than changing with a clutch. The most important thing is that you need to be patient.

Try out this process with some normal ICE cars; however, there you have to concentrate harder, since you need to use the gas pedal efficiently to match the motor speed with the speed of the gearbox.

Since the ICE motor has much more mass than the electric motor, it is tougher for the syncro’s to overcome this hurdle and therefore, cannot match the speeds. Here, the role of the clutch comes into play; since it nullifies the motor mass leaving the syncro’s to deal with clutch plate mass only.

Though an electric motor has lesser mass than ICE motor; however, it has more than the mass of a clutch plate and for this reason you need that extra second to shift gear in a clutchless EV.

The threat of global warming and impending danger of natural disaster constantly threat all of us. To minimize this, many petroleum-fueled car owners are interested to convert their vehicles to environment-friendly electric cars.

These electric cars came into existence in the mid-nineteenth century and throughout that period as well as the early twentieth century, these vehicles had gathers prominence. Instead of internal combustion engines, these automobiles use unconventional fuel and use electric motors and motor controllers to get the required driving force.

These cars are also called the battery electric vehicles since, batteries form the integral part of these cars and provide the necessary power for plying. Many people are converting their traditional vehicles into these electric cars from the comfort of their homes; however, there are some salient points that have to be considered always, while doing this conversion at home.

Essential Components Of An EV

A DC controller and a DC motor are required for conversion and the person involved with this job should choose the accurate voltage at which the system will work. Though the voltage is usually between 96 and 192 volts; however, this decision is primarily determined by the number of batteries, type of motor and the type of controller that the car is supposed to use.

Though a person has plethora of choices regarding the battery technology, he will be best served if he uses lead-acid batteries. Marine deep-cycle lead acid batteries, golf cart batteries and high-performance sealed batteries are the other battery options available to a person.

These batteries are generally flooded, gelled or may even be made from absorbed glass mat electrolyte; flooded batteries being the least costly but at the same time these have the lowest peak power.

After arriving at the final decision regarding the motor, controller and the batteries, one can proceed for the electric car conversion.

Parts Of An Homemade Electric Car

To carry out the DIY electric car conversion process in a smooth and efficient manner, you should first understand the important terms and procedures related to it.

• The controller delivers the power from the batteries to the motor for the vehicle to ply.

• Batteries act as the storage compartments for energy required for these electric cars.

• The attraction and repelling motions created by the magnets of electric motors or DC motors enable the engine to start and provide the necessary force for the car to move.

The following points serve as basic guide or step-by-step process of the conversion that you need to follow while converting your traditional vehicle into electric car, at home.

The EV Conversion Process

• First, remove the engine, gas tank, exhaust system, clutch and the radiator from your conventional vehicle that you want to convert.

• Before mounting the new motor in the vehicle by using custom mounting brackets, connect an adapter plate to the transmission system.

• You should create a gear reduction system by pinning the existing manual transmission to the 1st or 2nd gear. This will allow optimum efficiency of the electric motor.

• After the above are done, you can mount the controller.

• Build brackets, which will enable the batteries to stay in place and will complete their installation process.

• Use a welding cable to wire both the batteries as well as the motor to the controller.

• After this install a charging system and should also remember to install a DC-to-DC converter to charge the spare battery.

• You should also install a volt meter to keep a track of the charge in your batteries.

Last but not the least, you should install a contractor or a large relay, which will enable you to connect or disconnect the battery pack to and from the controller.

If your vehicle has a power steering, remember to install an electric motor for that power steering pump, too and if it has an air conditioning unit, a separate electric motor has to be wired up and mounted for the compressor.

Install a vacuum pump so that you can operate the brake booster of the power brakes and it may even be necessary for you to install some reverse switches to the controller, depending on the conversion. Now your vehicle is ready and you can rewire the ignition switch to take your environment-friendly vehicle for a test drive.

DIY Electric Car Conversion Guide

Do you need help with your EV conversion project? If you do, check out the Convert2EV ebook by Les and Jane Oke.

The Okes are from Canada and they have been living and green lifestyle for more than 10 years. To maintain a small carbon footprint, they convert conventional automobile into pure electric car in their home garage and use the homemade EV to move around.

The Convert2EV guide was written based on their experience throughout the years retrofitting more than a dozen cars into EV. Click on the link below to visit the Oke’s web site right now.

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Someone who is really looking at buying a used car for EV conversion project needs to look out for the model and make of the car, its cost and present condition apart from the mode of payment and other things involved in your purchase plan.

There are actually a lot of other important things which also need to be considered regarding the car itself prior to the purchase of the vehicle. Some of the key points are highlighted as follows.

1) The mileage.

The most important thing to be considered is the date of registration of the car to evaluate its age. In the second-hand car sales market, a car which has run for about 15,000 to 20,0000 km and which is around 3 to 5 years old is considered to be worthy for buying. This number kilometers run by the vehicle can be determined by taking the reading on the odometer of the car.

There is a high chance of this odometer value being false, because the odometer reading could be easily modified and tampered by the owner whether it is a mechanical or electrical odometer. But nevertheless, it gives you a rough idea about the current condition of the vehicle.

But since the vehicle is meant to be the donor car of your homemade electric car project, you can opt for a car which is much older. Reason being, you will be replacing the internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Therefore, even though the engine has considerable wear and tear, it is still a good candidate.

2) Tire condition.

The tires should have no wear and tear, because changing the tires will cost a ton. Also the health of the ball, bearings and bushes are to be noticed so that one does not end up spending on them unnecessarily.

3) Car battery.

The next thing to be in proper working condition is the battery in the car. It should be properly charged with no acidic leaks detected. This battery will be used to power auxiliary system such as electrical devices in your EV.

4) External appearance.

For anything the outside appearance matters a lot, likewise for the car also the paint on the external surface should look new, without any scratches, fading or peeling. Try to stay away from car which has excessive paint peeling or rust.

5) Internal system.

If the car has an audio system installed that also needs to be checked. Lastly, one has to ensure that the headlights, rear lights, dippers, reversing lights, and the cabin lights of the car are all in working condition. After considering all the above mentioned factors, you can decide upon the car which needs to be purchased finally.

In addition to the above list, it is always a wise idea to also look out for the special features of the model and the general output of the model and make a comparative analysis with one’s driving conditions, frequency of driving, needs and budget and then make a choice.

Also another set of comparative study could be made with respect to the other cars which came around the same time frame or which one can get for the same budget and analyze the pros and cons of your current selection based on the technical specifications. During this search there is a high possibility of hitting something which far superior than your current selection.

Now considering the payment options for the purchase of the car, there are several finance companies which offer loans at considerably low interest rates. So even before finalizing the finance company a comparative study is necessary to determine the best company which will suit your specific needs like discounts, repayment options, and monthly installments and so on.

As a matter of fact, at times one might not be able to find a good car in your own locality but there is a better alternative for the problem. One can take the help of a car dealer.

The purchase of cars from the car dealers will ensure that the quality of the car we purchase is actually good, as they generally make a thorough checkup before they purchase it from the owner and they also tend to maintain it properly.

The World Wide Web is another useful place to search for the different types of cars which are available for sale and it also makes your life easier for the comparative study as mentioned earlier.

Last but not the least, it is always better to test drive a car for at least 4 to 5 miles before deciding how good the present condition of the car is. It gives you the confidence before the purchase, and will also help reveal any malfunctions in the vehicle.