How many of you are aware of it and what have you done about it? On most cars the suspension is touching metal to the frame somewhere. My vehicle has strut suspension and the contact is at the top of the shock tower. I have thought about putting some nylon insulation between the tower plate and the body but I am sure it will compromise the solid connection needed between the struts and frame. Especially with the curvy roads around here.

[peggus]

Clean your motor! There should be no continuity between terminals and motor frame/shaft. It is not unusual for carbon dust from the brushes to create a leakage though. If cleaning doesn't help you may have a insulation failure and you should have a motor shop take a look at it.

This is kind of like the knee bone connected to the leg bone. The motor is connected to the transmission the transmission is connected to the drive axle the axle goes through the bearing housing that is connected to the strut that is bolted to the shock tower that is part of the auto body. When one end of the continuity tester is placed against the motor housing and the other is placed against the body the little buzzer goes off. I will bet that all cars with strut suspension will read continuity and a lot of cars with coil spring will also. I am not talking voltage. I get no voltage reading between battery terminals or motor terminals and body. The question is. Has anyone addressed this problem and to what conclusion?

[Coley]

It hasn't been a problem with my EV.

At the risk of sounding argumentative there is a good chance you do. I see you are driving a Yugo. It is basically the same suspension as a Fiat 128 and X19. If you put the continuity tester between the end of the strut or any of the three bolts holding the strut in place and the car body you will most likely get a reading. If you do then you will most likely get a reading from the motor housing also. If you don’t please tell me how you managed it.

[peggus]

Why do you perceive continuity between motor frame and body to be a problem?

[electromet]

There is always continuity between the motor case and the frame. You're using metal screws and metal brackets to bolt a metal motor frame into a metal chassis. The key is that the two high voltage leads are insulated from the frame of the motor and thus from the chassis of the car.

I guess its the old saying ignorance is bliss. I built my ev for several years ago with very little out side input and been driving it all this time as such. Since I have been on this forum I have read a few things that never occurred to me such as plasma fires and welded contacts. Then there is all the crap with Toyota either real or imagined happening to a company that is supposed to have a lot more knowledge than me. I guess it has started me looking for potential problems. Its kind of like students of medicine. As they study about different kinds of illnesses they start feeling the symptoms. As for the motor housing touching the car body it would be no worse than having a bad enough smash up that some of the metal was pushed in against the motor or transmission. I was wondering if the potential path from motor to body would mean anything if for what ever reason the armature hit the field. I saw a 440 volt motor with an open frame and a four foot armature hit the field once. That was memorable. I guess its part of getting older. I find myself worrying about more stuff since I realized I am not immortal.

[TigerNut]

Originally Posted by notmrwizard

As for the motor housing touching the car body it would be no worse than having a bad enough smash up that some of the metal was pushed in against the motor or transmission. I was wondering if the potential path from motor to body would mean anything if for what ever reason the armature hit the field. I saw a 440 volt motor with an open frame and a four foot armature hit the field once. That was memorable. I guess its part of getting older. I find myself worrying about more stuff since I realized I am not immortal.

If you want to protect yourself (and your car and bystanders) from a collision induced short, then mount a fuel pump inertia cutoff switch on your chassis and wire it so that it disables the contactor if the inertia switch is tripped. On cars equipped with electric fuel pumps, the pump is wired in series with the inertia switch so that a collision automatically disables the fuel pump.

Yes thanks. I have one. Like I mentioned I don't get much out side input on electric cars around here so it has been useful to bounce these occasional ideas off you guys. So thanks.