[jackbauer]

Just a sugestion Lots of nice cars out there with known engine issues. Suggest talking to a good independent mechanic.

[jackbauer]

Well , today i found out the bmw bell housing bolts are a stupid head called e-torx. Naturally none of the local auto parts shops had suitable sockets in stock. Good old Ireland So onto ebay I go. Started removing some of the plastic rubbish from the engine bay and rigged up some sockets and lights.

Making progress on the nimh battery front. Looks like i may be able to get them without much difficulty or expense. I seem to get 3 reactions from people who ask what i'm doing with the car:

1)Your crazy!
2)Why not mount a generator on the back wheels to recharge the battery as you drive.That one raises my blood pressure
3)If the car manufacturers cant do it neither can you. More blood pressure increases

[dimitri]

Originally Posted by jackbauer

1)Your crazy!
2)Why not mount a generator on the back wheels to recharge the battery as you drive.That one raises my blood pressure
3)If the car manufacturers cant do it neither can you. More blood pressure increases

At least people are consistently stupid across the world, because you get the same pearls of wisdom around here when talking about DIY EV.

[jackbauer]

Well just spent the past 2 days removing crap from the engine bay (lots of that) , exhaust , driveshaft and finally the infernal fuel tank. Never worked on a bmw before but i can say with certainty that frakin' tank was in there to stay. 3 hours of wrestling , cutting , hammering and cursing got it out. Now I have tons of hoses and pipes and wires dangling down looking for something to do. They need to go next.All set to pull the engine and gearbox next week.

Still looking into the nimh battery option and will start doing some experiments. I've also decided to make my own pot bot. Options include the throttle position sensor that was on the throttle body or just copy the curtis pb6. Doesn't look like brain surgery and i don't have a hundred bucks to spare.

Think I have the splined shaft problem solved. in theory anyway. Not enough meat on the shaft to turn off the splines so i'm planning to cut a keyway in the splines and just fit the coupler on over them. I'm leaning toward a rigid coupler for strength. Anyone any experiences either way?

Got 3 12v 150ah agm batts for free so i'll do a few white zombie style contactor controller launches when i get the motor in

I swear if i had a gun i'd have pumped a few rounds into that petrol tank once i got it out

[major]

Originally Posted by jackbauer

I'm leaning toward a rigid coupler for strength. Anyone any experiences either way?

Hey jack,

Check out m38mike's adventure on post #27 on this thread

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums...p-25633p3.html

Regards,

major

[jackbauer]

wow. That I don't need. Flexi coupling it is so Any particular type work best? I have a standard type with 3 jaws each end and a rubber insert.

[jackbauer]

Well finally had a result wit the splined shaft / coupler saga. Found an engineering works that manufacture plastic injection moulding tools that were willing to key the shaft and coupler. They did a really good job I think. The key is seriously tight in the shaft and needs a jacking screw to be removed. Internal keyway in the coupler was done with a wire eroder. Seriously tight tolerances. Anyway next stage is taking the center out of the clutch friction plate and welding it into the other half of the jaw coupler. The gearbox is really small and neat. German efficency no doubt!

On the car i'm now into sorting out the engine managment wiring from the body electrical systems. Fun and games. Removing the fuel lines today i got a nice shower of petrol on the head. I suppose it had to have a last stab at me.

[Woodsmith]

That is looking really good there Jack.

It'll be interesting to see how you do with no clutch and which side of the clutch/no clutch debate you end up on. I'm begining to think that there may be something in the choice of gearbox that determines sucess or not.

[jackbauer]

Bored out the other half of the coupler to a nice tight fit on the clutch center. Was going to weld it but as the coupler body is cast iron I reckon that would be a bad idea considering the loads that will be carried. Plan is to drill and tap six m8 holes around the disc for m8 x 40 stainless allen bolts.

I've retained the throttle body from the engine as it has a nice 5k throttle position sensor that varies from 1.2k to 4.7k over the range. This will make a nice cheap pot box.

[gte718p]

I might of missed something, but why key it? Why not just cut splines in the coupler. It doesn't seem that much more difficult then cutting the notch.