[Bottomfeeder]

It does seem odd that your motor is so hot. I'm not sure how your 6.7"er was set up initially. But, it's worth asking the manufacturer if they have any suggestions on timing.

Spitfires sure are small though. I've delighted more than a couple children who were enjoying seeing the toy car. I don't need to understand Spanish to figure out what a "carito" is.

[ClintK]

I did spend quite a bit of time at very low speeds / low RPMs in the short distance which probably wasn't good for motor cooling. I'm surprised (impressed?) by how cool the controller was compared to the motor.

The motor is reversible, and even though I'm not using that capability now, I'm not sure I want to mess with its timing if I don't have to. I'm still thinking the controller is the culprit for the low end performance. Once that is beefed up the motor will spend less time at low RPM.

At some point I'm going to pick up these for battery balancing: http://www.voltblocher.com/

[RE Farmer]

Originally Posted by ClintK

Wife and I took the car up to Target for some groceries. About 6 miles round trip. The car is so tiny, we were looking up at motorcyclists!

Wait 'til night-time. Your eye level is right at most cars' headlight level, so it seems everyone has their highbeams on.

Re: Insurance - I agree, carrying comp., for the additional $100/yr is worth it considering the money you've put into it. Where is TX are you moving? If Houston or some such place, I would make sure the LiFePOs are covered as they are highly prized by vandals/thieves.

Hook 'em Horns.

[ClintK]

Originally Posted by RE Farmer

Wait 'til night-time. Your eye level is right at most cars' headlight level, so it seems everyone has their highbeams on.

Re: Insurance - I agree, carrying comp., for the additional $100/yr is worth it considering the money you've put into it. Where is TX are you moving? If Houston or some such place, I would make sure the LiFePOs are covered as they are highly prized by vandals/thieves.

Hook 'em Horns.

Moving to San Marcos, but I grew up in Austin & graduated from U.T. Austin.

[RE Farmer]

Originally Posted by ClintK

Moving to San Marcos, but I grew up in Austin & graduated from U.T. Austin.

Cool! I'm in Austin once or twice a year; perhaps I could stop by once you're established.

[ClintK]

Originally Posted by RE Farmer

Cool! I'm in Austin once or twice a year; perhaps I could stop by once you're established.

Sure, you're more than welcome to stop by and take a drive.

[ClintK]

So it has been a few years since my last post! Here's the short version... I purchased some acreage just before moving back to Texas. Controller issues prevented me from getting the car inspected / road legal right away when I moved back, and I got side-tracked building up the raw land. Late last year I sold the land so now I have time (and money) for the Spitfire project again! My goal is fully road legal and tearing up the road by May.

Turns out cars don't sit idle very well. (Actually maybe they sit idle fine, they just accumulate all the same problems regardless if you're driving them or not!)

- When I got back in the car to test drive it, the brake pedal was sitting on the floor. So I replaced the brake master cylinder (4 bolts? I love Spitfires).
- Tried bleeding the brakes but nothing came out. So I replaced the front flexible brake lines. Now I can bleed the brakes.
- The brakes work now, but they're very poor (foot has to be almost all the way down before they're effective, although they're probably where they were at 3 years ago).
- Obviously I had to buy a new 12V auxiliary battery as well.

I'm hoping the rear brakes just need adjusting (that's the last suggestion in my Haynes manual anyways). I'll try that next weekend.

My DC-DC converter seems to have gone bad. Voltage across my 12V auxiliary battery is the same regardless if the converter is running or not (and the 12V battery slowly drained down while I was running tests with the car despite the converter running).

As a test, I disconnected the converter's 12V output from the + terminal of the 12V battery and checked the voltage across the output - it was something like 0.25V. Even if there is no load on the DC-DC converter, shouldn't it still show 12V?

I'm running through the checklist for a Texas safety inspection now...
- About a third of the lights illuminated on the car right away.
- About a third of the lights illuminated on the car after I bumped them with my hand.
- About a third of the lights would not illuminate at all.

I went light socket by light socket, cleaning them and replacing bulbs as necessary. Everything works except for the brake lights now. I found the plastic switch at the brake pedal that completes the circuit (to illuminate the brake lights) in 4 pieces on the floor board. (Seriously, how do these things fall apart with the car just sitting in a garage!?) So I'm ordering a new switch from British Victoria so I can have brake lights again...

I re-wired my 2nd contactor so it is not triggered by the foot pedal. I'm hoping the controller is happier with that. I did a short test drive up/down the street in second gear and the car performance was good.

I don't want to over-stress the controller or the transmission (from clutchless shifting), so my goal is to just drive the car in 2nd for now.
Does anyone have a source for the max RPM of an ADC L91-4003 motor? 6,000 should be safe but I imagine it would be higher?

Looks like my gear ratio is: 8.4 for 2nd gear ? (http://www.triumphspitfire.com/Size.html)
If my motor is spinning at 6,000 RPM, then my wheels are at: 714 RPM ?
Radii of my tires are about 11" => 2*pi*r = 5.76' per rotation ?
714 RPM * 5.76' per rotation = 46 MPH ?
(Sounds reasonable to me, did I do those calculations right?)

Unfortunately the only road out of my neighborhood to civilization is 55 MPH.

If the controller doesn't blow on me (again anyways, I've already had it smoke on me once when I put it in 3rd), then I should be street legal in short order. Short term worst case (and probably long term) I'll go for the Soliton Jr and drive the car solely in 3rd gear.

Sorry for the long hiatus, but Bumblebee is coming back!

[Ziggythewiz]

Welcome back!

The worst thing about lights that come on when you bump them is they turn off when the road bumps them again. I've got one that works when you look at it but that's about it. Got me honked/sworn at yesterday.

[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by ClintK

So it has been a few years since my last post!

glad to see you are getting back to the EV!

Originally Posted by ClintK

- Tried bleeding the brakes but nothing came out. So I replaced the front flexible brake lines. Now I can bleed the brakes.

after sitting that long, with crack in flex lines, chances are the fluid in the line has absorbed water.... you should drain and fill with fresh fluid, or the water will attack steel lines and cylinders.

Originally Posted by ClintK

My DC-DC converter seems to have gone bad. ... checked the voltage across the output - it was something like 0.25V. Even if there is no load on the DC-DC converter, shouldn't it still show 12V?

sounds bad. could be fuse. could be connections, or traction pack voltage is below input required. what do you have for a traction pack, and is it at the original voltage the dc-dc expects on the input side?




Looks like my gear ratio is: 8.4 for 2nd gear ? (http://www.triumphspitfire.com/Size.html)
If my motor is spinning at 6,000 RPM, then my wheels are at: 714 RPM ?
Radii of my tires are about 11" => 2*pi*r = 5.76' per rotation ?
714 RPM * 5.76' per rotation = 46 MPH ?
[/QUOTE]
my swift doesn't have a tach, or a tailshaft for easy pickup, so I just calculated redlines and put stickers on the speedo:
mph = (RPM * Rtire)/(G1 *Gf *168) where G1 is gear selected, and Gf is final ratio in my case with: RPM = 5000 Rtire (radius rim+tire) = 11 Gf = 3.79 gives: 86.38/G1 = mph so I set my 'redlines': 1st: G1= 3.58 -> mph= 24 2nd: G1 = 1.89 -> MPH = 46 3rd: G1 = 1.28 -> mph = 67 .... enough! I slapped stickers right on the speedo...

[ClintK]

Originally Posted by Ziggythewiz

Welcome back!

The worst thing about lights that come on when you bump them is they turn off when the road bumps them again. I've got one that works when you look at it but that's about it. Got me honked/sworn at yesterday.

Yeup. I knew it would turn off as soon as the inspector looked at it so I went ahead and cleaned the connections of all the lights. I then went around the car bumping every light with my hand / rocking the car and they all seem good now.