low cost adaptor plates

Technical discussion on converting internal combustion to electric
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drowe67
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low cost adaptor plates

Post by drowe67 »

Hi,

A fellow Ev-er down in Goolwa, SA (Rod from Strath Steam) put me onto the idea of laser cut adaptor plates. So I had a go at it for EV#2 (another Charade using Goombi/Eugen's low cost Chinese kit).

The idea is to come up with a DXF file that anyone can download and get laser cut locally. No reason this should be repeated for every conversion, by sharing our files we can drop the machining costs for everyone doing conversions. Even if you are using a different motor, you can edit that layer for your motor and keep the bell housing. The same idea can be used for other cars.

I have no mechanical background so I learnt to drive Qcad (nice free CAD package with DXF format files). There were a few challenges:

1/ Measuring up the bell housing holes. Tricky, I ended up measuring between hole centers using a steel rule, then drawing arcs of that radius on a measurement layer and looking for intersections. I tested by printing on transparency, and cross checking distances between various holes.

2/ Measuring the motor holes. Easy, as the hole positions were 60 degrees apart and the radius obvious.

3/ Aligning the centre of the gearbox input shaft to center of the motor. Very tricky as the gearbox input is recessed into the bell housing.

There are of course many other ways of doing this. The best way I have heard is to put the gearbox on a mill table with calibrated xyz axis. Then just move the mill head to each hole and read off the coordinates.

Anyway I had my adaptor plate cut last week, just $88 for 12mm mild steel ($150-$200 for aluminium). I got (1) and (2) pretty close but was off by a few mm on (3). 1 hour with a good metal file fixed that and I now have a nice alignment between the adaptor plate and the gearbox input spline (measured with a simple gauge).

Image

Pls let me know if anyone would like the DXF file to check out, I am not sure how to attach files to these posts. It's needs a little bit or work to get it spot on, but it's a good start. And at $88 the price is right!

- David
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gttool
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Post by gttool »

IF you want to send it to me I will check it against a drawing that i plotted off a machine
is it a 3,4 cyl gearbox ?

geoff
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Peter C in Canberra
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low cost adaptor plates

Post by Peter C in Canberra »

As of yesterday I can attest that Geoff's adaptor/plate for a Charade works fine. I got my Charade going for a test run just up and down my street. Plenty of pulling power up a hill in 3rd gear with two passengers.
Peter C.
Daihatsu charade conversion 2009-18, Mitsubishi iMiEV 2013-2019, Holden Volt 2018-2019, Hyundai Kona 2019-2023, Hyundai Ioniq 5 2023-present on the ACT's 100% renewable electricity.
drowe67
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Post by drowe67 »

Congratulations on your first drive Peter - remember the "shock and awe" I felt as I backed out of the garage for the first time.

Cheers,

David
Last edited by drowe67 on Mon, 06 Apr 2009, 07:24, edited 1 time in total.
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Peter C in Canberra
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Post by Peter C in Canberra »

Actually, the very first backing out of the garage was a bit underwhelming. I included a relay that closes when reverse is selected that puts a resistor in parallel with the pot box. The idea was that it would limit power in reverse. I clearly went too far with this and had to put my foot flat to the floor to get the car to inch out very slowly. Later in the day I removed the resistor and reverse was quite OK to handle. Probably I'll put in a larger resistor to get some limit but not quite as much as I had originally.
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gttool
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Post by gttool »

good to see its going peter was going to give you a ring anyday soon to find out how it was going congratulations

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coulomb
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Post by coulomb »

drowe67 wrote: Pls let me know if anyone would like the DXF file to check out, I am not sure how to attach files to these posts.

I'd like to see it, if just to compare to the one that we'll likely generate for the MX-5.

You can't really attach a non-image to these posts, but you can upload it with the file manager and tell us the URL (or we can find it for you I think).

Just go to Member Control Panel (at the top of any forum page, just under the AEVA logo), click on File Manager (second last option), and click on New Upload. You'll have to zip up the file first; you can use something like WinZip for that (there is a free preview version that is widely available). So you'll have a .zip file with the .dxf file "inside" it. You could also put a small text file with a few notes in the .zip file as well, if you want.

Once it's uploaded, you can click on it (maybe refresh the page first) in the box on the left, and a clickable file name should appear next to "Download File:". Hover over it, use right mouse button and "Copy link location" (or similar, depending on your browser). Then just send us a short post and paste in the URL. For extra points, put [ URL ] at the start, and [ /URL ] at the end (but no spaces; I can't post that text here without it taking effect).

Peter: belated congrats on your first drive. I'm thinking of converting on my old Suzuki Swift if there are times when we're waiting for parts for the MX-5. It should be rather similar to your Barina.
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Peter C in Canberra
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Post by Peter C in Canberra »

coulomb wrote:
Peter: belated congrats on your first drive. I'm thinking of converting on my old Suzuki Swift if there are times when we're waiting for parts for the MX-5. It should be rather similar to your Barina.


Thanks. Others might be quicker than me and I'm sure it would be quicker if I were to do it again but this conversion took more time than I thought it would. I allowed a year from start to registered and I am on track but that was assuming a fair bit of down time waiting for parts and a relaxed pace. Instead I have always had something I could do and working quite long hours. Some of the time was spend checking things multiple times or working out details that I would not have to repeat if doing it again. I expect a Suzuki Swift would work well, mine is actually a Charade, the same as 'drowe67', not a Barina.
Anyway thanks for the congrats; I am feeling pretty good about it mostly working as expected!
Peter C.
Daihatsu charade conversion 2009-18, Mitsubishi iMiEV 2013-2019, Holden Volt 2018-2019, Hyundai Kona 2019-2023, Hyundai Ioniq 5 2023-present on the ACT's 100% renewable electricity.
gttool
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Post by gttool »

Coulomb,
I Belive I have the bellhousing dimensions for the mx5 I think they are the same for the fwd as rearwheel drive B series engines ??
Geoff
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evric
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Post by evric »

Peter, have you posted any photos yet? Have you got a website?
Ric.
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drowe67
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Post by drowe67 »

coulomb wrote:
I'd like to see it, if just to compare to the one that we'll likely generate for the MX-5.


Here is the DXF CAD file for G102 1.3 litre 4 cylinder Charade with the Zibo motor.

As mentioned above it needs a little tweaking to centre the motor layer on the bell housing layer. Through some emails with Geoff we established that the 3 cylinder Charade has a different gearbox.

- David
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Peter C in Canberra
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low cost adaptor plates

Post by Peter C in Canberra »

evric wrote: Peter, have you posted any photos yet? Have you got a website?
Ric.

Not really. I have been taking photos and will get them up eventually. I just put a link to my entry in evalbum under members machines on this forum. Also, everyone can have a look, perhaps even a drive, at the open day in October. I want it to have been registered on the road for a few months already by then.
Peter.
Daihatsu charade conversion 2009-18, Mitsubishi iMiEV 2013-2019, Holden Volt 2018-2019, Hyundai Kona 2019-2023, Hyundai Ioniq 5 2023-present on the ACT's 100% renewable electricity.
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