# Buyer Beware: AC-45 and AC-46 Motors (my personal experience)



## GeoRides (Aug 3, 2014)

Hi guys and gals, finally joining the forum as I am lucky enough to be finally starting work on my dream of an electric conversion. I've been working as an auto mechanic since 2006 (starting at Jiffy Lube and now as a ASE Master Tech at a Nissan Dealer) to train myself on the ins and outs of cars. The electric powertrain is for sure a different animal but I feel I've got the experience and theory to understand it (and make a reliable and cost effective conversion!).

Donor Car: 1975 Alfa Spider Convertible.

I'd like to impart some information to other conversionists that I had to deal with in the past two weeks:

As my initial budget hung somewhere around $6K (worked part time nights at Pep Boys all winter), I was very interested in the $1999 AC-45 Motor and controller combo available on ebay. I sent the seller an ebay message to see what he had to say about HPEVS webpage denouncing his motors. He responded that the "industry was feeling the lag on their sales" due to his extremely low prices and that we should talk on the phone.

Guy seemed relatively knowledgeable about the EV industry though he stumbled a bit when I got into terms like "input shaft" "bell housing" but I didn't think much of it because he claimed he has done many conversions and is a certified EV conversion instructor. Later he sends me a price list after discussing that I should buy his products via bank check outside of ebay (another red flag). Ironically seller stated that Jack from EVTV told him "he is the last crook left" in the industry but we laughed about it (because we were having an enjoyable conversation about EVs)

Price list showed that advertised motor/controller kit would not come with basic stuff that other sellers include such as: Controller harness and Spyglass display, contactor and even "milled shaft with keyway". To get the stuff I would need, total would be around $3K. He also quoted me $2k for the chevy volt 96V pack which is $999 on his ebay auction (??).

At this point I started looking a little closer at the EVWest listings. Got a personal email from Michael Breem who convinced me the AC-50 with the 7601 curtis is the only way to go, which I ordered up a few days later ($4K, shipped). 

The ebay seller's true colors began to shine through when I wrote him an email that I needed my $500 paypal deposit back (which I sent after first few emails) because I was going for a more powerful motor. I tried to explain that I wanted to maintain a good business relationship because I was still interested in his chevy batteries but had to redraw my budget.

At this point the mudslinging started, and I had to open a dispute on paypal. In the decade of using ebay as a seller and buyer I have never had to open a formal dispute, because it seems most business people are more interested in the next sale rather than burning bridges to try and hold onto some small fee. Paypal refunded my deposit on grounds that seller's auction was not as described and no product had been received.

So thought I would post a word of warning to other conversionists out there who are thinking about a low cost conversion and might be suckered into buying a subpar motor and controller. These AC-31 motors with the 6501 controller are for NEV cars that were limited to 35mph. The controller is only rated up to 80V which is also misadvertised on auction. Any automotive application would cause system to run too hot and probably cause unroadworthy characteristics of acceleration. As tempting as it is to have a powertrain for $2K, what's the point if it's unsafe to drive because you can't pull out into modern traffic? Here in NJ, I'd be the laughing stock of the shop driving a golf-cart powered Alfa, not to mention probably run over on all the jughandles and highways.

Psyched to work with EVWest, their prices are very fair from what I see and they are consistently producing very cool projects with full media proof! Happy that they steered me away from a potentially disastrous situation. Just shocked that even in a suppressed industry where we should all be helping each other get off this toxic fuel there are still immature sleazes who have to lie to try and make a buck.

Thanks for reading my story! Attached is a pic of my donor car


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

Welcome to the forum. The individual of whom you speak has been banned from this forum four times under different user names most recently just last week. Thanks for the heads-up and again confirming the behavior of this undesirable character.


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## Ivansgarage (Sep 3, 2011)

Come on guys........

You can say his name, fricken warn people!

I wouldn't buy from, Alan Bullock, 1eyedcruiser, scooter, cruisin ???????????

I know this cause I was one of the ones that got screwed.

Ivan


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

Ivansgarage said:


> Come on guys........
> 
> You can say his name, fricken warn people!
> 
> I wouldn't buy from, Alan Bullock, 1eyedcruiser, scooter, cruisin ???????????


Might as well add these:



frodus said:


> I emailed miller3408 about a motor and he responded. He gave his phone number as 925-292-8565 which is the same one that Al uses in many of his postings.
> 
> Other Aliases he's used various places like evtradinpost, seattleeva, evdl, diyelectriccar, endless-sphere, ebay, ecomodder, visforvoltage, electricforum, buggiesgonewild and a handful of other places:
> *Evnut*
> ...


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## QuietCar (Jan 3, 2013)

A good friend of mine had a similar experience with the same seller.

A good first impression, then later, the militant attitude became evident. He has a real chip on his shoulder. It is as if he was the only EV parts seller/expert out there that is competent.

I also understand that he lost his teaching job under unfriendly circumstances. (He misrepresented his credentials)

Some things ARE literally "too good to be true".

QC


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## Ivansgarage (Sep 3, 2011)

HPEVS AC motors on ebay information.

BUYER BEWARE!!!!

It is our understanding that there are AC-31 motors being marketed as an AC-45 motor with the Curtis controllers (1238-6501) on eBay. The AC-45 identification is erroneous as HPEVS has not built a motor with this moniker. The frame of the the motor listed as an AC-45 motor is the AC-31 motor with the AC-31 labels removed.

In Addition, the eBay seller is now displaying our AC-35 motor graph with a title of AC-45 in bold black letters! "The HPEVS AC-35 Imperial Peak Graph" moniker was written over with the AC-45 moniker! AGAIN, this graph is of the AC-35 motor!! Open our graph below and compare it to the numbers that are on this sellers listing for which we have attached a copy! Please note the resemblance!! 

And now (4-28-14), the seller is trying to sell the SAME AC-31 motor as an AC-46 motor and as a Dual AC-46 motor! No matter how you package it, the motor is still an AC-31 motor!!

Here is the rest of the story:
http://www.hpevs.com/catalog-ac-31-ebay.htm


Ivan


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## Ivansgarage (Sep 3, 2011)

This is Alan Bullock


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## Elanimal28 (Nov 18, 2013)

I was asked to share my experience so that others may learn from it.
This happened last month. I summarized it in an email to a member here.

It was Al. And since you asked, 1st he advertise them as new and they were used. After I paid him $2,200 for " 2 new 45ah 96v modules , he called me to said he would ship them to me 9 days latter b/c he was waiting for a special box for the battery. The battery came 2 weeks latter in separete boxes and they were shipped in regular cardboard boxes and one of them leaked antifreeze and FedEx had to repacked it. He charged $37* each for the BMS cables. The cables come with each modules on a Chevy volt but he wanted to make more money. Then he tried to sell me a AC31 motor and controller for $2700* (saying that they are used in heavy trucks and I could do 90 mph easy)* and* when I said I don't have they money he kept calling me an asking me to put $500 down payment for it. I am guessing
He bought a complete Chevy volt battery from a junkyard with the money I paid him, sent me 4 of the 48v modules and sold the rest of the battery modules at $1k for 96v 45ah. I'm guessing he did well for himself considering he can make 6 of those modules ( he made close to 8k profit)

If the old saying is true ( there's a sucker born every minute) , that makes me about a month old.


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## Ivansgarage (Sep 3, 2011)

Here is a email I got from Al Bullock


Ivan,

I am very surprised that you banned me from the forum (no big loss). I understand from Mitz it was your idea. Maybe because you bought a cheap Curtis controller from me on Ebay and refused to pay a small fee to have it flashed and reprogrammed to remove HPEVS VCL. Then you or mitz posted garbage on DIY. DIY is now being sued in federal court for posting and contributing the download of copyrighted software. A lot of members are included as well. I don’t appreciate your cheap attitude and you don’t seem to be very knowledgeable, especially about controllers. I also have a lot of feedback about your conversation with Brian at HPEVS concerning me and my products. Litigation is about to be launched and it appears that you may now be involved. You should have been more careful when you bad mouth other people. Since your forum will also be included, I need the location of the server for the complaint. I would suggest that you have your lawyer contact me and I will furnish a copy of the documents and my lawyer’s contact information. This NOT going away anytime soon.


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## ACEVS4US (Jul 21, 2011)

> Litigation is about to be launched and it appears that you may now be involved. You should have been more careful when you bad mouth other people.


Did you contact your lawyer(s)?

What exactly would the Litigation be for I wonder? Being sold dodgy goods, personally attacking people, being ripoff artist!

I too have had bad experiences with this guy. Fortunately I found out his true colors before I bought anything off him. 

I'd describe him as a liar and a phony. I'm sure Al's lawyers are going over all this with a fine tooth comb, he's got such a strong case?? He'll struggle to sue somebody in a different country though, you guys in the states should be worried.


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## Elanimal28 (Nov 18, 2013)

ACEVS4US said:


> Did you contact your lawyer(s)?
> you guys in the states should be worried.


Worry about what? He's the one that should be worry that all his dirty dealings and deceiving is being revealed.


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## ACEVS4US (Jul 21, 2011)

> Worry about what? He's the one that should be worry that all his dirty dealings and deceiving is being revealed.


I was attempting sarcasm.


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## Elanimal28 (Nov 18, 2013)

ACEVS4US said:


> I was attempting sarcasm.


sorry about that. I guess when you get burn, your sense of humor gets affected too.


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

Those us here long enough to remember the James Morrison/EVComponents saga will recognize the tune being played here now. Long story, short: telling the truth is an absolute defense against libel, and thus he will go from being the plaintiff to defendant in short order.


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

Don't forget the other guy with a 5 component 555 timer based high power controller that everybody just thought was wonderful.


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## theguyed (Dec 4, 2010)

Wow i learned about this guy today ty


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## Elanimal28 (Nov 18, 2013)

theguyed said:


> Wow i learned about this guy today ty


Maybe we need a sticky.lol "b4 you by, check the list of people who can rip you off"


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## philt (Sep 7, 2014)

I am so glad I found this thread. 
Yes the gentleman is Allan Bullock. I can not say anything negative about the man as he is very pleasant on the phone. We spoke for a good 1/2 hour.

He did say some things that didn't quite sit right with me. I am an EE with 36 years experience in Inverter (controller design) and have worked with many companies such as Siemens, GE, Toshiba, Eaton, etc. So I do have a fair knowledge of electric motors and controls.

I didn't share my background with Al but he said the "higher the voltage the less the torque" a motor produces. I know this to be totally false.

Typically Torque will peak out at a certain voltage but HP will be capped at a certain RPM based on voltage (DC), or higher the freq (AC induction mtr), the higher the HP ( Torque X RPM = HP). Until you fry the motor. But torque DOESNT decrease with higher voltage.

His dual motor shown on Ebay shows two "AC-46" motors. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Phase-AC-...nversion-/181391877393?_trksid=p2054897.l4275
I couldn't find anything on AC-46 motors. No where on HPEVS web site, no where on any Google search so I had to take his word that this dual motor combo produced 260 ft./lbs. at 150HP at 3000 RPM. I didn't like not being able to confirm his claims.

Again, the guy seems nice enough but if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

BTW, if you want to see our EV project you can go here to see pics.
http://1drv.ms/1ofABfp
I still am looking for a suitable motor to put this 3500 lb car under 5 seconds 0-60. The Remy HVH250-115 DOM still is the best IMO for this project. I wont go brushed. Either PM brushless or AC induction.


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## planetscott (Aug 19, 2014)

I just read this thread and now I am a bit concerned. I just received the AC-46 motor and controller and a whole list of parts from the same person for my dune buggy conversion. I am hoping I have not gotten screwed. Seemed like a very nice and knowledgeable person and very willing to help.

So far I have not had any issues, but I am at the very beginning of my build. I will let you all know how I make out with all the parts I received from him.


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## 67BGTEV (Nov 1, 2013)

planetscott said:


> I just read this thread and now I am a bit concerned. I just received the AC-46 motor and controller and a whole list of parts from the same person for my dune buggy conversion. I am hoping I have not gotten screwed. Seemed like a very nice and knowledgeable person and very willing to help.
> 
> So far I have not had any issues, but I am at the very beginning of my build. I will let you all know how I make out with all the parts I received from him.


I think you will do ok with this motor for your Buggy. I've this motor running on my EV and I'm fine with how the motor is performing in my conversion. BUT, I wouldn't do any business with him again. He is a leech and sucks your blood out, if you allow him to.


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