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Rick's 1973 VW Super Beetle build

86K views 232 replies 21 participants last post by  Ziggythewiz 
#1 ·
Several months ago I purchased a donor car and have been spending my time reading this forum and stripping the car and getting ready for the conversion.

I am a 60 + retired financial executive. I have owned 4 VW’s over the years and in college my brother and I rebuilt the engine on a bug convertible. I have good mechanical skills and am an electronic hobbyist. Some time ago I installed a 3KW solar PV system on the roof of my home. I have also converted 2 bicycles to electric drive and six months ago I converted one of them to Lithium (48v Headway pack). My desire for more speed and utility led me to considering an EV conversion.

I have no metal fabrication skills except for the ability to cut, drill or shape aluminum with a router.(derived from my woodworking skills) I have found a local source for aluminum plate and several resources for aluminum welding.

I hope initially to have a range of approximatley 10- 20 miles. I will probably start out with a 96v pack of about 100Ahrs. I expect to get 25 mile range for local driving. Phase two of my plan is to upgrade by paralleling another 100Ahr pack. At that point I should be able to take short trips of 40 miles on the freeway. My choice of 32 cells is driven by the investment I have made in some cellogs and a circuit board by rwaudio that will give me LVC and HVC. When I upgrade to the extra capacity I will probably purchase a high amperage charger and a BMS. In the meantime I can charge slowly with a couple of 48v Meanwells.

My initial budget to get the car running for phase one is $15,000. That includes the AC-35 system which I will pick up inin Ontario, California tomorrow. I ordered the motor and adaptor from Thunderstruck Motors in Santa Rosa CA. and recieved a lot of offline help from Frodus and Gottdi. I have received a quote for 100 Ahr CALB cells from Keegan Han and will probably commit that purchase by the end of June. Later in the year I will evaluate the budget for phase two. The car is currently grey primer with the rear fenders, apron and rear hood removed. I am also considering fiberglass fenders, apron, rear hood and trunk.
 
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#5 ·
I will have to agree but 96 will do in a pinch. My little Ghia was 96 volts and it did quite well in the speed, just not the distance because of the lead. With the AC system being used you can go quite a bit higher in voltage. I'd plan on at least 144 volts if not more. Problem then becomes the charging situation. I can tell you about a nice DC DC that will work nicely at high voltages.

I did a 77 MG Midget and ran that at 120 volts. That was nice.

Pete :)
 
#9 · (Edited)
It is 2'' shorter and that will make my installation easier. I have some hills in my little beach town and the AC35 has more low end torque than the AC50. The AC50 has greater torque on the higher end but the only time I would need that would be for passing at highway speeds. My only highway is the freeway so I don't care about passing speed.
EDIT: On ramp approaches to the freeway are one area where I might need higher speed acceleration but that might be as simple as picking the right gear.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Im right in the middle of my 1973 super beetle conversion. The AC50 will fit in ok with little problems. I am using rebirthauto adapter which is a very nice unit. Using onegreenev's suggestion of lowering the transaxle helped.

Loosen the front mount disconnect the shifter linkage and remove the bolts holding the transmission in place, then lower it with a jack. Jack the motor from the bottom and line up in place and it should go right on. Then back the motor adapter back about 1 inch back from the transaxle and thread the studs (used threaded rod) put in from the back through the transaxle into the adapter. Seat the adapter to the transaxle and bolt tight. Replace and tighten the transaxle bolts/linkage.

I have the starter hole cover done, made a nice polished aluminum back and bottom plates. Next step is to make a holder for the controller/heatsink and contactor/fusebox.

Good luck with your project. I am having lots of fun.
 
#12 ·
I picked up my motor yesterday and my transaxle should be available later today. I had new seals installed in the transaxle.

I was wondering about the starter hole. I think I will make a cover before I re-install the transaxle. It also sounds like it is easier to mount the motor to the transaxle before I re-install the transaxle.
 
#14 ·
Trying to install it all at one time may not be a very good idea. remember the main frame "fork" that the transmission bell housing bolts to sticks past the halfshafts making an all in one install difficult. If you have the transmission out of the car it's pretty easy to check fit the motor and bolt it up with lots of room around it and make sure it all mates up well. Then just remove the motor and know ahead of time it will bolt up once the transmission itself is installed in the car.

Zak
 
#15 ·
The idea behind the trick is to keep you from having to cock the motor in such a tight fitting area. The transaxle will just tilt down for you to mount the motor then tilt it back up into place. It makes for an easy install unless you actually have lots of room. With my 9" GE there is but an 1/8 inch gap between the body and end of the motor. Tilting the transaxle allows me to slip in the motor real easy with out binding or catching when the motor is at such a steep angle if I had not angled the transaxle down. By angling the transaxle you actually make a hard job easy. Removing the transaxle completely is more trouble than its worth. You'd need to remove the axles first. Not something to do under the car.

Pete :)


It really does not take much movement of the transaxle to get the job done. You will want two floor jacks but a jack stand for the trans will do in a pinch.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Thanks for all the good input. My transmission wasn't ready yesterday so I will have to wait until Monday.

I have independent rear suspension so I will leave the half shafts off so they won't get in the way. I also removed the rear apron and rear fenders so I have lots of access. I will fit the motor to the transmision and then decide if I am going to do it in one piece or in stages.

In the meantime I mounted the taper lock to the motor shaft and then had to remove it because it was too close to the motor and that made the flywheel scrape on the adapter bracket. I used a puller to remove it but the parts came off as one piece, so now I need to figure out how to pull them apart. I should have just pulled it up about .125 inch but too late now.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I finally got the taperlock separatel and reinstalled with more clearance for the flywheel.

Here are some pictures of the flywheel and the adapter plate. That is a VW flywheel that has been lightened and balanced. It only weighs 7lbs vs the stock weight of about 13lbs. The only negative is that I can't use my gland nut device that runs on the starter ring. The picture on the right shows the clearance that I worked so hard to get.

This build has been a serial group of 1/8 " challenges. LOL
 

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#22 · (Edited)
No, it wasn't a mistake. I had mine balanced also. I didn't want any vibration and I expect to take the motor to higher revs than the gas engine. According to the previous poster, I also saved the equivalent of 60lbs of body weight. I think it has something to do with not having to overcome the inertia of the flywheel when accelerating. The flywheel serves a purpose on an ICE but for an electric drive car it's only purpose is for the clutch.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Weight should really be considered, think of it as replacing the weight with additional batteries, better acceleration, longer range.

A few examples:
Starter motor 10 lbs
Spare tire 30 lbs
flywheel 13 lbs
rear seat 27 lbs
gas tank 20 lbs

Basically about 100 lbs in just a few items, it's all weight you don't have to drag up a hill or get moving from a dead stop. These items are about the same as 8 Calb180 cells.
 
#28 · (Edited)
I am a little behind in posting. After getting the adapter mounted to my motor I realized that the clutch return spring was broken so the next day I repaired that and mounted the motor to the transmission. Here is a picture of it just before I put it in the car.


I have since mounted the controller and begun wiring.
 

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#32 ·
I made some progress this week. I installed the motor, and completed the battery boxes.

In the first picture you can see my temporary plywood breadboard. I have already moved things around a bit and it is a tight fit for the controller. I eventually will mount everything on a 1/4" aluminum heatsink but for now the plywood serves my purpose. I ran the motor at 100 rpms just to check my initial wiring. The PB 8 trottle is in the grey box at the bottom and the Spyglass display is sitting on top of it . The open grey box in where the throttle wiring connects to the controller wiring and serves as a pass through for the controller wiring that goes to the dash. (Spyglass display, menu button, forward and reverse switch)

The second picture is the passenger side battery box that will be beneath the seat. The notch is for the Scat seat bracket and that will limit my battery capacity in those boxes. ( I have a similar one on the drivers side) There are 8 12 volt 12Ahr batteries in there temporarily to test the system. Some came from a early bicycle project and the others came from a backup power supply that I charge from my solar system on my roof. I am probably two months away from acquiring the 100Ahr Calbs that I intend to put in those boxes and other places.

It has been a good week and it was great hearing the click of the contactor, the hum of the controller and the whine of the motor.
 

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#33 ·
I have mostly been working on my 12 volt wiring the past two weeks. I decided to abandon all the old wiring, so I am starting from scratch. I intercepted the key switch wires and used them to power a relay that distributes 12 volts to devices that are on when the ignition switch is on. That would include the contactor, and some displays. It is an interesting thought process to go through the circuits and decide which are powered by the ignition switch and which are always on. There are some typical uses out there. For instance the brake lights are always on, I presume for safety reasons.

I have another 12 volt distribution that powers things that are always on such as the EMW EV Display. I made a box to house the Hall effect sensor and ran the wiring for the bluetooth sender to the front of the cockpit. the following picture is before I connected it up.
 

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#34 · (Edited)
My schedule for acquiring batteries changed significantly this week. As a result of this thread I jumped on an opportunity to buy some Winston batteries at $1.10 per Ahr.

I picked them up this morning in Harbor City, California, a short drive from Hermosa Beach. I have tested and inspected them and they all tested at 3.31 volts. 30 of them had sequential serial numbers and were in their original shipping container which was in very good shape. Six others were packed with the hardware. I purchased copper straps for an additional $3 per strap. The bolts and washers were included.
 

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#35 ·
Not much to report in the past few weeks. Did a little more on my 12v system and ordered a fuse and some braided straps from evtv.me and some more 2/0 cable and terminals from another vendor so I can assemble and hook up my pack and take a test drive.

Currently in Northern California enjoying a visit with family and friends.

Best to everyone on the Fourth. Looking forward to spinning a few bolts on my return.
 
#36 ·
It has been a challenging few days. I returned after a great 4th of July holiday seeing friends and family in Northern California, and began connecting up my battery pack. I got it hooked up and wanted to see the wheels spin while they were still on jack stands. I was too lazy to connect up the 12volt system to my keyswitch and thought I could just push the spade connector onto a source of 12 volts. It worked a few times but my hands weren't all that steady and I could hear the internal relay/contactor on the Curtiss click a few times as I tried to make the connection.

Apparently, this shortcut welded my Tyco, because I got the error code #38. I checked it out with my DVM and sure enough, without any power to the Tyco it had 111volts on both sides. I guess the Curtiss won't let the motor run when the contactor is welded so I was out of luck and out of pocket for approximately $100. I ordered a new Tyco contactor this morning from KTA and it should arrive in a few days. In the meantime I am going to make sure my 12 volt system is hooked up so I can use the key switch to turn on the contactor. I might also install a small toggle somewhere discrete so I can turn on the Curtiss when I am too lazy to go get the keys to the ignition.

I will take this opportunity to finish the installation of the controller and other peripherals. I had previously mounted them on plywood so I could fiddle around with locating everything. In the meantime I have read that some form of cooling for the Curtis might prolong the life of the electronics so I went to my metal supplier and bought a piece of 1/2" aluminium to mount the Curtis and provide some kind of additional heat sink.

Today was more rewarding than yesterday as I began working on my permanent controller installation. I will provide pictures later, but there is room for a chill plate and/or some heat sink fins if I need more cooling. I live in a beach community and it rarely gets above 75 F so I hope I will be ok with this approach to keeping the controller cool.
 
#38 ·
IIRC, the Curtis controller is supposed to take care of the precharge inside the controller. They just didn't anticipate that someone would turn the key switch signal on and off repeatedly, like I did while trying to fit the spade connector on the source of 12 volts. I don't think one could repeat that on off cycle with a physical switch as fast as my shortcut did.
 
#39 ·
Oh, okay. Forgot you're on AC. I don't have one, but I know some people have the KSI tied in with the pedal. I suppose having the controller go on-off while driving wouldn't be as bad as the initial powerup as the caps would be charged, but it seems strange the controller would allow enough juice to weld the contactor.
 
#40 ·
I think the microswicth on the PB-8 prevents starting the motor with the pedal depressed. I think that is taken care of in the controller and is a safety factor. I just wired them according to the schematic and it works.

Yes, I don't know the specifics of what might have happened, but I'm not going to take that shortcut again. My new contactor arrives tomorrow and I am going to have the key switch relay working by then. I have designed a lot of relays in my system so I don't put much current through the old VW switches.
 
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