# College Project Mitsubishi Colt EV conversion



## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Hi,

Myself and 2 friends are doing a conversion on a Colt for our final year project in DIT Bolton St in Dublin Ireland.

It's been a tough start but we seen to be getting somewhere now. We have a very limited budget of €150-€200 so it's tough going.

Check out our website.....

http://dit007pureelectric.webs.com/

Any advice would be welcome.


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

DIT said:


> Hi,
> 
> Myself and 2 friends are doing a conversion on a Colt for our final year project in DIT Bolton St in Dublin Ireland.
> 
> ...


Hi,

Just out of interest,

What components are you using for 200eur?

Any specs, pictures?

What stage of the build are you at?


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Check out the website for pics,

We got the car for free and a friend got us the motor for €100 and we are going begging and borrowing the rest of the parts that we need,


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

All stripped and ready for the motor.

Now have a bigger more powerful motor so watch this space for more info.


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## dubelt (Sep 27, 2011)

skooler said:


> Hi,
> 
> Just out of interest,
> 
> ...


From picture it seems that it will be for "captain slow"










P= 0,55kW
V= 48V

Are you going to change the windings?
If not, it is not suitable motor for that car. I guess it was designed for application like pump motor not traction motor.


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

dubelt said:


> From picture it seems that it will be for "captain slow"
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Its more for just a show piece and to get the car rolling, its never going to be driven on the open road.

Once the vehicle moves it will be sufficient.


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## dubelt (Sep 27, 2011)

Yop. It will roll  if used with gearbox in first gear.
traction motor with power of 0,55kW could be compared to mule/small weak horse pulling the chassis.


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

DIT said:


> Its more for just a show piece and to get the car rolling, its never going to be driven on the open road.
> 
> Once the vehicle moves it will be sufficient.


Please look at getting a bigger motor!

As someone on these forums who has put an electric motor in a car (there are many others that have done the same and will say the same), the time, effort and cost required in designing and building adaptor plates and couplers is not trivial.

It would be a shame to put lots of time and effort into designing and building everything for it to only just move the car.

Spend a few Euros on a bigger motor - ebay is great!

At least then you'll have a usable vehicle at the end of the project.

To give you an idea I have a 9" Series DC motor that cost ~£150. There was an almost new 11" that sold on ebay a few weeks ago for £60!

Also, is that motor an AC motor? that makes things a lot more complicated.

Cheers

Mike


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

We are on the promise of a larger motor so hopefully it will come.


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

New and much larger motor being delivered on Friday. 

Pics to follow


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Got a new motor and now have a controller. Have a major problem with joining the motor shaft to the gearbox.

The motor shaft is 23mm and 28 spline. Can anybody recommend a coupler to join them?

A few pics,


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## dubelt (Sep 27, 2011)

4kW ... not much better.

Take this motor to workshop, someone will produce proper coupling.


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

DIT said:


> Got a new motor and now have a controller. Have a major problem with joining the motor shaft to the gearbox.
> 
> The motor shaft is 23mm and 28 spline. Can anybody recommend a coupler to join them?
> 
> A few pics,


I'd still say it's a little small, It'll move the car but not too well, think of it a the same amount of power as a moped engine.

what is the diameter?

Is it a pump motor? 

If you could get hold of whatever it used to drive or something to match the splines then you have something to work from.

Creating a splines coupler from scratch could be very expensive...

Are you using a clutch or not?

Cheers,

Mike


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## imakebio (Mar 19, 2012)

Hi, Im from county Waterford and my son and I are considering an ev conversion. We are still at the stage of collecting parts, motors etc. We are looking at VW polos because they did not have power steering up to about 1998 and this would take some of the load off the dc/dc converter. Does your donor car have power steering?
Have you looked into the matter of registration of a home built ev?


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi Dit

Motor looks interesting - how big is it? - what do the brushes look like?

I would suggest having a look at local industrial suppliers - I bet that is a standard spline and you will be able to buy the female

Where did you get it? If it is off a local dead forklift have a look at the rest of the bits - there may be a part that you can turn into an adapter


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

That's the same motor as I'm using on the bike. Two of them actually.
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showpost.php?p=195792&postcount=1172

I had a local machine shop turn the splines off the shaft , down to 19mm and keyed 6mm. Those motors have a high bar count so with some advance will run at higher voltages. 48v on the two nearly put me through the back wall of my workshop!


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

skooler said:


> I'd still say it's a little small, It'll move the car but not too well, think of it a the same amount of power as a moped engine.
> 
> what is the diameter?
> 
> ...


Got a taper coupling to join the motor to the gearbox, not using a clutch so hopefully the coupler will hold.


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Not using a clutch,

Here is a pic of the motor installed.


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

Sweet work!

How are you planning on mounting the motor to the chassis?

What are your plans for controller, batteries and charger?

More pictures needed ;-)

Cheers,

Mike


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

skooler said:


> Sweet work!
> 
> How are you planning on mounting the motor to the chassis?
> 
> ...


Hi Mike,

We have secured the motor to the mounting plate and have webbed welded supports on the back so hopefully it will hold it.

The controller is still unknown at the moment but will hopefully be sorted in the next week or two. Batteries are just going to be normal run of the mil car batteries as the budget is pretty tight and the car is not going to be going any kind of distance.

Check out our website for loads more pics.

http://dit007pureelectric.webs.com/


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Coupler has been sent away to get splines cut for the gearbox and motor.

Pics to follow

Lots of new pics on our website,

http://dit007pureelectric.webs.com/


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Just looking for some info on what way to wire this motor just to test run it.

Are the 4 connections live and will it have a separate earth wire?


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

DIT said:


> Just looking for some info on what way to wire this motor just to test run it.
> 
> Are the 4 connections live and will it have a separate earth wire?


Hi again... 

Errrm no!

No earth!

It's ok not to know, it's tricky. I was the same at this stage of my conversion. Ask questions and read up as required!

It looks like a series wound (dc) motor to me. Judging by the brushes and the fact it has 4 connections.

You need the field windings (casing) in series with the armature (brushes).

The order that you do it in will determine the direction the motor rotates.

Take a read of this Page of my build thread for more info. Major is a guru.

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/good-motoriii-61556p4.html

For your application. i'd get 3 jump leads and an old starter battery.

Short 2 studs together. And connect the other 2 to a battery. 

Are there any markings on the motor terminals? If so make sure you short ones that begin with different letters.

As an example. It may be marked a1, a2, y1,y2.

Check that the motor spins the right direction for your gearbox.

Cheers,

Mike


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Got the car driving tonight, videos coming soon


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

Finished!!


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## imakebio (Mar 19, 2012)

Well Done, my son and I have followed your project from the start. I believe you won the competition the project was entered into. Congratulations. the conversion looks super neat and professional.
We finally settled on a suitable vehicle for our own project here in County Waterford. We wanted as 4 seater car, light weight, with no power steering and no power assisted brakes. We have bought a 1988 Citroen 2cv. but we are going to have to restore it to good running order before conversion and that will take 6 months to a year. This will give us time to collect up all the bits we will need.

Congratulations again


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## DIT (Mar 15, 2012)

imakebio said:


> Well Done, my son and I have followed your project from the start. I believe you won the competition the project was entered into. Congratulations. the conversion looks super neat and professional.
> We finally settled on a suitable vehicle for our own project here in County Waterford. We wanted as 4 seater car, light weight, with no power steering and no power assisted brakes. We have bought a 1988 Citroen 2cv. but we are going to have to restore it to good running order before conversion and that will take 6 months to a year. This will give us time to collect up all the bits we will need.
> 
> Congratulations again


Thanks for that, keep us informed on your project.


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