Battery Vehicle Society

Wow thats heavy the two Lynch motors that I had in my Fiesta I could "just" hold in one hand

Recon they weighed about 10kg each if that, that set up gave me 20hp, and 75mph @ 120volts @ 200amps

ChrisB

Well, I am going to play with this heavy old lump and try to get it in the car and running on 48v using my tractor's controller and batteries. A part of me suspects that at that point I might start with a new project. Either I will start working on a very light weight single seater with Agni's or a pulling tractor with the 12" motor.

I am suspecting that I would be able to buy a mass produced EV that will solve my commute problem before I can save enough to get batteries, controller, etc. to haul the MR2 around to the same end.
So, either I build a non road going thing for fun or I build very light and save on the battery mass.

I have made the decision, not easily, to put the MR2 up for sale on here and concentrate on designing and building a light weight single seater commuter trike.

If it doesn't sell here I will probably then break it and stick it on Ebay and the MR2 forum.

Thats a shame as you were getting on with it so well I thought

But I know what its like with all these projects, I have several of my own

ChrisB

The MR2 was fighting back every step of the way.
Granted I am trying to use a motor that was a bit on the big side but silly things like the coupler not being right and potentially making my motor scrap, the drive shafts not fitting, heating being a pain, too much weight in the car, too many little black boxes that are essential but don't do anything useful that a switch couldn't do, inadequate brakes that would be expensive to up grade, ditto head lights and suspension, a need for 60-70 miles of range resulting a pack of about £10k.

I couldn't afford to follow it through and I would end up with a car that has no batteries or no useful range that I don't like driving or being seen in.
I don't even get on with the typical MR2 owner/driver, too much tearing around and writing off their cars and then upgrading to a tubby (turbo), V6 or V8 for even more speed and even worse fuel consumption and even faster crashes.

I should have got a Land Rover or an MGB but having built the tractor now I can see how easy it is for me to build a road legal trike to MSVA requirements and do it cheap using scrap metal and wood. At less then a third the weight of the MR2 I should be able to get away with about a third of the pack cost.

For fun I was playing around with this layout. Using the 12" motor to drive a Lada Niva transfer box to give two ratios and into a Yamaha Virago shaft drive wheel. The numbers come up at 42mph and 75mph at 3500rpm in each gear.






My friend Todd, hot rod builder, then came up with this over one of my photos.


I quite like it! With the comm end of the 12" motor sticking out complete with Art Deco cover it would make a really cool looking 30's style streamliner. The transfer box is optional really but it give good town and motorway ranges, just need to remember not to knock it out of diff lock under power.

Well, Mr. Night Train.
I'm on the road to making a little reverse trike too.

Fun is what it is about.

I should really start a thread about the trike build.

Here's the beginings of the rear swing arm.




Determining chain length. 108 pitches of 5/8" 10B-2 duplex chain.


Making the drive end cap for the motor.
(Mazac video action)






A bit of motor video.


Making a foot mount.






After much filing, sanding and a thin skim of filler the welds are looking nicer.



A coat of paint this evening to fill pin holes before wet sanding.



The motor will be either Candy Apple red on metallic gold or just a metalic red depending on who does it.

I'm impressed! It does look a little bit heavy though. Get that motor liveried up like a fairground steam boiler.

Arvind did not come back to me with details on the latest oversized Agni motor which he said will be in production soon, the first 50 off. I'm now considering 2x 10Kw BLDC Golden motors with their controllers.

I'm stuck on the back wheel, (yours is impressive). I'd prefer to drive a single 13" car rim like the front wheels have, with brakes and a belt possibly on a swingarm. Just need to find the right donors and bits.

Seen your DIY....page Keep up the really good work.
Andy

Cheers Beemer, yeah, that motor is a bit 'chunky' but hey, it'll be a hot rod.

11" DC has to beat an American V8 in top trumps.

It weighs in at about 110kg but the wire wheels add a considerable amount of weigh in themselves.

Forgot to answer this bit.

Look for single sided swing arms.

Honda VFR, BMW and Ducatti spring to mind.

The BMW is shaft drive which keeps things clean and tidy but can also make coupling to a motor more complex.

The others tend to be chain drive. You can probably get a belt drive sprocket made up but belts and custom pulleys are just costly. Also I don't think I've ever seen a single sided belt drive swing arm. I suspect the tension required on a belt is too high and would make the swing arm and bearings too chunky.

I still have a BMW K100 swing arm, prop and final drive spare at the moment. The down side is that the disc is worn and the bike shop said it was one of those 'If you have to ask the price then you can't afford it!' jobs. The cheapest disc I've found on Ebay is £100

The Honda VFR has a standard car wheel stud pattern and is a common conversion for owners. Have a look here:
http://www.streetfighters.com.au/images/howto/SSSA/ASF%20Car%20wheel%20conversion%20SSSA.pdf

The other thing to sort out is the hand brake caliper. The one I have is a mechanical one designed for Karts. I don't know how it will perform but you could adapt a car caliper with built in hand brake lever if you have space. I didn't for the MR2 calipers and didn't want to spend on another one.