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College Project Mitsubishi Colt EV conversion

12K views 26 replies 6 participants last post by  DIT 
#1 ·
Hi,

Myself and 2 friends are doing a conversion on a Colt for our final year project in DIT Bolton St in Dublin Ireland.

It's been a tough start but we seen to be getting somewhere now. We have a very limited budget of €150-€200 so it's tough going.

Check out our website.....

http://dit007pureelectric.webs.com/

Any advice would be welcome.
 
#13 ·
I'd still say it's a little small, It'll move the car but not too well, think of it a the same amount of power as a moped engine.

what is the diameter?

Is it a pump motor?

If you could get hold of whatever it used to drive or something to match the splines then you have something to work from.

Creating a splines coupler from scratch could be very expensive...

Are you using a clutch or not?

Cheers,

Mike
 
#14 ·
Hi, Im from county Waterford and my son and I are considering an ev conversion. We are still at the stage of collecting parts, motors etc. We are looking at VW polos because they did not have power steering up to about 1998 and this would take some of the load off the dc/dc converter. Does your donor car have power steering?
Have you looked into the matter of registration of a home built ev?
 
#15 ·
Hi Dit

Motor looks interesting - how big is it? - what do the brushes look like?

I would suggest having a look at local industrial suppliers - I bet that is a standard spline and you will be able to buy the female

Where did you get it? If it is off a local dead forklift have a look at the rest of the bits - there may be a part that you can turn into an adapter
 
#16 ·
That's the same motor as I'm using on the bike. Two of them actually.
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showpost.php?p=195792&postcount=1172

I had a local machine shop turn the splines off the shaft , down to 19mm and keyed 6mm. Those motors have a high bar count so with some advance will run at higher voltages. 48v on the two nearly put me through the back wall of my workshop!
 
#20 ·
Hi Mike,

We have secured the motor to the mounting plate and have webbed welded supports on the back so hopefully it will hold it.

The controller is still unknown at the moment but will hopefully be sorted in the next week or two. Batteries are just going to be normal run of the mil car batteries as the budget is pretty tight and the car is not going to be going any kind of distance.

Check out our website for loads more pics.

http://dit007pureelectric.webs.com/
 
#23 ·
Hi again...

Errrm no!

No earth!

It's ok not to know, it's tricky. I was the same at this stage of my conversion. Ask questions and read up as required!

It looks like a series wound (dc) motor to me. Judging by the brushes and the fact it has 4 connections.

You need the field windings (casing) in series with the armature (brushes).

The order that you do it in will determine the direction the motor rotates.

Take a read of this Page of my build thread for more info. Major is a guru.

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/good-motoriii-61556p4.html

For your application. i'd get 3 jump leads and an old starter battery.

Short 2 studs together. And connect the other 2 to a battery.

Are there any markings on the motor terminals? If so make sure you short ones that begin with different letters.

As an example. It may be marked a1, a2, y1,y2.

Check that the motor spins the right direction for your gearbox.

Cheers,

Mike
 
#26 ·
Well Done, my son and I have followed your project from the start. I believe you won the competition the project was entered into. Congratulations. the conversion looks super neat and professional.
We finally settled on a suitable vehicle for our own project here in County Waterford. We wanted as 4 seater car, light weight, with no power steering and no power assisted brakes. We have bought a 1988 Citroen 2cv. but we are going to have to restore it to good running order before conversion and that will take 6 months to a year. This will give us time to collect up all the bits we will need.

Congratulations again
 
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