Category: Drivetrain

Let’s fit a motor

(12/25/2024)

Merry Christmas!

I decided that before I do anything else on this project, I need to get the motor mounted. To start, I need to see where the rear differential lines up with the front of the car. My idea is to use a laser mounted to a piece that snaps into the yoke of the rear diff, but this version proved that the laser did not shoot out straight.

So, on to revision two that used a ball and socket mount for my GoPro. This allowed me to align the laser to a target while turning the rear diff.

Once mounted, it wasn’t too hard to get things somewhat centered.

Next I started making templates of the motor mount brackets. A combination of measuring and some brackets I found already online (https://www.printables.com/model/942974-nissan-leaf-em57-motor-brackets/files) – I was able to get something that I like and will get this transferred to metal tomorrow.

I slid the motor and TorqueBox under the car and measured about where the center of the yoke is and the laser dot from the rear diff. It looks like I can tuck this motor up tight under the transmission tunnel. It’ll be an interesting motor cradle when I’m done, but as long as it handles the torque, I’ll be happy.

Accelerator!

(10/06/2024)

I had a few moments to work on the car recently and installed an accelerator pedal from a random Mercedes. I think they use these in a lot of vehicles, but this was one of a few pedals I found where the pivot was at the bottom and not the top. I have VERY little room in the pedal box for a different pedal and I didn’t like the cable-driven setup I had started.

I ended up machining out a block of aluminum to hold the pedal at the right depth/angle and mounted it to the side of the transmission tunnel.

I like this pedal because it also has a double wiper, which I can use in my Thunderstruck VCU. It appears that the linearity of each pot is a little different, which may be interesting to configure.