# Conversion of Oliver 1800 using Nissan LEAF components



## darko (11 mo ago)

It's been a slow moving project, but making enough progress now to post an update. When I joined the forum I was looking for a tractor to convert using a salvage '15 leaf I bought (see my initial posting). Since then, I bought a 1964 Oliver 1800 with a seized engine to be the recipient.

I chose the Oliver because the engine is not part of the frame/structure, and the size is big enough to run my drum mower and hopefully have enough room for the LEAF batteries.

This tractor has a 2-speed "hydro power" between the engine and transmission that has a self contained hydraulically activated clutch pack that allows shifting on-the fly. I'm not sure if will try to use that device or leave it out. It is a lot of extra complexity and a power-sink. I'm trying to figure out a design for a clutch and perhaps that hydro-clutch might factor in.

Here are some photos of the tractor (being dissembled):

































And the hydro-power unit I mentioned:










The live PTO shaft extends all the way through the hydro-power unit into the engine flywheel - which makes for a very long shaft to work with. The hydro-power connects to the transmission using a chain coupler - which is hard to see in the picture, but is right up against the transmission. I had to remove the steering column to get access to that coupler. Nothing on this tractor is light-weight, and the hoist had to be used for even that. The "grill" was solid cast iron and must have weighed 300lbs.

My plan is to use the LEAF motor and gearbox in-tact, weld the spider gear and use one side of the drive shaft to run a v-belt pulley (5 belts) to increase the speed to the typical ICE RPM range. I may tear into that hydro-power and see if removing the jack-shaft will allow it to be used as a fancy clutch such that it is either engaged for free-spinning.

I have yet to start pulling the LEAF apart - it only has side impact damage and is "driveable". Pains me to take it apart.

If you have any ideas for the clutch/pulley design let me know.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

My project is progressing - slowly - work and farming took priority this summer. I got the hydrapower (2 speed transmission) torn apart and decided to keep the housing to hold the flywheel/clutch. I removed the jack-shaft, gears, hydraulic pump and, with some help from a machinist, the input and output shafts are now just coupled together. Unfortunately it will take up a lot of space, but it's simplifying things to keep it.

I also got a crank-shaft substitute made that the flywheel will mount to. A flange bearing and pillow-block bearing will hold the shaft.

I'm currently thinking of of just direct coupling the leaf motor to the flywheel shaft with no gear reduction. I'm concerned that when running the PTO on the tractor I'll have to run the motor at a low 2000 RPM - not it's most efficient. If it turns out to be an issue then I'll peruse modifying the leaf gearbox. I gave up on the idea of using belts and pulleys to get the desired ratio - would require a lot of space for all that.

Now that I have the tractor almost ready for mounting the motor, I'll work on disassembling the salvage-leaf over this winter.

Here is what I'm working toward for holding the crank-shaft substitute, and motor mount frame: The chain coupler shown is what I'm planning to use for the leaf motor.










Below is the modified hydra-power without any gears or pump. I kept the clutch-pack (the big thing in the middle of the opening) but tweaked it such that the clutches won't slip. It was easier than trying to make a coupler for the input and output shafts. I'll still need to fill it with oil to lube the bearings.









Crank-shaft substitute shown below, with flywheel attached. I still need to cut it to length and have a key slot cut for the coupler.










Got the flange bearing mounted to the bell housing. Mounted it into the tractor to get the rest of the frame aligned. Next step is to get the frame welded up like the cad drawing above and the pillow-block bearing mounted and aligned. Then put it all back together with the flywheel and clutch attached. Someday I'll find a way to cap the oil-filter on the hydrapower that isn't needed anymore. For now, the filter keeps the dirt out.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

The tractor is pretty much ready for the motor now. I bought a leaf motor coupler from @Bratitude and had my machinist turn it down to 1.5" and 3/8" keyway cut to fit inside a chain coupler. It came out nice, here it is not pushed in all the way. I still need to get the coupler hardened - has anyone had that done, how important is it?










Below is the frame I built with flywheel and clutch mounted. Painted red - cuz that's the paint I had on hand. Donor leaf is in the background along with the 2-speed (no longer a 2-speed) with bell-housing that it attaches to.










And here it is installed in the tractor. I also reinstalled the steering mast and hydraulic lines - mainly to keep dirt out of them. 2 hydraulic lines go to the power steering, and 2 up to a cooling loop that is in front of the radiator.









My plan is to focus on the leaf next. Need to get the AC refrigerant captured, but will have to haul it somewhere for that. In the meantime I am learning more about CAN bus and hopefully be able to spoof/mock components I don't need in order to keep the VCM/BCM, etc happy. Thinking I can do that work while the car is operational.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

darko said:


> I chose the Oliver because the engine is not part of the frame/structure


It looks to me by the way the ICE is solidly bolted to the frame, it contributes to the beam and torsional strength and rigidity of the frame. Without this contribution, the remaining frame structure may be stout enough to handle he forces applied to it. But, you should watch for excess flexing of the frame that might lead to cracks forming. In this case, an additional structure may need to be added to the frame to strengthen it and make it more rigid.



darko said:


> I'm currently thinking of of just direct coupling the leaf motor to the flywheel shaft with no gear reduction. I'm concerned that when running the PTO on the tractor I'll have to run the motor at a low 2000 RPM - not it's most efficient. If it turns out to be an issue then I'll peruse modifying the leaf gearbox. I gave up on the idea of using belts and pulleys to get the desired ratio - would require a lot of space for all that.


This is a bad idea with a motor designed to turn up to 10-12k RPM, at maximum power. I don't think there will be enough power reliably available at such a low RPM. Also, if you try stepping up the motor RPM to get more power, with this direct drive to the stock flywheel, you could run a serious risk of the flywheel coming apart.

A slow turning, large diameter DC brushed motor would be a much better fit for this kind of simple, direct drive set-up. The motor control is also much simpler. You should check the used forklift motor market.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

electro wrks said:


> It looks to me by the way the ICE is solidly bolted to the frame, it contributes to the beam and torsional strength and rigidity of the frame. Without this contribution, the remaining frame structure may be stout enough to handle he forces applied to it. But, you should watch for excess flexing of the frame that might lead to cracks forming. In this case, an additional structure may need to be added to the frame to strengthen it and make it more rigid.
> 
> 
> This is a bad idea with a motor designed to turn up to 10-12k RPM, at maximum power. I don't think there will be enough power reliably available at such a low RPM. Also, if you try stepping up the motor RPM to get more power, with this direct drive to the stock flywheel, you could run a serious risk of the flywheel coming apart.
> ...


Thanks for the things to think about. I agree that the engine probably did provide some torsional stiffness to the frame. I'm counting on the fact that this frame is very beefy - at least 3/4" cast iron in a curved L-shape. I don't plan on having a loader attached, so hopefully its strong enough for tractor weight. If it is an issue, I guess I would need to build some sort of structural frame in the ICE's place... yuck.

The frame has 4 large mounting areas - 2 on each side that I think was intended for a loader to mount to. I'm thinking I'll use those to mount a battery box on each side.

Regarding the RPM issue - I originally was planning to gear it down to allow the motor to run in the 6-7k range (3:1 ratio), but then someone had pointed out the torque curve of a leaf motor which is 187 ft-lb flat up to 3k RPM. Comparing that to the Oliver 1800 spec of ~133 ft-lb - I didn't see the need to gear it down, as long as I keep the RPM's in a safe range.

I will have to give some thoughts on how to limit the RPM to avoid having things fly apart. As I tinker with the CAN bus maybe I'll discover something that can limit the RPMs.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

darko said:


> but then someone had pointed out the torque curve of a leaf motor which is 187 ft-lb flat up to 3k RPM. Comparing that to the Oliver 1800 spec of ~133 ft-lb - I didn't see the need to gear it down, as long as I keep the RPM's in a safe range.


I think the short duration, peak output from the motor is being compared to an ICE continuous output rating. Also the torque output of the ICE, by my calcs, is 1.5-2X more than the figure quoted. Horsepower & Torque Calculator - Metaris Hydraulics

Just use some common sense here.

Another consideration is how the relatively short and small diameter motor output shaft will handle a load reversal from the heavy, large inertia, stock flywheel. This may be a problem when the tractor is shifted too quickly between going forward and reverse if you use electric motor reversing.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

darko said:


> I guess I would need to build some sort of structural frame in the ICE's place... yuck.


You are going to use some kind of battery box. If designed, built, and attached properly, a box can also be an excellent torque and beam structure to strengthen your tractor frame, if needed.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

Made some progress over the holiday week:










Before taking the donner car to a local shop to get the AC evacuated, I used it to run the tractor's drivetrain enough to see all the mechanical components spin. And also tested the hydraulic system, replaced filters and pumped out the hydraulic fluid to change it. This tractor has no drain plug for the hydraulic fluid - you have to attach a hose to a remote and just run the pump until it sucks air. I originally made this PTO-to-wheel adapter to try and start the ICE engine that was seized - but never got it to turn. It may still come in handy someday if the power goes out - might be a way to charge a car using re-gen (from one of my ICE tractors).










Car on the way to get it's AC drained. Just barely fit on my 12' trailer. I still feel bad tearing this car apart - it drives just fine, just side impact damage. Not wanting to load it up on the trailer to bring it home, I just drove it home.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

Now on to pulling the battery pack out. My first challenge was just trying to figure out the safety disconnect. This is different than all the other ones I see on the internet. If the intent is for this to be easy to use by first responders (which I thought was the intent) then Nissan really failed on it. It took me a good 30min to figure this out and get it opened.

The main battery cable was a similar puzzle/challenge - luckily I did someone's instructions on how those connectors worked.

Otherwise, besides one stubborn bolt holding the pack on (seems like the threads were screwed up when it was installed), things went well just using 4 jack stands, one floor jack, one transmission scissor jack, and a homemade dolly. Was able to lower the pack onto the dolly and roll it out:










Hope to pull the batteries out of the pack today to store in my attached garage to keep them from freezing this winter.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

The other bit of progress I've made is on the CAN-bus side of things. Not really something I can post pictures of... but I have figured out the messages for the ABS controller enough to spoof that device and get the VCM to be happy with it disconnected (no I-key errors). Unfortunately now with the car dismantled I can't work on that much more. I have code ready to test that will translate the motor RPM to wheel speed for those ABS messages. For the tractor, I hope to use to motor RPM to show either motor RPM or the PTO speed on speedometer (instead of road speed) (probably in x100 units).
And hoping that this will allow use of cruse-control to replace the governor on the ICE. Lots to play with once I get it put back together. I'm a firmware engineer, so I find this part of it really cool.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

The *servicing* disconnect is rarely used by first responders.


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## darko (11 mo ago)

Battery pack opened - found using an oscillating saw worked well for cutting the adhesive.










However.. now that I have it opened, I'm playing around with the top cover to see if I could just use the entire pack under the tractor, at least to get things up and going without spending a lot of time re-configuring the modules. Once you take a look inside one of these packs, it is clearly going to be a lot of work to replicate everything in new battery boxes (I was planning on 2 boxes, mounted on each side).





















Seems workable... The power cables will come out the rear, which will make for routing them around back to the motor. The slope of the tractor frame makes it work better to put the bulge to the front. But cable wise, it would be better rotated 180. There is a big bolt hanging down hits the top of the cover - that is used to adjust the height of the 2-speed gear box. I would like to remove that bolt to let the battery to go up a bit higher. But would need to find a different way of supporting that 2-speed.

Rotating the battery 90 degrees has some appeal - easier to mount with the mounting brackets under the tractor instead of off to the sides. It also sits up higher with the saddle fitting under the belly. But I really don't like the HV lines coming out the side where they could get damaged and touched. It's also off-balance - not that this tractor would care. So probably going with the above idea.


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