One of the key areas you want to work on during an electric car conversion project is the transmission. The transmission is a little more challenging.

The transmission was originally designed to coupled to a clutch plate. When you are building a Do It Yourself (DIY) electric car, you are not going to use a clutch. The electric motor will be coupled directly to the transmission.

The main thing the clutch does for a car is allow you to leave the internal combustion engine running when the car isn’t moving. With an electric motor, you can just switch it off.

The other reason you don’t want a clutch is to minimize the amount of mass or the amount of weigh the electric motor has to spin because that will cost you valuable energy.

When the electric motor has to spin a bigger resistant, it will consume more electricity hence making your EV less efficient and it won’t go as far.

When connecting the electric motor to the existing transmission unit, most EV retrofitters will use the Lovejoy metal coupler. Putting the coupler on the motor shaft is easy. But how do you put the coupler on the transmission shaft?

Reason being, the end of the transmission shaft has grooves and teeth while the coupler doesn’t.

To solve this problem, you need to have some creativity and do some modification. You start out by removing the old clutch plate. Look at how the plate is attached to the transmission shaft. You will see a little coupler in it that had ridges that matches up to the shaft of the transmission.

Cut out that small coupler and weld it to the center of the Lovejoy coupler. Make sure the weld is strong so it does not spin. The Lovejoy coupler with the old clutch plate ridges can now be fitted to the transmission shaft. It is a lot of work, but that’s how you solve a problem in a DIY project.

Once you have all the couplers in place and the rubber spider separator in between, you can now connect them together and be able to transfer power from the electric motor to the wheel of your electric car. One of the advantage of the Lovejoy couplers is it allows for a small amount of shaft misalignment.

If your electric motor is not perfectly align with the transmission, it is not going to create much problem. It would not handle too much misalignment though, only one of 2 degree, but it’s better than trying to hard weld two of the shaft together on a straight line. You will never get the line perfect.

DIY Electric Car Conversion Guide

Looking for more information about DIY electric car conversion? If you do, check out Gavin Shoebridge ‘s Electric Conversion Made Easy e-book.

Gavin is from the land of kiwis, New Zealand and he has personally converted his old Mitsubishi Tredia into an EV in his garage.

For more creative tips and tricks to convert a gas guzzler to EV, check out his manual.

==> Click here to visit Electric Conversion Made Easy now!

One of the trickiest processes of a DIY electric car conversion is coupling the electric motor to the transmission unit of the car. To make the connection work easier, it is recommended for you to take out the transmission and put in on a workbench. It involves a lot of work, but it will save you a lot of time and unnecessary headache.

When the electric motor and the transmission is on a workbench, you can now handle the alignment, get the holes drilled and get everything working.

To start of the connection process, there are 2 things you need to consider.

1) The physical piece of the electric motor.

You have to find a way to somehow bolt the motor to the transmission. The motor will be using an “L” shaped motor mount.

A lot of electric cars use a motor that mounts off the face and you’ll actually end up with a piece of metal plate between the electric motor and the transmission.

2) Connecting the power from the electric motor to the transmission.

When doing this, you will notice two different size and very different shaft. You will need to come up with a way to connect both together. The most common way electric car converters are adopting is to use a brand of connector calls Lovejoy connectors.

The connector comes with 2 pieces of steel with finger. There will be a piece of rubber insert that sits between them. The Lovejoy couplers are not very expensive and you can get them from Amazon.com.

You can order the steel pieces independently with different size hole to match the different shaft.

The Lovejoy couplers are designed for industrial work and are made to go right on the shaft of the electric motor. Look closely at the electric motor shaft. It is smooth except for a groove in it. That is where the “key” goes in.

The key is what keeps the coupler from spinning once it is on the motor shaft. That is how you connect the electric motor to the transmission unit of the donor car.

DIY Electric Car Conversion Guide

Do you want to find out more on how to convert your gas guzzler to a pure electric vehicle? If you do, check out Les Oke’s Convert2EV manual.

Les and his family live a green lifestyle and use an electric car for their daily commute. Les has converted numerous conventional automobile to EV. The Convert2EV e-book is all his EV conversion experience penned down.

==> Click here to visit Convert2EV now!

If you are doing a DIY electric car conversion from your home garage, one of the main components for the EV is the electric motor. Getting the electric motor delivered to your house is an exciting feeling!

The next step is to connect the electric motor to the existing transmission unit. How do you do that? There are numerous ways to connect both the motor and transmission shaft together. You can custom made a metal bracket and then use a universal coupler. Alternatively, you also custom made an adapter plate.

The video below shows how Gavin Shoebridge of New Zealand custom made an adapter for his electric motor. He actually outsourced the work to a local engineering workshop. That is a good idea. Have you tried drilling, cutting and filing an 1 inch metal plate? It is not fun is you don’t have the proper tools and equipment.

When the adapter plate is done, all you have to do is bolt on the electric motor and connect is to the transmission unit. Make sure you have sufficient bolts. At this stage, it might be helpful if you have a hoist handy. The electric motor plus the adapter plate can weight quite a bit. When the electric motor is connected to the transmission, next you have to secure it the chassis of your homemade electric car.

If you are looking for a high torque electric motor, should you choose a DC or AC motor? What is a reasonable priced maximum torque for a DC electric motor? If you have the budget, take a look at WarP 13″ monster electric motor. It costs about $5000 and it can kick out 2000 horsepower! Simply awesome.

The WarP 13″ diameter series wound DC Motor is a high performance motor used in some racing Electric Vehicles and could be used in very large vehicle. You can’t beat a series wound DC motor for pure low-rpm torque. On the other hand, AC motors can run at very high rpm and geared down to make torque.

Both DC and AC motors have their advantages and disadvantages. The DC motor is usually cheaper and easier to control. The AC motor has a much more complex controller adding to the cost. DC motors have brushes and a commutator to wear out. The AC does not. If you like to hum of an electric car, DC motors do sound better.

If one style of electric motor had any serious advantage over another, we wouldn’t be scratching our head trying to figure out which one we should use for our DIY electric car. An example of this would be the Permanent Magnet (PM) motors. It is quite expensive to use a 13″ PM motor for use in an EV. That’s why there are series wound and AC motors.

One other advantage of AC motors is that a lot of them have a liquid cooling system. The more amps you throw in a motor the hotter it will get, but an AC is more efficient so you don’t need to dissipate as much and is liquid cooled so it can dissipate more. Also the higher voltages mean its easy to get the amps to the motor.

AC motors are beginning to gain popularity as the production cost comes down. It is a matter of time before it will be the preferred electric motor for electric car retrofitters.

Related web sites:
1) Electric Car Conversion Guides Review

2) Peter Millward Electricity 4 Gas Manual Review

3) Convert2EV Comprehensive Review

In this blog post, I though of writing something on electric car motor. Specifically, how to select the right electric motor for your Do It Yourself (DIY) electric vehicle (EV).

If you are looking for an electric motor, either at a workshop, EBay or on the internet, look for a unit that weights 100 – 150 lbs.

Depending on your donor car, if there is a lot of weigh, there would be a lot of inertia and it needs large amount of force to push it around. Imagine this, you don’t want a small and skinny guy to pull on your EV.

Probably, you would not want to feed a sumo wrestler either. What I’m trying to say is you don’t want an electric motor that is too small or too big.

When you are searching for electric motor, look at the core. Look for insulation that is wine colored with yellow banding. Make sure the brush leads are still copper color and not scotched.

You also want to make sure the commutator is not grooved or pitted. If you want a closer look, just open the cover band and probe inside the electric motor.

Here’s another tip. Look for armatures that have a commutator with a large bar count. The larger the bar count, the higher the voltage it’ll take. If you want to build a speedy electric car, this is what you have to look for.

If you are looking for a series motor, get one with solid field leads or you might end up with compound would motor that may not suit your DIY electric vehicle needs.

One key aspect of selecting an electric motor is the shaft. Make sure you look for a shaft that you think you can attach or modify with a coupler. There are certain motor shafts that aren’t easy to modify.

If you make a blunder, that are no “standard” replacement parts either. If you mess up, you might have to discard the whole motor.

Choosing the right electric motor for your DIY electric car conversion does not have to be difficult. But you need to think about what you want and also know what to look for.

If the information above seems foreign to you, you may want to get some basic knowledge on electric car conversion. In that case, check out Les Oke’s Convert 2 EV.

Related web sites:
1) Convert 2 EV Review

2) Peter Millward Electricity 4 Gas Manual Review

Many EV enthusiast are not very sure about an electric vehicle conversion motor selection process. Should you go with an AC motor or DC motor? How about power rating? What should the RPM be? I will try at address some of the questions.

Now, in regards to whether choosing AC or DC motor, both have their advantages and disadvantages. One thing is for sure, DC motor are less expensive to purchase and quite good in any electric car conversion project. If given the choice, I will choose a DC motor.

When you are choosing a DC motor, look for these criteria.

• Rated for high DC voltage.
• Low revolution per minute (RPM).
• High current ratings.

What you want is a DC motor that will put over 12 Volts at a fairly low RPM while maintaining a useful current level. As a rule of thumb, look for a DC motor with RPM rating of under 400.

In terms of size, look for a motor with a shaft size of over 5/8 inch because that will insure that the motor has adequate bearings or bushing to accommodate the constant spinning and harsh outdoor treatment it will receive.

In terms of voltage, get a motor with between 50 to 80 Volts.

As I am researching for material for this post, I went back to Les Oke’s Convert 2 EV manual. For electric vehicle conversion motor selection, Les recommends the WarP Motors series of electric motor. One of the coolest electric truck conversion that I have came across also uses a WarP electric motor.

I’ve decided to do further research on them. Here’s a few points about the WarP Motors. It comes in a broad range of sizes with different torque, voltage, rotation and shaft configuration.

The motors are designed for high efficiency. WarP Motors use only low-loss lamination and welded or fused commutator connections for peak motor performance. This methodology lowers the heat build-up when the motor is working.

All WarP Motors are build to withstand wear and tear. Both the armature and the field assembly are resin varnish treated to lock in its mechanical integrity and to provide permanent protection from harsh environment. WarP Motors are distributed by NetGain Motors Inc in the United States.

If you are looking for the right choice of electric motor for you DIY electric car conversion, give the guys at NetGain a buzz. For more information on how to get started in an EV Conversion at home, check out Les Oke’s Convert 2 EV.

Related web sites:
1) Convert 2 EV and Electricity 4 Gas Guides Review – Top Electric Car Conversion Kit Manuals

2) Nanotube Structures Could Improve Electric Motors

3) Old Electric Motor – Hacked Gadgets – DIY Tech Blog

4) MNCs Compete to Enter China’s Booming Electric Motor Market

Local gasoline prices shot through the roof. People driving large gas guzzler was having a tough time feeding their pride SUVs. Some had no choice but to abandon their vehicle at home and use the public transportation. Luckily, oil prices are at a reasonable level now…or is it?

As of the time I’m writing this post, crude oil is slowly creeping back to US60 per barrel and climbing…

Okay, I wanted to write something on regenerative braking system for Do It Yourself (DIY) electric car. I found a video on Youtube last week about a really cool homemade electric truck that has a regenerative braking system installed.

The whole setup look a bit troublesome. From the video, it is clear that the regenerative brake system is manually engaged. I don’t think the system is used to stop the EV but rather used to generate some electric power by tapping to the kinetic energy of the spinning electric motor shaft.

To engage the regenerative braking system, you would have to press a button fitted on the gear knob. When you do that, it will engage a relay that will fire up the friction clutch. The clutch will transfer the kinetic energy from the motor to spin an alternator to create electricity.

The electric power generated by the alternator can be flowed back to the batteries. It will be interesting to know how much additional drive mileage the regenerative braking system is adding to the electric car.

Should we use regenerative braking system on a homemade electric car? I think it all depends on the EV owner. Personally, I think it will increase your electric car conversion cost and the electric power generated may not add any significant drive mileage to the EV. There is also additional work to test, fit and connect the system to make it work.

I believe pure electric car will be the wave of the future for the world transportation system. If you are keen to find out how to convert your gasoline driven car to run on electricity, check out my EV conversion guide review.

Related blog posts:

1) Telstar Logistics: Japan Electric Car Has Eight Wheel, Big Ambitions

2) Mitsubishi: Building a better electric car

3) Lightning Electric Car can Zoom from Zero to 60 in Just 4 Seconds

4) Regenerative Braking – alternATIVe

5) What is regenerative braking? | Lou Ann Hammond on carlist.com

In any Do It Yourself (DIY) electric car conversion project, your goal is to remove the internal combustion engine and replace it with an electric motor. The question is, how do you connect the electric motor to the transmission? You use the Coupler and Adapter Plate. Check out the video below.

If you are an electric car enthusiast, you may want to do your own electric car conversion project from your home garage. Check out the top Electric Vehicle Conversion Guide on the web.