[Twilly]

Find yourself a good Golf cart repair shop... They should be able to point you in the right direction, As most EV's are just golf carts on steroids

[Gene]

That's a good idea, thx

[Gene]

Did a testmount of the drivemotor today. Although it is quite big, it fits rather well in the chassis, didn't have to do that much modifications.
Also did some experimenting with it, it's a six terminal motor, so two fields, i wired them up in parallel and tested it with a 12v battery, wow, what a difference in running, smooth and powerfull.
The original forklift wiring used 1 field coil for moving forward and one for moving backwards, so half of the motor's power, that's probably why is rated so low on the tag, now i understand why people are warning me
I was planning on using the potmeter of the forklift as a controller, but that may also be a reason why before (using the forklift setup) the drive motor didn't preform well, should probably try getting a decent controller with twist-grip potmeter.
Next thing to work out is the chain-drive, should be doable, but i don't want to mess up the original chain transmission so i'll start looking for parts that i can adjust to my needs.

[Gene]

First milestone achieved !!! Quad bike EV1 moved for the first time on electric power.
Because it was easier to fit a chain wheel to the pumpmotor i returned to this setup. Chain wheel fitted nicely to the axle of the motor. It was a bit of work to position the motor just right to give the chain enough room to pass to the rear but it worked out fine, didn't even had to adjust the chain length, the chain of the ice-transmission was just right, so far no problems, time to do some testing.
First test : 12v battery, wheels off ground : wheels started spinning fast, as expected, chain transmission works perfectly. Did notice an increase in amp use. No load motor only pulled 15A, with chain and wheels around 80A steady but a huge spike during the start. I guess it's normal.
Second test : 12v Battery, wheels on the ground, battery cable in my hand as a contactor : 12v was enough to move the quad with me on it, no exciting acceleration but it moved for the first time on electric power.
Third test : 2x12v batteries (strapped them to the sidebars) to get the 24v the motor had in the forklift : woooow, the added voltage makes a huge difference, this time a very good acceleration, maybe not as good as the 200cc engine but pretty close. For the first time i really felt the potential of the motor, this looks very promising.
The only thing that worries me is the huge amp draw on 24v, i didn't measure it (a bit tricky while test-driving) but the cable's i used from the forklift got quite warm, also the battery terminal suffered a bit of damage, i hope the contactors i have don't weld together.

[bblocher]

Originally Posted by Gene

The only thing that worries me is the huge amp draw on 24v, i didn't measure it (a bit tricky while test-driving) but the cable's i used from the forklift got quite warm, also the battery terminal suffered a bit of damage, i hope the contactors i have don't weld together.

You'll be fine, you have to remember the contactor(s) will close before you give it any throttle. The controller will then be responsible for slowly adding that power and in a safe way. I did a bit of battery terminal "welding" with my 12v tests as well.

What size of cables are you planning on using?

[Gene]

The cables of the forklift where the motor came from are 30mm2, i was planning of using those for the conversion. If they get too hot i can double them for each connection. I'll also use the circuit breakers (300amp) that i recovered.

[Gene]

Here are some pictures of the contactors installed and a testmount of the auxiliary battery that'll be used to feed the contactor coils and all the auxiliary features.
It still needs some work but is seems this 45ah batt is the largest i can fit under the seat, should normally be enough to power contactors and lights for sufficient time. I used the contact switch to turn this circuit on/off and also wired the former starter button to power the coil on the main contactor. Wired this one to the motor so i could take it for a spin using the button as a throttle, not really a throttle, because driving this way is full power or nothing but this way i was able to control the motor a little better than before with the battery cables.
Test drive went really well, used 24v as before, contactor preformed well, no damage of the contacts although during switching it sparked quite a bit.

Later on, when i drove the quad inside, i noticed sparks coming from the motor's brushes and it smelt burned too .
Is it possible that some dirt entered the brush comm area? Or am i burning the brushes because i'm not using a controller?

[Gene]

I'm still trying to determine what caused the arcing of the motor. Here are pictures of the 4 brushes, i noticed that the contact surface of the brushes isn't that smooth as before, all brushes have some form of 'pitting' (dark spots on the photo's), one more than the other where before they were smooth and shiny. Also the comm had traces of something i don't know what on it that wasn't there before.
My best guess is that during the testdrive some water and dirt splashed in the motor causing the arcing because the lowest brush is affected the most. I'll clean the comm, sand down the brushes' contactsurface with fine sanding paper (p1000 or so) so it's smooth again and let the motor run a while with no load on 12v to seat the brushes before i'll try it again on 24v. If this doesn't resolve the arcing i guessed wrong ...

[willsr]

Jaguar is apparently planning to attack the upstart Fisker Karma head-on with an extended range electric version of the all-new XJ. The completely reworked XJ is due to arrive in July and hit dealers in December with a look heavily influenced by the smaller XF. A year later, the Indian-owned British luxury automaker will reportedly launch a plug-in version with 30 miles of electric only range that should help the big car get 47 mpg (US) and a CO2 emissions rating of less than 120 g/km.

Jaguar will be able to introduce this new model now that it has approved for a new EU loan for developing greener cars. Jaguar already has an advantage over some of its competitors because the full-size XJ is comparatively light thanks to its aluminum construction. Lotus Engineering and Caparo are helping Jaguar with development of the ER-EV powertrain.

Additionally, Jaguar and Land Rover are rumored to be developing micro-hybrids, full parallel hybrids, smaller diesel engines, and boosted gas engines along with even more Weight Reductions for the full lineup.
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[Gene]

Got the brushes out, sanded them down an tried them on the motor. Arcing is a little less, but still present, so it wasn't just a little dirt in the motor that caused the problem.
While i was sanding them down i noticed that there are tiny cracks in the brushes too and the brushes are a little colored near the contact area what it my opinion means that they got really hot (perhaps near melting point, what would also explain the traces on the comm).
Maybe it's the combination of high current and old age (i guess they are about 30 years old) that caused them to fail.
I have some big enough brushes lying around, i'll modify them to fit the brush holder of the motor. These have a different composition than the original ones, they seem harder (more dense material) and are not pure carbon (have more like a dark silver color instead of black), maybe these ones better handle high currents, i'll find out soon.
If anyone has some experience with brush problems, feel free to comment.
I'm also e-baying to get a controller, thinking of buying an alltrax AXE4834 programmable controller so i can adjust it to my needs, in this case limiting the current so i don't burn brushes all the time.