Leaf Park Actuator - work arounds?

7469 Views 33 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Zieg, 25 d ago

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · Dec 21, 2020

3

Hi all,

My build is coming along (current status) in the photo below. It is a 2014 Leaf into a 1975 BMW. At the moment it thankfully still works after a few near misses.

Also see: BMW 2002e - my conversion of a BMW2002 using a Leaf...

I would like to see if anyone has an elegant solution for the "park actuator" as described on @Tremelune's post:

www.diyelectriccar.com

Current state of Leafs as donors?

I'm researching using a Leaf as a donor for a classic conversion, and it seems like the state of things is moving so fast that even 2-year-old threads are outdated. What is the current state? Like, instead of swapping in the whole car (which is apparently very difficult to do even after it is...

www.diyelectriccar.com

www.diyelectriccar.com

This is also shown in

by @skooler

See photo below of the actuator still in the gearbox casing.

I would love to be able to fool the actuator in some way to keep the donor car working but without the messy gearbox park assembly. Currently, when I move from Park the shaft rotates and disengages. From what I understand this is normal behaviour. Previously there was a mechanism to stop the gearbox rotating when it was in Park. This was removed with the other half of the gearbox.

Does anyone have success with fooling this system?
(p.s. the part number is: 33251 3NF0A by Denso).

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julwaech

· #2 · Dec 22, 2020

I have no solution, but i'm also interested in a workaround. Does somebody know what connector this is? I only have the actuator without the connector.

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 23, 2020

4

Photos of the 10 Pin connector (only 8 used). Sorry I don't know the model. It seems to be 4 power and 4 data (from possible 6).

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matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 23, 2020

dedlast

· #5 · Dec 24, 2020

Here (maybe) is the parking actuator section from the 2014 service manual. Maybe it will be of some help.

Bill

dedlast

· #6 · Dec 24, 2020

Also, I should mention that when I had my Leaf stuff scattered over the garage floor, I made a shaft that would fit into the parking actuator. It had a flat ground in the other end with a piece of angle steel bolted to it that would catch on a bolt threaded into one of the mounting holes. It was pretty hokey but it served to stop the rotation a bit short of a full revolution and fool the actuator into thinking it was working correctly.

Bill

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 31, 2020

Thanks Bill - @dedlast thanks for the service manual and also the details on the compact solution you used. Do you know if the actuator needs to stop at certain angles or just needs to stop?

I could easily take the original shaft (with a bolt through the shaft) and using the mounting bolts create 3 stops (3 mounting bolts). Two bolts could then be used to limit the shaft.

Do you know if there is a range of movement it needs? or does the shaft just need to be stopped from rotating?

ps - @julwaech did you have any luck?

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 31, 2020

pps. @Dala - just posted a link to EV conversion with Leaf parts (used) | Resolve-EV which looks like it will remove the need for the park actuator by using a different controller. Very very interesting.

julwaech

· #9 · Dec 31, 2020

matthew.stead said:
ps - @julwaech did you have any luck?

I had no time to work on it yet, but the service manual is really helpful!
Also thank you for the pictures of the connector! Although it's still hard to find.

dedlast

· #10 · Dec 31, 2020

Mathew,
My guesstimate is that it just needs to stop, maybe after a short rotation. I had about 120 degrees of rotation on my temporary fix and the OEM setup looks like a bit less than that.

B

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jan 3, 2021

dedlast said:
Mathew,
My guesstimate is that it just needs to stop, maybe after a short rotation. I had about 120 degrees of rotation on my temporary fix and the OEM setup looks like a bit less than that.

B

I had a look and it appears the standard rotation is around 30 degrees.

InductiveJon

· #12 · Apr 28, 2021

I am working on a design for this that uses a small waterproof linear actuator with internal limit switches. Basically you apply 12v in one polarity or the other to lock and unlock the parking pawl on the Leaf motor. It's a bolt on solution, but it does require re-use of the splined adapter from inside the original actuator.

Is this something anyone else would be interested in?

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 28, 2021

InductiveJon said:
I am working on a design for this that uses a small waterproof linear actuator with internal limit switches. Basically you apply 12v in one polarity or the other to lock and unlock the parking pawl on the Leaf motor. It's a bolt on solution, but it does require re-use of the splined adapter from inside the original actuator.

Is this something anyone else would be interested in?

@InductiveJon - I have ended up using the Resolve Controller - which does not need the parking pawl - see EV conversion kit with Nissan Leaf parts (used) | Resolve-EV

AlexH

· #14 · Oct 11, 2021

InductiveJon said:
I am working on a design for this that uses a small waterproof linear actuator with internal limit switches. Basically you apply 12v in one polarity or the other to lock and unlock the parking pawl on the Leaf motor. It's a bolt on solution, but it does require re-use of the splined adapter from inside the original actuator.

Is this something anyone else would be interested in?

@InductiveJon ... yes would be very interested in this as we are reusing the LEAF gearbox and are keen to use the whole P-brake system, but we don't have the LEAF VCM. The encoder in the actuator talks via the VCM so we need to bypass this. something like the linear actuator you descibe could work.

lordmundi

· #15 · 10 mo ago

Wanted to revive this old thread. Has anyone managed to figure out the pinout for this gearbox park actuator / motor? I'd love to be able to drive it (even if manually at first) and understand if it is talking on the canbus or if it just wires indicating limit switches, etc. Anyone have any info on it? The part number we have 33251-3NF0A. Any help is appreciated!

lordmundi

· #16 · 10 mo ago

lordmundi said:
Wanted to revive this old thread. Has anyone managed to figure out the pinout for this gearbox park actuator / motor? I'd love to be able to drive it (even if manually at first) and understand if it is talking on the canbus or if it just wires indicating limit switches, etc. Anyone have any info on it? The part number we have 33251-3NF0A. Any help is appreciated!

well, reading that PDF posted above... it looks like this is similar to a brushless motor where the sensors in the actuator are just sending pulses back to the nissan factor VCM and then it is controlling currents to individual coils to drive the motor to specific positions/speed. So unless someone has figured out a way to make a mini controller for this motor, it sounds like the only other alternative is something like @InductiveJon was proposing where you replace this motor with something simple that you can control from whatever logic controller you make to detect when people hit a "Park" button and also look at motor speed and whatnot to make sure it is safe to engage park or disengage it. That's just my current thoughts so far.

matthew.stead

Discussion Starter · #17 · 9 mo ago

lordmundi said:
well, reading that PDF posted above... it looks like this is similar to a brushless motor where the sensors in the actuator are just sending pulses back to the nissan factor VCM and then it is controlling currents to individual coils to drive the motor to specific positions/speed. So unless someone has figured out a way to make a mini controller for this motor, it sounds like the only other alternative is something like @InductiveJon was proposing where you replace this motor with something simple that you can control from whatever logic controller you make to detect when people hit a "Park" button and also look at motor speed and whatnot to make sure it is safe to engage park or disengage it. That's just my current thoughts so far.

@lordmundi - I have a spare if you would like it

lordmundi

· #18 · 9 mo ago

matthew.stead said:
@lordmundi - I have a spare if you would like it

thanks. a spare of what exactly? I have a working park actuator motor (the original from the gearbox), just don't have any way to drive it. Did you wind up using a different mechanism?

paulheystee

· #19 · 9 mo ago

Hi,
I am working on a controller for the Park motor. It will be plug and play.
As soon as I have a working proto type I will post my findings.

I need it for my Saab 93 Cabrio conversion with the complete Leaf stack.

Car Motor vehicle Hood Vehicle Automotive design

Runs great @ 145 W/km max 140 km/h
Still need to figure out how to convert from type 1 to type 2 socket.

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Reactions: 3

Zieg

· #20 · 9 mo ago

Has anyone replaced the motor with a lever and a push/pull cable? I haven't tried it yet but that was my plan.

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