[Camaro]

First a little background,
I'm and EE currently working on my masters degree at the Air Force Institute of Technology. I have quite a bit of programming and electrical experience and I'm pretty good with a wrench.

This will be my second EV. My first one is a 1979 Kawasaki G4 that I converted over three years ago. (See image below). It has an Etek motor, Altrax 400 amp controller, and 8 B&B 20amp batteries running at 48 volts. It's still running strong, but I (and my wife) want a second car.

I bought a 1994 Camaro Z28 about six months ago for $600.00 It's in great condition, and it didn't have an engine or transmition (which saved me a lot of time).

[Camaro]

The first thing I've done is to tear down the car completely, and I mean completely. I checked for rust and patched the few rust spots that there were.

[Camaro]

Then I cleaned up the engine bay, and rolled truck bed lining on the bottom of the chassis.
I've rebuilt the front-end and the rear differential. I've also put in a lighter Kmember. I'm not going to put anything back on the car that doesn't need to be there.

[Camaro]

Now things will get a little tricky. I originally thought about direct drive, but even with a 4.1:1 differential gear reduction, a Warp 9 won't cut it, so I plan on making my own gearbox. I have a Bridgeport mill in my garage that I'm pretty good with.
From what I can gather most people leave there EV's in second gear, which is around a 1:1.8 gear reduction.

At this point comments and suggestions are more than welcome. What I plan on doing is making an aluminum gear box with just two gears, one mounted to the motor and a second mounted to a splined shaft. The advantage of this setup is weight and simplicity. The down side is I'll only have one gear. Thoughts?

[DavidDymaxion]

I love your project! By coincidence I also have a red gasser 1994 Camaro Z28. I regularly autocross, occasionally road race, and have run it on the Salt Flats. It surprises people how fast it can corner. It is still with a little regret I'm converting a Porsche instead of my Camaro, but the Porsche is so much lighter that saves alot of money for a given amount of acceleration.

Why not get a junk car tranny? Allegedly a 2 speed PowerGlide is light, tough, and cheap.

What are your goals? Are you hoping to embarrass supercars?

You can get modified Ford 9 inch rear axles that are direct bolt-in replacements for the Camaro axle. I think this is a really good idea (or switching to a Chevy 12 bolt). The Camaro axle is wimpy. The Ford 9 incher is much tougher. Also, you can get a 6:1 rear gear for the Ford 9 incher. 6:1 is about perfect, as 5000 rpm would then be about 70 mph. Allegedly the Chevy 12 bolt is a little more efficient, as it has less pinion offset.

Many of the NEDRA racers that go direct drive use 2 motors. With a big, heavy car like a Camaro I'd be worried a 9 inch motor would be up to the task. A tranny makes its life much easier at low speeds.

Originally Posted by Camaro

Now things will get a little tricky. I originally thought about direct drive, but even with a 4.1:1 differential gear reduction, a Warp 9 won't cut it, so I plan on making my own gearbox. I have a Bridgeport mill in my garage that I'm pretty good with.
From what I can gather most people leave there EV's in second gear, which is around a 1:1.8 gear reduction.

At this point comments and suggestions are more than welcome. What I plan on doing is making an aluminum gear box with just two gears, one mounted to the motor and a second mounted to a splined shaft. The advantage of this setup is weight and simplicity. The down side is I'll only have one gear. Thoughts?

[Camaro]

Originally Posted by speedboats

Where do you intend to mount the motor and 'box? would be cool to see it in teh tunnel leaving the hood space for the bats? THis may matain close to teh original wheel weight distribution. The tunnel looks to be large enough?

If you are going to the effort of making a 'box, why not simply modify the diff to get the ratio you are after. Might look cleaner...

Yes I want to mount the motor, gearbox and all, where the transmition was. I should have plenty of room in the engine bay.

I thought about getting a bigger rear differential but I didn't think I could get the 6:1 reduction through the diff alone, but looking back through the
posts DavidDymaxion says that I can get a Ford 9 inch rear axle with a 6:1 reduction.

[quote=DavidDymaxion;93973]
You can get modified Ford 9 inch rear axles that are direct bolt-in replacements for the Camaro axle. I think this is a really good idea (or switching to a Chevy 12 bolt). The Camaro axle is wimpy. The Ford 9 incher is much tougher. Also, you can get a 6:1 rear gear for the Ford 9 incher. 6:1 is about perfect, as 5000 rpm would then be about 70 mph. quote]

DavidDymaxion, you just might have saved me alot of work. Do you know where I can get a Ford 9 inch rear axle with a 6:1 reduction? Also, you said that at 5000 rpm, I'd go 70mph. I thought you calculate top speed from rpm like this, (rpm/gear reduction)/wheel diameter. In which case, with a 6:1 reduction and 16'' wheels I get 52mph at 5000 rpm. 52mph is just fine for my needs in fact I prefer it. Did I do the math right?

If I did, and if I can get a Ford 9 inch rear axle with a 6:1 reduction for a few hundred dollars, I'll go the direct drive route.

[Jimdear2]

Originally Posted by Camaro

Now things will get a little tricky. I originally thought about direct drive, but even with a 4.1:1 differential gear reduction, a Warp 9 won't cut it, so I plan on making my own gearbox. I have a Bridgeport mill in my garage that I'm pretty good with.
From what I can gather most people leave there EV's in second gear, which is around a 1:1.8 gear reduction.

At this point comments and suggestions are more than welcome. What I plan on doing is making an aluminum gear box with just two gears, one mounted to the motor and a second mounted to a splined shaft. The advantage of this setup is weight and simplicity. The down side is I'll only have one gear. Thoughts?

Howdy,

People are probably getting sick of hearing me spout off about powerglides. But here we go again.

As you will probably notice if you look around the threads, I believe that DC Electric Traction Motors and Powerglides were made for each other, just nobody has discovered it yet.

Look into the hot rod community at some of the options available to you in a powerglide transmission. Get a Jegs or Summit catalog to get an overview.

If you use a glide with the circle track pump drive and auxillary boost pump to get rid of the torque converter and some other custom parts it is possible to build a manually shiffted 2 speed planetary transmission with a 1.8 to 1 low gear (other low gear ratios available) and a 1 to 1 high gear, a reverse gear and a park lock (important on an electric). You can just order the parts and bolt this together, shifter and all.

Some options:

One version of this transmission (with the right custom parts) could be about 14 inches long and weigh about 45 pounds. The nicest thing about it is you can do this with nothing but OFF THE SHELF, NEW PARTS. NO CUSTOM MACHINING. All of this stuff fits together. And tough? you can build a glide to handle HUGE (800 - 1000 horse power) torque.

You could also start with a scrap yard core and build a standard case glide, without a torque converter, that would fit right into the existing trans position of your camero using off the shelf mounts and shafts and then use a standard electric motor to chevy (4.3 L V6 pattern) trans to motor adapter plate. With a little effort you could even keep it fully automatic (see a good trans man) even without a torque converter.

All of the necessary engineering to fit a glide into a camero has been done and refined so you can make a nice looking installation.

You owe yourself a look at whats available. Spend you creative efforts on new stuff. The glide is mostly done.

Jim

[PatricioIN]

Please keep this thread posted with updates as you build.. I'd like to see what you end up with. That car should have weighed around 3300lbs with tops. I'm curious what you leave out of it and how much weight you can shave before adding EV parts. What you've done so far looks good. Keep it up!

[PhantomPholly]

Originally Posted by Jimdear2

Howdy,

People are probably getting sick of hearing me spout off about powerglides. But here we go again.

As you will probably notice if you look around the threads, I believe that DC Electric Traction Motors and Powerglides were made for each other, just nobody has discovered it yet.

Look into the hot rod community at some of the options available to you in a powerglide transmission. Get a Jegs or Summit catalog to get an overview.

If you use a glide with the circle track pump drive and auxillary boost pump to get rid of the torque converter and some other custom parts it is possible to build a manually shiffted 2 speed planetary transmission with a 1.8 to 1 low gear (other low gear ratios available) and a 1 to 1 high gear, a reverse gear and a park lock (important on an electric). You can just order the parts and bolt this together, shifter and all.

Some options:

One version of this transmission (with the right custom parts) could be about 14 inches long and weigh about 45 pounds. The nicest thing about it is you can do this with nothing but OFF THE SHELF, NEW PARTS. NO CUSTOM MACHINING. All of this stuff fits together. And tough? you can build a glide to handle HUGE (800 - 1000 horse power) torque.

You could also start with a scrap yard core and build a standard case glide, without a torque converter, that would fit right into the existing trans position of your camero using off the shelf mounts and shafts and then use a standard electric motor to chevy (4.3 L V6 pattern) trans to motor adapter plate. With a little effort you could even keep it fully automatic (see a good trans man) even without a torque converter.

All of the necessary engineering to fit a glide into a camero has been done and refined so you can make a nice looking installation.

You owe yourself a look at whats available. Spend you creative efforts on new stuff. The glide is mostly done.

Jim

Jim,

With an electric, why bother with a "reverse" gear? Why not just have a polarity reverser and have two speeds forwards OR backwards?

[stormconnors]

My thought is that you should retain the manual transmission. "Most people leave their EV's in second gear" is certainly not true in my case. Around town, it is true. On a steep hill, I occasionally use first. On the highway I regularly use 3rd and sometimes 4th or 5th. You are guessing about the best ratio, and undertaking a big project- building a transmission. The only benefit I can see is a trivial weight saving. The downside risk is an untested powertrain and a non functioning vehicle. Doesn't sound like a good tradeoff to me.

"If you can't build it right, make it adjustable."

The next question will be clutch or clutchless. For a whole bunch of reasons, I would recommend keeping the clutch.

Storm
http://www.evalbum.com/1059

Originally Posted by Camaro

Now things will get a little tricky. I originally thought about direct drive, but even with a 4.1:1 differential gear reduction, a Warp 9 won't cut it, so I plan on making my own gearbox. I have a Bridgeport mill in my garage that I'm pretty good with.
From what I can gather most people leave there EV's in second gear, which is around a 1:1.8 gear reduction.

At this point comments and suggestions are more than welcome. What I plan on doing is making an aluminum gear box with just two gears, one mounted to the motor and a second mounted to a splined shaft. The advantage of this setup is weight and simplicity. The down side is I'll only have one gear. Thoughts?