Electric Car Conversion: What To Save & What To Scrap Shari Prange c.1992 Shari Prange You've taken the plunge. Your smelly internal combustion donor car lies waiting to be transformed into a clean green electric machine. Before you can install the electric components you will have to remove a great deal of the original equipment. Which pieces you removeÄor saveÄand how you do it can make a big difference in the final conversion. Old is Good There are three good reasons you're doing a conversion instead of building a whole car from scratch: time, money, and results. You don't want to spend the time or money to re-invent basic things like brakes, steering, and windows that roll up. Even if you were willing to do it, the results would probably not satisfy you. When Detroit builds a car that is 70% new design and 30% off-the- shelf, it spends 3.1 million hours of engineering design time on that 70% of the car that's new. For optimum results in your home-built electric car, it makes sense to take advantage of as much of that engineering as possible. A fourth good reason to convert is ecological. Every car that is scrapped is stripped for saleable parts. When it goes to the crusher, 30% of the car is non-recyclable "fluff" that ends up in landfills. That's on a metal- bodied car. Plastics or fiberglass are worse. So it makes good sense to "recycle" those dead cars and rehabilitate them into useful electrics. Parts to Save and Sell If the car runs, try to find a buyer for your engine before you remove it. The engine will be much easier to sell when it's in a car and running than when it's sitting on the floor oozing oil. The sale price might help pay for your conversion. When you are ready to start disassembling, the first things to save are measurements. Measure the ride height (body to ground) at all four wheels. If the car can be driven, get it weighedÄthe whole car, and each axle separately. Measure the location of the transmission bellhousing against some mark on the engine bay. All this information will help you reassemble as closely as possible to the original configuration for optimum performance. Recyclables The first things to recycle are all the fluids in the old car, except hydraulic fluids. Obviously, you don't need the engine oil anymore. The transmission oil should be drained too. When you re-install the transmission, fill it with a low-friction synthetic oil. Dispose of all the fluids carefully and properly. This is especially important with coolant. It is sweet and attracts small children and small animalsÄbut it is a deadly poison. Doctor the Donor As you take the donor car apart, do so with a scalpel, not a machete. You might want to graft some of those pieces back together later. Remove all the wires at their connectors instead of cutting them, and label them with tape and a marker. You may be able to reuse some of them. Save all the original nuts and bolts in baggies, and label what they came from. These may allow you to reuse original holes or brackets. In fact, try to set aside a place to save all the internal combustion parts (except the engine) until the conversion is finished. You never know what you might find useful. For example, you might be able to use the original fuel line, or exhaust brackets to support battery cables beneath the car. There are two metal tabs on the engine that are specifically for lifting it with an engine hoist. Save those tabs and adapt them to your electric motor, adaptor, and transmission when it is time to sling them into place. Even if you are replacing the clutch, save the old parts until you are sure the new ones match. Save the flywheel and all the bolts associated with it. You will want to re-use them with your adaptor. These are special bolts, and will cost you time and money if you have to special order them through the dealer. Also save any locating dowels between the engine and transmission. Clutch Features This means, of course, that we are planning to reuse the clutch and transmission. The clutch is recommended for these reasons. First, it is a safety feature that allows you to instantly disconnect the motor from the wheels in an emergency, such as a runaway or lock-up condition. Second, it makes the car's performance much smoother. Third, it saves energy. You can see this for yourself by starting an electric car from a stop with a clutch, and without a clutch, and watching the ammeter. The car without a clutch will draw more amps until the motor gets up to speed. Transmission Golf carts can get away with eliminating the transmission because they are very light and don't need to go very fast. In a passenger car, you need the gearing and torque multiplication for performance. The G-Van doesn't use a transmission, but it needs 215 volts to get it up to highway speeds. Batteries Save the idea of a 12 Volt accessories, but not the battery itself. If you do not have a DC/DC converter, you will want to replace the original battery with a heavy-duty deep cycle battery, especially if you do much night driving. A DC/DC converter is highly recommended as a constant source of voltage for lights, etc., but it doesn't replace the battery. If the DC/DC converter should fail for some reason, it will do it at night ten miles from home. So if you do have a DC/DC converter, you will still want a 12 volt battery, but you can use a very small one. Don't eliminate the 12 Volt battery by tapping across two of your main pack batteries for accessories. This will cause uneven discharge of the pack, and decrease its lifespan. Space Save your passenger and cargo space. It's easy to just stuff the batteries into the back seat or truck bed, but with a little thought they can be maneuvered under the hood, behind the back seat, or under the truck bed. This will give you a more usable and more valuable vehicle. The building of the electric conversion actually begins with the dismantling of the internal combustion car. If it's done right, the process of disassembly is an integral part of the process of assembly. It should be done thoughtfully, with the vision of the finished conversion always in mind. Every journey begins with a single step. Be sure your foot is pointed in the right direction. Access Author: Shari Prange, Electro Automotive, POB 1113, Felton, CA 95018 ù 408-429-1989