This is Part 2 of my EV Conversion project, code name E.V.Oh Speedwagon. In part 1, I layed out my plans and did some groundwork.
I was anxious to get started building the de dion axle tube, but I couldn't do that until I had the motor in place. Only then could I know what size and shape it needed to be.
And before I could do that, I had to come up with a little plan:
So here we go. First up, pull the inverter and charger off of the Nissan Leaf motor:
Here's the motor with
Here it is but turned around so that its backwards.
It fits much much butter this way so this is the way I'll have to mount it. But I'll have to swap some wires around to get it to spin in the other direction so that it doesn't drive in reverse! More on that in another page.
Now build the front motor mount:
The long horizontal tube is 1.5x1.5 square tube 3/16th (0.188) wall - it's pretty beefy and will more than strong enough. The round pieces are just 1" black pipe from the hardware store. The end pieces are cutoff scraps, not sure the dimensions but the walls are 1/8" thick.
Remember, this piece will be taking the brunt of the torque from the electric motor, over 200 foot pounds.
I made bushings by taking generic polyurethane bushings from the parts store and grinding them down with a dremel tool until they fit just right. A lathe would have been nice, but I don't have one (this will be the upteenth time I say that during this project, at least three times so far). But they fit just right on the output shaft of an AC electric motor I have, it worked pretty well.
It's mounted to the unibody frame rails with 3/16" rivnuts, 4 per side.
Onto the rear two motor mounts. This will also hold the inverter, charger, and more, so I used more of the 1.5x1.5x0.188 square tube.
Once both sides where finished, I drilled holes in them for two horizontal cross pieces that would hold the inverter and PDM (PDM is the charger, dc-dc-converter, and HV junctions all in one box).
