Very custom

Here's a look at the final aft-motor mount being test fit to the Warp9. This assembly went through a similar test fit about a month ago where we found some issues with the diameter of the circular portion surrounding the motor. After some alterations, here is the result:

The cradle portion seen above and below is two-part construction. A top and bottom piece surround the motor with 3 bolts securing the halves together. The blue surface seen in the photos is a marking fluid used during layout and machining (seen previous posts for more info) and is temporary. Below is a photo that shows the bolt locations clearly:
Above you can see the third piece of the aft-mount equation. This part mates the upper half of the cradle with the OEM passenger-side motor mount already in the car. The three holes are used to bolt this entire assembly to that mount and take advantage of the original soft mount design that supported the gas engine.Lastly, here's a look at the mount in the car (without the motor in it). I quickly and loosely bolted everything up one last time just to confirm alignment and fit. It looks like we're in business.

Something's missing

After days of cutting, grinding, prying, and drilling, I was very happy to snap these pictures of the void that will soon house the first rear battery box:

Going back a bit, here's how things went down. I had to remove some more interior plastic panels from the trunk area to get better clearance on the sides and rear bumper end for more cutting.
I removed this small stamped metal cap that used to sit over the gas tank. It was held in place with some type of sealant that never dries out so I had to use a solvent to clean it up.
As I started to work along the edge that is closest to the front of the car, it became very clear that I could not simply cut through the metal without damaging the structural frame that crosses the rear of the car. So, I decided to start drilling out the spot welds so that I could pry the metal apart. I used a metal punch and hammer to create a center point for drilling, then used a 1/8" bit followed by my Unibit to enlarge the holes until the welds were gone. I had to use a chisel and hammer to separate some of the difficult welds that weren't completely removed by the drilling pass. Here's a shot of the carnage in progress:There was a single weld hidden under the spare tire mount that prevented me from freeing the front end of the well. In the end, I had to remove this part just to gain access to that last spot weld. Below is a photo of the mount once it came off.Several hours were spent working along this edge and the result is this crazy looking mess of metal. The panel was free on three sides at this point and all I needed to do was cut along the rear bumper side to finish the job.Removing spot welds was such a tedious process that I looked around for a better tool to do the job. I ended up ordering a spot weld removal bit from amazon.com that is designed for this kind of work. It's 8mm and has a flat profile with a small point in the center. It cuts much more like an end mill cutter than a drill bit. I plan to remove more of the body work where the rear passenger seats were so this bit should make things easier:Finally, here is a photo of the sheet metal body panel once I got it out of the car. I mangled it pretty good in the process. Knowing you're not going to put it back certainly gives you some freedom.

Alternative fuel infrastructure

Today the Aero Vironment charging dock installation was completed so that we can start charging the Leaf at 240V. I took the opportunity to also pre-wire the garage for a second unit in front of where I park the Yaris. Whether I install another Aero Vironment dock or one from a different manufacturer, the hard work of running the lines from the panel to the garage is done. Here is the unit powered up and ready to charge an EV:

I took the photo below while the unit was still open and not yet wired so that you can see some of the inner workings. Like an EV, it has a contactor inside that is open until it receives a signal from the J-1772 plug telling it to close and energize the wire and charge the car. This signal is sent from the car via the proximity pin on the J-1772. It looks like this safety feature will require me to investigate a unit for my Yaris that can duplicate this signal so that I can take advantage of charging stations with the J-1772 plug such as my garage.

Metal!

Here are two update photos of the motor-flywheel adapter being machined. This part is being turned on a lathe from a solid piece of 4130 (chrome-moly steel). It will installed on the drive-end motor shaft with and secured using the keyway (and probably a set screw to really keep it secure). Six holes will be drilled into the face so that the flywheel/clutch assembly can be attached the same way it did on the gas engine.

Above you can see a dial indicator which can be used to ensure a surface is within allowable tolerances as it rotates. It's critical that the face of this part be square to the center line of the motor shaft so that the flywheel will not wobble as it rotates.

Below is the aft-motor mount being fabricated. This will support the commutator end of the motor and bolts up to one of the OEM motor mounts already in the car. It's going to be made from multiple pieces. Here are the two largest pieces being milled as a single piece to be split at the end so that the two halves can be installed around the motor in a cradle-like configuration.

A third piece is needed to connect the cradle plate seen above to the OEM motor mount. This piece is in essence an adapter and many measurements were take to ensure that the geometry of these parts would result in a shaft alignment that matched the original gas engine. With these parts completed, the mechanical drive-train will be complete. Back to cutting up the car!

Down but not out!

We had a major house disaster last month that put the EV project on hold for 3 weeks while we lived out of a hotel. However, we are back in our home and had a surprise turn of events. We picked up a Nissan Leaf EV and have been living with it for at least 3 weeks now. This has given me tremendous insight into life with an EV. It's been VERY good. Here's our new ride:

Back to the Yaris project! I received some fuses I ordered from EV Source in the mail recently. I ordered 2 because I didn't know how many I needed. If I only need 1, then I have a backup. If I need 2 of these monsters, then I guess I'll have to buy another backup. These Ferraz-Shamut fuses are rated at 300V DC and 500 amps. The pictures don't really explain how big these things are.

I hope to have some in-progress photos to post of the motor aft-end support/mount and the motor shaft hub (adapts the Warp 9 shaft to the flywheel). I plan to get back to cutting the tire-well out of the car now so that I can update my measurements for the battery box(es). More to come.

Surgery begins

This weekend marked the beginning of my journey towards creating compartments for the batteries in the rear of the car. I prepped the hatch area with plastic lining to limit the amount of dust/debris cleanup I'd have to deal with later. I also put up plastic to separate the front cabin area from where I was working.

Next, I began to remove the weatherproof sealant that frames the spare tire well so that I could get a clear view of the sheet metal seam I was using as my guide for cutting. Here you can see I've already completed cutting the length of one side.

In this closer view, you can see daylight through the cut:

At the end of the day, I stopped with less than half of the job done, but I learned a lot about cutting the body work, took it slow, and now feel confident about removing more material. It's slow going, but I keep moving forward.

Parts keep arriving

I picked up a Kilovac LEV200 contactor to be used as my main contactor. It is rated at 300V and 500A continuous. After speaking with someone at EV Source, it seemed like a good fit for my application. It's a nice little unit:

In the same shipment, I received a speed sensor for my Warp 9 motor. It's made by RechargeCar Inc. and is a really nicely packaged kit. This is also designed to work well with the Zilla controller so that it can monitor the motor RPMs and trigger various safety features.

Below is the EV Source Zilla liquid cooling kit. It comes with a coolant reservoir, a pump, some clear tubing, 2 fans and a radiator. The quality of the components seems very good and I'm looking forward to hooking it up to the controller.

More parts to come.

Drivetrain upgrades

I just received my ultra-lightweight flywheel from CCI (Competition Clutch) and it's a really nice looking part. The stock flywheel in the Yaris weighs a little more than 15 lbs whereas this one weighs 8.64 lbs. It's a 1-piece design, made from forged steel, and moderately skeletonized.

I also received my new clutch. It's a ClutchMasters Stage III clutch that will allow the car to handle a substantial increase in torque that the Zilla/Warp 9 combination is sure to dish out. I figured it would be easier to get these parts in the car now rather than later since I can still tear down the drivetrain with relative ease.

Many thanks to Garm over at www.microimageonline.com for hooking me up with these, they stock an impressive array of performance parts for the Toyota Yaris and Garm was really helpful and supportive of my project. More parts are on the way and should be arriving this week. Stay tuned.

Removing the rear seats

Recently I decided that I'd like my Yaris EV to be a lightweight, performance, 2-seater EV. To that end, I've decided to remove the rear seats to install all of the batteries in the rear section of the car (plus some other components like the charger potentially). So this afternoon I decided to remove the 60/40 split rear seats. Here's a photo during the process:

The seats weigh in at a combined 90 lbs. That's some significant weight to remove from the car. Below are the rear seats once I got them out of the car:

All in all it was a pretty straight forward process. I used an E10 Torx bolt socket and my torque wrench to remove all the bolts that secured the seat mounts to the chassis. I made note of the torque they were installed to (35 ft-lbs.) incase I ever want/need to re-install them. Here's what the space looks like without the seats:

I plan on cutting the spare tire well out and fabricating an aluminum batter box that drops into its place that will store 36 of the batteries. Hopefully I will also be able to make use of the area where the seats were for the rest of the batteries (24).

High voltage ahead

I ordered and received cable last week. I bought some 4/0 and 2/0 Super Vu-Tron ultra flexible welding cable to do my high voltage cabling. Below is a photo of the 4/0 with the appropriate heavy duty MagnaLug and a quarter for thrown in for scale:

I also purchased some thick walled mil-spec adhesive lined heat shrink tubing (black and red) to go along with the different sizes of cable. I decided to grab the 3:1 shrink ratio kind as I found a good deal on this particular combination. An added bonus is that you can also fit this size over the lugs after crimping the cables. There were several tools necessary for the job that I didn't own.

The first photo above shows a wire stripping tool in the upper right. This little thing is pretty good at stripping wires up to 2/0 with ease. When I tried it on the 4/0, it almost does the trick but I have to finish the job/clean up the cut with a utility knife. Next, in the middle, is a 16-ton hydraulic crimper. I used the 120mm2 dies for crimping the heavy duty 4/0 MagnaLugs and it is a fantastic tool. Cost about $120 but I can't imagine making these kinds of secure crimps without a good tool. In the bottom left is a Klein Tools 9 1/2" cable cutter and in the bottom right a bottle of NOALOX anti-oxidant compound. I realized after trying the Klein cable cutters on the 4/0 that I needed something with more leverage. So I went out and bought a Greenlee 718 cable cutter. This thing is 18" long and cuts through the 4/0 with ease and leaves VERY nice clean cut ends as you can see below:

So here is a quick rundown of how I made my first cable (used on the Warp9 motor from the A1 to S1 terminal). I stripped the cable back about 3/4" from the cut end, used a chip brush to apply a generous amount of NOALOX to the exposed wire strands. I also coated the inside of the lug with it. I careful fit the lug over the cable end and placed it in between the crimping dies. I crimped the lug in 2 locations, rotating it 90 degrees from one crimp to the next.

I then cleaned of the cable and lug to remove any excess compound/dirt before slipping the heat shrink tubing over the end to ensure the best possible adhesion. Next I used my heat gun set on high and moved it around the tubing in as evenly as I could. I heated it until it was snug and I could see the adhesive ooze out a bit:

Finally, I placed the completed end on the A1 terminal of the motor and measured how much more cable I needed to make the run to the S1 terminal taking the length of the lug and the cable that goes inside it into account. Then I just followed the exact same process as before and completed the cable. A good tip is to know the orientation of the lugs before you crimp them and take into account the natural curvature of the cable so you're not fighting either once the cable is completed.

Last but not least, I snapped a shot of the cable attached to the motor. This photo is from the firewall looking toward the front of the vehicle. I won't be making any other cables until the main components are in the car. I just wanted to get one under my belt to make sure I had everything I need when the time comes. So, that's it for now.

Back at it!

Work got really busy and I didn't have time to devote to my EV project. I'm extremely happy that I've been able to get back to work on the Yaris. This update will be brief. I spent this weekend doing some measuring, planning, and finally a test fit of the motor mounted to the transmission IN THE CAR. That's right, I temporarily got the drivetrain in place to make some last minute decisions on the CE motor mount design and it was a bear of a task.

It's a really tight fit to say the least, and that made it really tricky to get this thing bolted up to the transmission. I will be tearing it down again shortly, but I wanted to get a shot of it since it was a pretty big deal to me. Oh, and below I snapped a quick photo of the correct bolts machined to mount the adapter plate to the Warp 9 motor. Notice the washer-like flange is custom turned: