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Here is mine. It seems more of a first draft but I may keep it
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It looks like you have some cracked and broken aluminum castings on your motor/inverter(M/I). You should probably deal with those first.
It looks like you have some cracked and broken aluminum castings on your motor/inverter(M/I).
From some angles it looks like the stud hole in the front left mount area looks cracked, but from above it looks like an intentional slot.You have me concerned now can you elaborate on where the cracked and broken aluminium castings ?
Its a 1973 BMW its going into, I want to keep the original double wishbone suspension setup. Thats why I'm thinking I wont need the whole subframe.How valuable the Leaf front subframe might be depends in part on the car it's going into, and what will be used for suspension. For instance, if it will be used with a McPherson strut or perhaps double wishbone suspension, you might be able to use the Leaf arms and the subframe would be ready to use with them. So... it's going in the rear of something, but what, and with what suspension?
That looks like a typical 1970's BMW, complete with the classic semi-trailing arm suspension. It is not a double wishbone design at all.Its a 1973 BMW its going into, I want to keep the original double wishbone suspension setup. Thats why I'm thinking I wont need the whole subframe.
The other challenge is that it looks like the motor will try to occupy the same space as the structural rail areas of the body which runs to the right side of the final drive (diff) housing. The Leaf unit is much taller than the original final drive, especially with the inverter still mounted on top of the motor (as shown in the first post); at least the converter and charger are not still on top of the inverter.
One detail to keep in mind as you work out the installation and a subframe: the BMW's existing suspension subframe consists of a beam running across the car and carrying the suspension arms, plus the final drive or structure around it forming the third arm of a sort of T-shaped structure, presumably attached to the car by those two horizontal bolts at the back of the final drive housing. Assuming that the Leaf drive unit is not used as part of this structure, you need some framework to connect the beam to the point where the final drive currently mounts.
Think this discussion has been made in the past, that would be a ideal solutionOR - you may be able to put the Leaf unit in backwards
That leads to substantial work to restore the structure of the rear of the car. Also, the suspension subframe needs that third mounting point to the car's structure.I am planning to remove the whole boot floor area
I am thinking to cut and remove the cross beam that supports the diff at the moment.
It's really separating the inverter from the motor, but okay...Was even thinking of separating the invertor from the gearbox.
As Duncan said, you can shift the drive unit (presumably rearward for more clearance to the suspension arms) so that the outputs are off line from the centre of halfshafts, within reason. Lots of production vehicles have an offset like this, usually because a rear-mounted engine is too long to fit otherwise. Watch lengths - you don't want a CV joint to hit its length limit and try to pull apart at full suspension compression or extension.One question. If i mount the gear box say 3" of centre from the drive shaft will the CV joints be OK with that or do they need to be in line?
If you can fit the whole drive unit in the rear, you also remove the motor and transmission weight from the front (which is going to be heavy once it is stacked up with battery), and provide much more space in the front for battery (by getting the motor out of the engine compartment).Only reason for this route is the ongoing issue with coupler for the leaf shaft, or I would go conventional route with mounting to the cars gearbox.
It has been done, because I've seen photos of a Leaf motor mounted in place of the engine in a conventional longitudinal-engine car.Has anyone come up with a coupling to fit the Leaf motor?
I agree that space between the arms is a real problem, but both extending the arms and the related relocation of the subframe forward would have substantial consequences to suspension geometry and structure.Looking at the pictures I don't think you will have enough space - unless you cut the BMW suspension arms and make them longer and move the beam they attach to forwards
My thought exactly, think of the weight and space saving by losing the whole original transmission setupIf you can fit the whole drive unit in the rear, you also remove the motor and transmission weight from the front (which is going to be heavy once it is stacked up with battery), and provide much more space in the front for battery (by getting the motor out of the engine compartment).
I do see how the two mounting brackets that are visible in the photo are bolted on, and I assume that the other is similar. Different brackets could certainly be used, as long as sufficient distance is maintained between them (for stability) and room is left for the rubber isolators.Back to the drawing board, if you look at the leaf motor setup, there is no reason why the front engine mounting arms cannot be removed, they have a three bolt triangle setup.
Im sure with some 6mm steel plate, shorter mounting arms could be made. maybe even use different mounts, the middle part of the leaf mount has to be in the air.
Great, but if you look at CanadaLT28's setup the whole width of the drive unit is between the inner ends of the suspension arms. Looking at the BMW chassis, the distance between the arms is barely more than the width of the final drive housing... not nearly wide enough for the Leaf gear. It works for CanadaLT28, because he has a wider vehicle, and probably narrower suspension arms.had a rough measure up .I think that the width of the engine could be down to 26-28 inches.
Make a H frame engine cradle for the engine to fit. this is probably more like CanadaLT28 has done
Have you made engine mounts or is the engine sitting in the airI don't have a great pic showing my setup so I'll take a better picture tomorrow.