[RIPPERTON]

Just in case any of you were suspecting that I was some kind of Mechanical Design Super Genius, the next few posts should put a stop that crazy talk.

I made the new brush holder out of Acetal.
Acetal melts
Brushes get very hot at 100 amps
brushes stick to the molten Acetal holder and......
you can guess the rest

[RIPPERTON]

So I ripped the DC motor out of the bike in disgust and threw it in the corner and did the right thing and put a brushless hub motor in it. I had 3 new Honeywell hall sensors and thicker phase cables put in by voicecoils and I drilled the other side of the axle out, ran 2 phase cables out through the original axle drilling and the third phase cable and the hall wires out through the new axle drilling.
Does 25km on the 4 Turnigys, cruises at 45kmh and top of 70kmh.
Its going to need another 4 Turnigys and then I can crank the amps up on the Kelly.
Now it needs a new bike with dual suspension to handle the speed.

[RIPPERTON]

little tip about rs232 plugs on Kelly's
I could not get my config program to boot up even if I twisted the cable plug end or held it off to one side. Could only assume the pins were loose and not contacting so I smeared some carbon grease in to the holes on the Kelly end and booted first go make sure you clean the excess grease off well before booting

[CrazyAl]

Thanks for sharing. That information is helpful. I'm in the process of modifying more Electric Starter Motors for my Electric Go Kart.

I've already isolated the negative from the case, added another terminal for the other set of brushes (this makes it easier to go reverse) and will attach the sprocket to the go kart in such a way that it can turn in both directions and also not slide along the axis of the shaft.

I'm also looking to add water cooling.
I'm most likely to use the cooling system as seen on the Catavolt at the last round, but I may use a cooling system similar to yours (Ripperton) in the future.

Next time you are at Wakefield, I need to check out how you made your motor liquid cooled. I might even bring my go kart down so you can all see it.

[Salty9]

Originally Posted by CrazyAl

Thanks for sharing. That information is helpful. I'm in the process of modifying more Electric Starter Motors for my Electric Go Kart.

I was wondering about this as the duty cycle of most starters in the states is less than a minute but according to Al's blog it is not one of our starters.

[CrazyAl]

Originally Posted by Salty9

I was wondering about this as the duty cycle of most starters in the states is less than a minute but according to Al's blog it is not one of our starters.

I agree that the duty cycle of most starters is less than a minute. In fact, they are typically designed to run for only 10 seconds, then need a break for around a minute.

However, when put on a go kart, it does not have to turn over a gas engine, hence, why I could run mine for longer than 10 seconds.
However, the modified starter motor did get extremely hot as there are no cooling fans, fins or liquid cooling. I often had a bottle of water near by to pour on the motor when it got hot. I'm now working on cooling systems for the motor as I believe I can get more power, torque and have the motor last longer if I implement cooling on the motor.

The starter motor I modified for my Electric Go Kart is typically found on some Kohler gas engines, some John Deere equipment and some B&S gas engines.

Unlike most starter motors you find on cars & trucks, where there is a solenoid to throw the pinion out, this style of starter motor has grooves on the shaft and when the spins, the pinion is thrown out. I simply removed the springs and locked the pinion (with the welded sprocket) into position by packing washers on the shaft.

Some early model English cars also had this style of starter motor.

In the future, I am looking to modify a 24volt starter motor similar to that found on diesel trucks. This one will have a solenoid that throws the pinion out, so I will have to work out how to deal with that one.
Also, I believe a lot of those starter motors are series wound DC motors so if I want to reverse it, I will need to do more modifications. This will involve separating the field winding circuit from the armature circuit.

[RIPPERTON]

I replaced the racing bike with a shocky bike for $100 off Ebay almost new.
will need a bigger shock in the back.
the seat pole tower will be cut out to make way for the battery pack an a new seat tower made from 3mm alloy coming from behind the steering head.
I have left the rear derailleur for chain tensioning but not for shifting and the front derailleur will still have its 3 speeds. All I need for keeping up with the hub.