# Help me put it all together



## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

Hello All, I could use some help putting my car together. I have a 84 fiero already gutted. I also have the components from a CAT forklift including the Control module and wire harness. Just by moving this little plastic piece I can change the system from 36 volts to 72 or 80 volts. what I want from my ev is just to get to work and back ( 18 miles round trip ) five days a week with a top speed of 60 mph. All I can say about the motors is that the unit they came from had what was left of a 50 on it. The drive motor is remanufactured but no clear information on it. The pump motor appears to be original with the caterpillar plate on it (type E part no 913149 ) 8" diamiter. The control module is part of a panel with contactors,relays,capacitors,fuses and alot of other components. My first question would be do I have what I need to meet my goal? Second question is what motor? The pump motor has no shaft sticking out and the drive motor is a monster!


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## the slashmaster (Feb 24, 2008)

Sounds like you have most of what you need. How big is the drive motor?


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## Mastiff (Jan 11, 2008)

If you can read off the Specification plates on the side of the motors we'll have more information on which one you should use.

It should be a small metal plate with either text written in ink or Embossed into the Metal.

Post up all the numbers on the plate, including whatever is next to the number like "AMPS" or "Model" ect.


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

Thanks for the responses. I could not get any model number or amps or anything else off the plate on the side of the drive motor. In fact it is more of a aluminium sticker than a plate. I does say caterpillar remanufactured and it is wiped clean after that. Its dementions are 16" housing length, 11" diameter and 22" shaft 5" at each end. I can't say for sure but it has to weigh 120lbs. I don't know if this helps but the guy I got it from said it would run 2,000 + rpm all day on 36 volts. Now for the pump motor, Type E part #913149( no model number ) serial #9501050 36/48 volts. 15.5 length and 8" diameter. Thats all I have for motor info. The controls panel #8Q5694P. Not alot to go on here. All that being said the choice may be made for me. The 11" diameter of the drive motor will not fit motor shaft to transmission shaft. Has anyone ever heard of off setting the motor with gears?


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Bryan

Been a long time since I've worked on one of those Cat's, and I can't recall if this was a series or a compound wound motor (Cat was big on using compound wound motors). It's got the mass you'll need, and the shaft seems like it'd be easy enough to adapt from (from memory)(10 year memory now, lol). I also can't recall if this had an internal fan (Cat made most of their motors without them) so if it doesn't plan on adding a blower to keep the motor cool and to increase it's duty cycle.
I'd need to see pics to update the brain file on this motor, so feel free to post some here or send me direct and I'll put an eyeball on them for better input. Cat was big on using adjustable brush rings so this should be an easier motor to advance the timing on, but I'm not sure what you're talking about with this "plastic" piece you're talking about.
Hope this helps.
Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Bryan

The drive motor should make a really fine EV motor! It has a shaft that should be fairly easy to adapt to / from, those brush leads are flexable enough to allow brush advance (although you might need to modify or replace with cable)(they're bolt on so easy to do), has a brush ring setup to adjust (can't actually confirm from pics, but from memory it is), has 8 nice sized brushes, ect. When you look at the armature banding it's golden with no signs of heat (it'd be dark if it had), and same for the brush ring insulation board. Heck, it EVen has brush wear indicators!, lol.

Now the pump motor has a poor shaft style, and there aren't any pre-made replacements for it but a custom shaft could be made. The pump motor is probably also a compound wound motor (the little terminal is a tell-tail sign), but there might be enough series wound to do a good job to take the shunt part out of the loop or it might be good as is. The compounds typically put more strain on the armature (heat wise) and I've switched a few motors over from compound coils (both series and shunt wires) to just series wound coils (thick wire few turns) where I've been told they run better. That said there are a couple I've heard from that have liked their compound wound motors, with much lying in how you control the motor.

Anyway, you just found a 200 lb gold nugget, yeehaa 8^) If anything it's more on the big side where you'll be carrying a little more mass than needed. Being that EVeryone is battery limited, it's not in ones range interests to carry more motor than's needed, as that weight could be used to carry more batteries, but that's about the only "con" I can paste to it.
Hope this helps.
Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric


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## ngrimm (Oct 19, 2007)

Now there's the motor I need for my El Camino. I'll bet one of my drive motors would work as a blower motor for that thing.  Congrats on a great find. I talked to a forklift mechanic yesterday and he sold several large motors for scrap a few months ago when cleaning out his shop. Norm


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

Norm, No question I got lucky. In fact, I got very lucky. Everything I got from the forklift was free. When I was first considering a project, I looked up material handling equipment suppliers in my area and sent them an email just asking if anyone would like to help. I only sent three emails and I explained what I wanted to do and that most parts are used in forklifts. Long story short, three weeks later I get an email telling me come and get it. So you and anyone else reading this should try it. Look at it this way, if you don't do this, you wont get lucky. If you do, you just might get lucky too!


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

More pictures.








Everything out of the motor.





















































Not much to it. Now to advance the brushes.


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

Can anyone tell me how to get the face plate off the shaft ?


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## ngrimm (Oct 19, 2007)

What a great idea. I have been beating the brush around here but I still haven't found anything quite as big as that but I will try your suggestions. I have been talking to a local printing company about a small Hyster sitdown forklift that has a 7" x 12" pump motor and two shorter drive motors. They told me today I can have the whole thing so no complaints here. Good luck with your build and am anxious to see how your conversion works out. Norm


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Bryan

Why the urgent email, thought there wasn't much to it 8^P
There might be a snap ring behind that oil seal so it'll be worth the work to pry it out. Try not to score the shaft best you can but you won't need to replace the seal anyway so no biggy if you do. Once out have a look, some of the EE's out there are some sick pup's and do stuff just to make it hard. Five minutes in a dark room with a couple of these sadistic... oh sorry 8^)

Being you have the fields out and the fan will no longer hit them and break it, I'm going to save you a lot of greif. Bolt the plate and arm assy back onto the bare housing (no pole shoes either). Pick the unit up and drop it on the shaft, start light and work up to harder hits. As long as you drop square you won't mess the threads up but to be safe you can install the nut back on before doing it. It'll chew board up and it softens the blow so I just drop it to concrete and it'll pop that sucker right loose even the tough guys. By using it's own weight and spreding it around the plate you stand less risk of breaking the plate than if grabbing it with pullers in two or three spots. Make sure there's no snap ring behind the oil seal first though.

Advancing this is easy, loosen those ring screw/nuts and adjust 10 degrees. This motor's set up for it. You may have to make some longer terminal jumpers to reach as they may not have put a long enough one in.
Hope this helps
Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Grimm

Looks like you're but a couple hour drive to Redmond, you should plan a trip over and get a nickle tour.
Cya
Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

Is that 10 degrees clockwise / counter clockwise or no difference ?


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Bryan

You need to rotate it opposite the motors intended rotation. Motor's to run CCWDE (DE is drive end) then you rotate it CWDE. Motor's to run CWDE then it need to be rotated CCWDE.
Hope this helps
Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

That does help. Thank you, Now just to be sure,I am advancing the the white ring with everything on it 10 degrees counter to desired rotation. do I understand that right ?


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

OK, I did everything Jim told me to do. No problems. The face plate popped right off and then I advanced the brushes 10 degrees counter to rotation. No damage to anything and everything fit back in. God I love it when a plan comes together. Thanks Jim,


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

I have a question about wireing this motor. If I plan on using my reverse gear to back up I cant see adding more contactos and cables to reverse the motor. How do I wire the motor to run one direction? I'm planning on using a curtis 1231 controller.


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Brian

Glad EVerthing went as planned 8^) To wire the motor just jump an "A" terminal to an "F" terminal and then + and - the last two. To reverse to get a needed ratation, just swap out the two "A" terminal cables and she'll reverse.
Cya
Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric


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## Bryan (Feb 18, 2008)

Thanks again Jim. Now let me tell you all about the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good, I have the car I wanted to convert and someone gave me a forklift to work with. At this point I was thinking everything is going very well and I might get this done much quicker than I had originaly planed. The bad, The welder I was going to use had been left out in the weather and no longer worked. Ah but my neighbor's dad is a welder so I am still on track so I gave him my coupler pieces to weld but they came back with a slight wobble in it. While the coupler was out getting wobbled I was laying out the harnes and components for a test.I hooked everything up turned the key and got nothing. I traced every wire again and still nothing. This is all free stuff mind you so I'm still not out anything but things are not going well. I have spent alot of time calling repair shops and local machanics looking for a used GM clutch disk with a 1/14 center hub as well as tracking down a piece of 1/2" aluminium for the adapter plate. Not much luck on any of it. A coworker said he might be able to help with the plate through a metal worker he knows but his off the top of his head quote was $150 for material. Well the non working controller that came from the forklift is mounted on 1/2 aluminium and is big enough to make the plate with. I was getting very discouraged for a while then I had to go fill my truck up and my inspiration came back. So that leaves the UGLY, It's time to open the wallet and start ordering EV parts. Now part of the problem is knowing what parts to order. The drive motor from the forklift had no information on it but Mr. Husted said it is a good one for the project and I trust that. None of the fiero EV's in the photo album are using an 11" forklift motor so I can't model after them. I plan on ordering parts that cover a range of say 72 volts to 120 volts so I have some room to play with without need to order new parts. Again this car is just for getting me back and forth to work. 18-20 miles a day at 55mph year round in Ohio over a couple of big hills and a bunch of small hills. I said in a previous post I would be using a curtis 1231 controller but the Kelly is better for my budgit. I welcome any feedback and advice from you guys out there and as my header says, Help me put it all together.


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