Also in hand...

I've received my NetGain cover band. As you can see, it's all bent and warped. The duct port isn't even curved where it meets the band so it pulls that area out of round. So much for made in America. Let's hope after I modify it that it does the job. They charge $65 for this thing.I also got my diode and inductor from EVTV. These go with the Chennic DC-DC converter and should make it a more reliable unit.

Puzzle Pieces

Here's the cooling solution I'm going to attempt to implement for my Warp 9 motor. It's a Jabsco 150 CFM blower with a washable air filter directly mounted to it. At first, I had planned on mounting this combo directly to the Warp 9 via the NetGain cover band (which has been ordered but has not arrived yet). However, there is some significant weight involved and so I think mounting it to the chassis would be best and I'll use some ducting to direct the cool air into the cover band.Next up are some bits I received from Jack Rickard and the folks over at EVTV. On the left is a heavy-duty maintenance switch that I will try to install in a convenient place to disconnect the HV battery pack from the equipment under the hood. It's certainly not meant to replace a circuit breaker for emergency disconnects under load, but I'm hoping it can carry 192V across it without any issues. We'll see. On the right is a Chennic 400W DC-DC Converter for supplying the 12V system. A diode and inductor are on the way that should make this a reliable converter. It's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. Likewise, the switch was larger than I had expected.Above you can see the back of the switch. The terminals are beefy enough to accept 4/0 cable and lugs (according to the specs) and the whole assembly feels solid. I'll have to work on some more brackets/mounts to start installing all of these components where I have space under the hood. It's like a great big puzzle.

Oil in, Speed sensor on

It was time to replace the transaxle oil now that I was ready to spin up the completed drivetrain. I grabbed 2 quarts of Mobil 1 synthetic and began the slow process of flowing it into the reservoir. I purchased replacement gaskets from Toyota for both the drain and fill plugs to properly complete the job. I also installed the motor speed sensor today. This little unit is extremely simple to mount and the only real trouble I ran into was to remove a tiny bit of sheet metal from the unibody that interfered with slipping the sensor collar over the commutator shaft. A bit of grinding and things were looking good.

Encouraging!

With the clutch and flywheel balanced to each other, it was time to put it all together. First, the flywheel was mounted, then the clutch and disc to the flywheel using the splined alignment tool included with the Clutchmaster kit. Next, the 2 steel alignment dowel pins were driven into the transaxle flange as you can see in the first photo. I moved the motor side assembly toward the transaxle and made sure that the input shaft engaged the clutch disc. A quick way to test this is to move the flywheel at this point and check that the driveshafts coming out of the transaxle rotate in accordance. Bringing the two halves together was a tedious process of going around the flange and tightening down all the bolts to torque specs. The completed drivetrain assembly was hoisted into position and I proceeded to secure it to the chassis by bolting up the OEM motor mounts and then the tail shaft mount that was custom fabricated. This was another headache from a home-garage-logisitcs perspective, but I managed to get it done (I also managed to hit the windshield in the process and create a crack at the edge…will be replaced). Once everything was verified to be in the right position, I began the process of torquing down all the mount bolts and removing the engine hoist. The next two photos show the drivetrain suspended in the car, finally! As you can see it looks really nice mounted in the car and I think the engineering and quality of the machine work paid off. Finally, I went about re-installing all the original equipment and hardware that is needed to shift and operate the clutch. I cleaned up and re-greased all the linkage pivots to ensure really smooth operation. It went together quickly as I took photos of the disassembly, wrote down notes, and also have the repair manual handy. Not to mention, it was pretty straight forward.
I've begun reinstalling the drive shafts into the wheel hubs and hope to be able to turn over the motor and confirm everything is sound all the way out to the wheels under 12V power. I'm looking forward to that moment as I can finally take the car off jack stands if all goes well. Fingers crossed.

Drivetrain Progress

Here you can see the custom lightweight flywheel mounted to the hub. The first photo shows the alignment of the flywheel and the face of the motor side adapter flange.

Installing this piece requires some care and precision as the distance from the face of this part to the face of the transmission adapter flange to ensure a proper engagement of the drivetrain assembly. I will try to post a video of the motor spinning up with the flywheel mounted. The balance seems very good at speed although we did notice some small vibration as the motor comes to a stop. The test was only done with a 12V battery so no real power was thrown at it yet. Next step is to take the flywheel off and get it balanced to the clutch before putting it all back together and into the car.

Flywheel Adapter

Below is the finished steel adapter that mates the Warp 9 motor shaft to the light weight flywheel. It has a keyway and hardened steel key matched to that of the motor and a set screw that will seat in a depression machined into the shaft as an extra safety measure.

Installing this piece requires some care and precision as the distance from the face of this part to the face of the transmission adapter flange to ensure a proper engagement of the drivetrain assembly.

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.