It runs!

Now I am cleaning things up, but the car does work! It is also registered and licensed, so it is street legal. This is a clip of me taking it on my first test drive. The engine compartment is exposed so that I could make small changes without much hassle, but at the end of the day I closed that up.

While everything works, I still have some work left to get all of the subsystems setup properly and talking to one-another. For example, the BMS (battery management system) is setup as a standalone system at the moment, but soon I'll be able to integrate a feedback system with the charger so that they work together to keep the batteries healthy.

Final wiring

The last step was wiring everything together. I placed most of the components in the engine compartment and figured out how to hook it all up. Definitely the most fun part of the project!

The yellow box is the charger for the main battery pack

This is the vacuum pump that runs the power braking

This is the hydraulic pump which provides power steering

Here is the layout of the remaining components. The two green boxes on the left are the Zilla 1K controller, which directs the correct output from the main battery pack to the electric motor.

View of the engine compartment with the controller installed

This was the view with everything installed (and running!) before I cleaned up the wiring.

Batteries

The batteries I ended up using are Sinopoly 180Ah Lithium batteries. I am using 34 of them wired in series, so with a nominal 3.2V each, the total pack has a nominal 109V. This gives me a 19.6kWh pack, which should give me between 80-100 miles of range depending on driving conditions. I am splitting the batteries into three boxes. One is in the trunk, one under the trunk where the muffler used to be, and one in the front where the gas tank used to be. The weight of these batteries and the new electric motor is equal to the weight of the gas engine that I took out.

The 34 batteries

The three aluminum boxes that hold the batteries

Batteries in the trunk

Beginning wiring

Both rear boxes in the car, one in the trunk and one behind the bumper

Trunk batteries with copper straps connecting them

Installing the Electric Motor

The electric motor was the first main component that I installed in the car. I used a Netgain Warp9 DC motor. To connect the motor to the old transmission, I used a custom made adapter plate, using the original clutch and flywheel. After the motor was coupled with the transmission outside of the car, getting it in place in the car was relatively straight-forward. I just slowly worked the 250 lb system into place. The motor mounts were the first things that I constructed, using 1/4" thick angle-aluminum to secure the motor to the original mount. The transmission mounts support the rest of the unit's weight.

The Netgain Warp9 DC motor

This is the adapter plate that allowed me to bolt the old transmission to the new motor

Installing the flywheel in the transmission

Electric motor with the adapter plate attached

Electric motor coupled to the transmission

Placing the motor and transmission into the car

Making a motor mount

Top view of the motor being supported by the mounts