# Economy motors for dodge dakota



## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

Get a yard runnable Nissan Leaf or Chevy volt for a couple thousand and dump the whole kabootle in.

Fla and forklift in a Dakota will be slow and short range


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## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

What are you hoping for from this conversion ?
If it is a cheap way to get your truck mobile again, an electric conversion is not the way...it will cost many times more than a shop rebuild on your motor.


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## DrStein99 (Apr 30, 2017)

Karter2 said:


> What are you hoping for from this conversion ?
> If it is a cheap way to get your truck mobile again, an electric conversion is not the way...it will cost many times more than a shop rebuild on your motor.


I am hoping to drive the truck, powered by batteries with an electric motor after the conversion. Not expecting to win rock-crawling championship or sponsorship at 1/4 mile drag strip. Thank you for the the cost warning - if your interested in helping me pay my bills we can chat about that as long as you like.

I will fabricate my own speed control driver, wire my own harness and retro-fit the brakes and steering with whatever I come up with from the 100 other acres of broke used cars and trucks for me to pull parts out of. There are no $2,000 Nissan leaf's with perfect motors and full batteries in those junk yards - just mechanical parts from gas engine vehicles and a machine shop for me to make anything else out of metal, plastic or cardboard if I need to.

I will be picking from scrap motors on shelves in a warehouse big enough to make a 2 story house by using the motors as cinder-blocks. I'm just asking for advice on the motors to help me narrow down something to pick out.


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi
If you don't mind "Old Tech" then you can get a lot of power out of old Forklift motors
There is a whole thread in the motors section of this forum

I paid $100 for mine - and I'm pushing about 400hp out of it (only for seconds)


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

You want a nice GE 11"DC motor with 1 1/8+ shafts on one or both ends. Dont trash the tranny unless it is a low rated torque thing.

A bed full of FLA used car batteries might you 10 miles out & back range.

My $0.02 YMMV


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

DrStein99 said:


> I am hoping to drive the truck, powered by batteries with an electric motor after the conversion.
> 
> There are no $2,000 Nissan leaf's with perfect motors and full batteries in those junk yards
> 
> I'm just asking for advice on the motors to help me narrow down something to pick out.


If you don't want to spend $2000 then just Find a private party like this guy

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?278537-Advice-for-Volt-with-dead-ICE

And offer the $1500 he wants for his volt with a bad oil pump and walk.

I've seen that scenario play out about 4 times where an ev has a minor issue and is sold off for under $2k, you just need to be patient, maybe place a wanted add and you will likely find your deal if you wait eyes open.

Building your own off a forklift is also a feat of patience, I would strongly recommend at the least paying the $1500 bucks for a Volt battery, Nissan Leaf motors can be had for less than $500 but again it's not $100 cheap but cheaper in the long run than fla


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## DrStein99 (Apr 30, 2017)

I appreciate the input in buying these new fancy used battery cars, and I am sure you intend well. The parts for those can not be found easily - they haven't existed long enough to be found in junk yards. It would take me 6 months of study to fully understand all the electric wire harness and booby-trap circuit boards, controllers, and / or other surprises. 

$500 for an electric motor sounds interesting, though I have to understand the details since that was not obviously designed for a 5,600 pound 4 door pickup truck to operate at golf-cart speeds to overheat a motor that probably has 100 circuit boards inside - that only god knows what they do.

$1500 sounds good for a new battery is good, of course - but if that whole thing dies or something happens, I'm out the whole $1,500 unless I learn how to break it down and salvage all the cells. My truck will have a nice space where the gas tanks & under hood were to hold an array of reliable lead cells I can easily swap 1 or 2 out, and go on with the rest of the day.

piotrsko: Thank you for the specifics, that's what I was looking for. As far as transmission goes - 176k miles on dodge truck trans and transfer case ready to break, adding extra weight. I wonder if anyone's even thought of just mounting their's right to the rear differential without any drive shaft. 

I am interested in seeing video's & information with electric engines run on automatic transmissions, with or without 4x4 & transfer case. Youtube has me frustrated - lots of videos with a bunch of talk, a few cars spin around the block for 1 minute.


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

It's a dodge. Made to swap trans and t case. I have an 853 with a gazbillion miles on it and had to weld new holding nutserts to the frame because they were worn out from swaps. If you don't have problems with swapping batteries, drive train won't be different.

Gear ratios are your friend. You can move a 80,000 semi with 1 hp. Won't be fast, but it moves.


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## dcb (Dec 5, 2009)

DrStein99 said:


> The parts for those can not be found easily - they haven't existed long enough to be found in junk yards.


There are numerous considerations with lithium, but seriously, it is like 1/4 the weight and far cheaper because they last longer and perform better.

go to www.car-part.com and look for leaf or volt batteries, they absolutely exist in junkyards, and are found very easily (in the states anyway). Worst case you take your $300 harbor freight trailer on a road trip.

edit: new jersey?!? not in junkyards?!? GTFO!


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## DrStein99 (Apr 30, 2017)

piotrsko said:


> It's a dodge. Made to swap trans and t case. I have an 853 with a gazbillion miles on it and had to weld new holding nutserts to the frame because they were worn out from swaps. If you don't have problems with swapping batteries, drive train won't be different.
> 
> Gear ratios are your friend. You can move a 80,000 semi with 1 hp. Won't be fast, but it moves.


Your right about that - I spoke out of line on a roll figuring I would assemble this beast and then be done with it. That stuff is easier to leave there than put back in if I change my mind. Thanks for pointing it out.

dcb: Lithium batteries, yes good idea. It's not easy to decide take a gamble on used deal or pay cost of warranty on certified new stuff. I spent a year so far studying the cells, documenting charge current, loads, rate of discharge, balancing and everything that comes up in a google search.

I can't decide and haven't found a deal - so, I'm just focusing on choosing a motor to get installed, work out the control driver. In the meantime hopefully a power source can present itself at the same cost of lunch money that I use to buy everything else.


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