Francisco's Electric Pajero

[francisco.shi]

I have been making some changes to the way I am going to attach the motors to the diffs. Originally I was going to use a rigid coupler and mount the motor to the diff but it did not really feel right. Luckily I found some CV joints for tail shafts for commodores. They are only $50 and they are about the same width as the hard coupler I was going to use.
This means the motor will need to be attached to the chassis some other way. Thinking about my options I decided to try to attach the motors to the battery box. I will add some reinforcement to the area where the motors go so it can transfer the torque to the chassis.
Also I have to move the front diff to the center. I found that getting a new diff was easier than trying to modify the original diff's ends.
Here are some pictures.
These two pictures show the CV joint on a test shaft. (I was checking that I could make the male splines)

IMG-20190118-WA0004.jpeg (148.53 KiB) Viewed 334 times

IMG-20190118-WA0002.jpeg (178.71 KiB) Viewed 334 times

Here is me playing with my new abilities to make external splines.
The coupler on the right is what I was going to use originally.

IMG-20190123-WA0000.jpeg (222.11 KiB) Viewed 334 times

Here are different views of the front motor and diff.

[francisco.shi]

The engine bay looks so empty.

IMG-20190131-WA0007.jpeg (248.61 KiB) Viewed 334 times

I will need to think of something to put in that empty space. Maybe a fridge to keep drinks cool and to keep the ice cream from melting on the way back from the shops.

[dmenheere]

Hi Francisco,

Amazing work! Looking forward to see how this turns out. I have a Montero on the other side of the world ... Canada.

For joining the motors to the diffs did you consider a rubber giubo? also are you using the rear differential for the front? could you have not used the rear half shafts and swapped the outer cv's?

I'm sorry if these are stupid questions ... seems like the only ones I ask

cheers,

Dave

[francisco.shi]

The diff is the rear diff out of a Nissan skyline. I did think about using the rear diff at the front but the half shafts are different and will not fit in the front hubs and the front half shafts do not fit the rear diff without doing what I did. Also I have been told that the rear cvjoints do not have the same angle capabilities as the front ones because they do not need to steer.
I did think about the rubber coupler but the cvjoint is smaller and a much nicer solution.
Would you be interested in doing your motero?

[dmenheere]

Hi Francisco, thanks for the explanation! Again, very nice work!

I would be interested in converting a Montero but may pick up another one since they are fairly cheap and try copying what you are doing. Unfortunately, I don't have your skills so it may not be as pretty or go as quickly as your conversion seems to be going! I think the Pajero/Montero is a great platform for conversion with the independent suspension and no frame leaving lots of room for batteries ... and I like the high seating position.

Looking forward to more updates.

Dave

[francisco.shi]

After I am finished I will be able to make a set of everything pretty quickly. I have drawings and 3D models for everything I make.
So I could make you a kit with everything assembled put it on a pallet and ship it to you.
The only thing you would have to do is remove the engine and transmission and bolt the kit on. Probably would take you longer to get the old stuff out and cut all the old brackets than it will take to install the conversion kit.
At this moment I am going to have the motors attached to the battery box so as a conversion kit there will be just one item to install. Bolt the battery box to the frame and the cv joints to the diffs plug the wiring harness and you are pretty much done. That is the idea anyway. Will see how it goes.

[dmenheere]

I would be interested!

Dave

[T1 Terry]

You will need to add something for shock loading, otherwise the CV joints and the crown wheel and pinion won't last very long. In the old days the hollow tailshaft served this purpose, then rubber couplings, fluid coupling with temperature sensitive viscous fluids and spring loaded ramp type dog clutches and other various ideas were used. The easiest is probably the rubber insert drive coupling used as virtually the standard for industrial motor to drive coupling. Commonly available with a multitude of different materials for the cushioning centre section. My preferred method would be a viscous fluid coupling, nothing to wear out and really smooths out the backlash.

Love you idea for centring the diff assembly, I have a big bus converted to a motorhome that I want to centre the diff assembly in as I have converted it to rear engine and the original offset is making the engine/transmission line up near impossible.
My latest thoughts are rolling the diff centre back to forward drive, centring the diff assembly and electric drive with possibly a small capacity engine ahead of it as a load assist hybrid arrangement.
If I go ahead with the idea I may well be in touch to get some of the machining done.

T1 Terry

[francisco.shi]

The motor will have some rubber mounts. The inertia of the motor is quite low so I am not sure that it will need much in the way of shock loading prevention. Most of the springs in the clutch and rubber couplers are to get rid of the torque pulses from the ICE.
Single cylinder motorbikes have much bigger cushioning than 4 cylinder ones.
The electric motor has no torque spikes to isolate.

[T1 Terry]

More the chatter in the drive train from the wheels feeding back into the motor, but up to you, just thought I'd share that with you just in case you had not considered it.

T1 Terry