# Jaguar XJS build thread



## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi all,
i have started converting my 76 xjs so that i would have smaller car for summer instead of my Range Rover ev. 
So far i have stripped engine,transmission,cooling and fuel parts. I have to do some more cleaning before i can paint engine bay and start making brackets for motor and batteries.Front brakes are refurbished and i will do same to rear when i get the rear axle cage out.Otherwise i should be fine with restorations.
Plan is to use dual 11" from Rangie without transmission. I will also use same batteries,65x200, and Soliton controller .After all, i can only drive one car at a time If all goes smoothly i will have Jag ready for assembly in a month or so. I will then just load batteries to their constucted places, bolt on motor and controller. It should be a nice weekend project both ways, in or out.
Sorry no pictures, but i try to add some later, just wanted to make this conversion "officiall"
Greetings, Harri


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## mora (Nov 11, 2009)

Good going, I'm definitely watching this process. Keep us all informed.


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi
I had some free time and made some progress with Jag. 
All the fuel components are off. Nice place for batteries where tank used to be.
I made a dummy motor so i could have better picture on how motor would fit. I kind of refused to believe how big that sucker is! There is no way it can be installed to transmission tunnel even for an inch. So motor will be where ice was. It looks like batteries could be installed above motor, but it is a tight fit so that will be seen when i have "motor" attached.
I was hoping to get drive shaft from a BMW, but it would not fit without modifications. I found a Ford Racing shop that sells custom driveshafts and they offered very nice price for a longer version of XJS shaft. 
I ordered 90mm2 cable for pack and 120mm2 for motor.I will upgrade Range Rovers motor cable as well. 90mm2 warms a little bit but nothing extreme.
I still have rear brakes to do and then i can start putting ev parts on their places. It looks very good so far, hope i can fit batteries where i want. Otherwise it will complicate conversion quite a bit.
That is where am today, i´ll work on Jag next weekend and post update after that. 

Harri


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## goingjag (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi Harri, not sure if you are still active so I thought I'd give this a whirl.

I have a spare 80 XJS I'm thinking of converting as an around town EV. I have plenty of other stock Jags, so I won't feel bad about doing this one which has an overheating engine and bad tranny which makes it a good candidate because I hate to just junk it.

Have you made any progress on yours? Photos, or link to a photo site?

Thanks


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi,
i am still working on getting big motor out of my Range Rover.Last parts for that arrived on day before christmas. It was too cold to do any real progress. Two weeks ago i had 10" installed and managed to overheat it on test drive, so i had to change dual11" back. I installed 10" to other Range Rover i had with engine removed so i can find Soliton settings for it.
So Leguan XJS project is still going strong, i am sure it will be ready and inspected in few months.
I will post pictures when i have installed something, now it is just waiting ready for motor.
Good luck with your XJS


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Ok, i found one picture of how project is moving......or at least staying and waiting
So not best possible working conditions on winter months.
Harri


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## goingjag (Feb 29, 2012)

Thanks for the info and picture. I think you got our northeastern America cold this winter. So far ours has been pretty light realtively speaking.

In addition to putting the electric motor where the ice was, are you going to put some/all of the batteries up front as well? It would seem that you wouldn't want to put all of them in back as the balance would be weird I think?

I'm afraid I don't recognize the 10 and 11" reference you are making as I'm new to this. Is there a standard motor/transmission I should consider looking at?


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

10" and 11" are motor sizes. I use Kostov DC motors myself.
In Jag i will experiment on how it goes without transmission, with dual11" (two 11" motors together)it may go well. I have original gear ratio and it is possible that accelerating from standstill is too low, but i will install gearbox later if needed. I was hoping to get motor where transmission was, but my motor is so big that it is impossible.I do not want to cut the cars interior to make it fit.
Some batteries will fit in front, not all.With smaller motor front could fit quite a lot.There is very good room on rear for a lot of batteries.I could fit allmost all there. I intend to balance Jag to 50/50 weight distribution with battery placing.
I see Jaguar as very good donor as it has lot of room on front and back.And removing V12(450kg) will leave you with plenty of weight to be added.Decent size motor with light gearbox and medium size battery pack could do a lighter vehicle than the original.
Harri


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi all,
We are seeing dry tarmac here and fever is rising! I have finally managed to paint motor bay and have welded support for motor. Drive shaft is bolted and waiting for a motor. I did a Soliton mock-up as well to see how parts will fit. I can install most parts under bonnet, few batteries may have to be fitted on trunk. Next i will weld battery trays and start cutting cables. I have couple pictures as well
Harri


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## drgrieve (Apr 14, 2011)

Lol that is a nice looking Soliton! Got to love the acres of space - dual motors and still room for batteries in front.


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## JRoque (Mar 9, 2010)

Ha! Is that the Evnetics logo on that wooden controller? Excellent start to a good conversion.

JR


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

I was supposed to do the cooling fins too but it did feel like an overkill. I cnc routed it from hard insulating foam and sprayed with chrome paint. I have Aspire file for this "controller" if here are fellow Aspire users.

I am working on figuring out how to control forward and reverse on motor. I have contactor for that but need to assemble relays to work safely.
Plan is like this:
I will take autoshifters park as forward and from reversing light switch i take signal for reversing.Other gear selections are not available.If ignition is on, with F on gear lever, cntactor is on forward. This could tell Soliton to not cut power, to protect in case contactor loses 12v. When brake is applied it powers relay to change on reverse when gear lever moves.Brake cuts power also. Reverse. And brake , then F again and so we are driving forward again Does Soliton have enough separate inputs? I have to check that.
Would this be enough to safely choose driving direction?

Anybody got what i had in mind?

Harri


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## drgrieve (Apr 14, 2011)

Hope you get this working. I'm planing on something similar using PRND to drive relays for forwards and reverse. 

Not sure what I can do with P and N - I'm mechanically challenged ...


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi all!
Finally i had time to really move on with this. I installed motor from my Range Rover and did a short test drive. It pulls quite strong but since i have so small pack, 110v 40ah, it really does not impress anyone. I try to get it inspected later this week and after that i will get into details.
Few pictures included this time
Harri


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## blue-eagle (Jul 20, 2010)

Hello Harri:

I am impressed with your effort converting a Jag V12 to electric. Can you give us a up date on the progress. More photo would be nice and appreciated.


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi, Jaguar had some difficulties when completed. Dual11" had enough power, but without transmission it over heated and i had to change it. It now has kostov10" with Volvo transmission set at second gear. I stuffed all cells from Range Rover to Jag. I lost few because of unbalance. I discovered that CellBalancingModules that are supposed to prevent overcharging can drain a cell and when not used in long time cause cell to die. I have now removed faulty CBM:s and all goes well again.
Jaguar got only few thousand kilometres before coupler decided to quit.Probably clutch center part lost splines. No big deal but it ended driving season. Batteries and controller are now being moved to Range Rover for winter. Next summer i will be ready for more kilometres on this eco-beast
Regards, Harri


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## mora (Nov 11, 2009)

What are those 40Ah cells? GBS? Where did you get them? Sorry to hear about CBM causing problems. Are those cells that got removed completely dead? If not you could use them in low-amp applications like driving electric trolling motor (fishing I mean, hehe).


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi Mora, they are 20ah cells and supposed to be Thunder Sky. From EV-Power.eu. They were on sale and i got a few for quad project or something. 
I am getting close to point where BMS would have paid its price. Or it would have burnt my car and garage.
I feel that few cells and some molten metal are part of the learning curve. Like nobody burnt a car when starting playing with ice vehicles of old
Cheers, Harri


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## mora (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks for the info. Electric quad sounds fun. I thought they were 40Ah cells but guess you have 2 parallel then. We're doing riding lawnmower / garden tractor conversion and 20Ah cells might be right sized building blocks for us. I'm also thinking replacing my 4x 90Ah accessory battery with 4x 20Ah or 40Ah. Takes way less space.


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## Chuck in SD (Oct 9, 2012)

I'm glad to see this thread, I was thinking I was nuts to think about converting my 2000 XJ8 VDP, but with an XJS on here, I'm feeling a little more comfortable. 

I see you used the old gas tank area for the batteries in the back, and kept the stock 12V location. I'm looking at the same with the rack in the front. What is your cell distribution (Front/back), and do you have functionality on the stock Jag instrumentation/controls? The XJ8 is in excellent shape, but a little heavy, and I'm just in the planning stages. 

Would the 11" work best with a standard transmission? I liked the idea of the dual motor setup, but I don't think it will fit with the tranny still there. 

Is there any way to convert the current Auto tranny?

Chuck


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi Chuck,
I think your XJ8 will do a very nice EV. I believe that XJ8 is very similar to old XJ models. Do not remember the weight of AJ8 motor but heavier the better. V12 version would have more weight to lose but they likely have same axles. 
Now with 10" i have about 40/20 cell location, more in front. Since i only drive XJS on summer there is no heating or battery boxes. I just noticed that i did not take any pictures of this later version of conversion. I have not used original instruments, just "installed" meters for volts,amps and motor temp. I try to take use of original ones next summer.
11" and original automatic should be fine. There are many threads about using automatics, you will find details there. I have drawing of ZFhp22 coupler to Kostov.Might be same trans as yours. I got my parts from factory, but i am not sure if they do any custom parts anymore. 
Regards, Harri


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## sofloSLC (Jul 18, 2011)

Thanks for the thread, I've got a similar heavy 2 door conversion (450 SLC Benz) in the planning stages so this is great inspiration. I'd also like to do 2 motors direct drive like you've done, and lose the auto trans. 

Do I see right that you have the 2 motors wired in parallel off your Solition? Wouldn't it be possible to bring the voltage way up to 340v and run them both in series, with less current, and presumably less heat problems?
Todd


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi Todd, yes my motors were in parallel. I later started wondering about series connection, but it was never experimented. With Jaguars low ,3.31 or something, gear motor still turns so slowly that i doubt that it would have worked. I really think that rear axle ratio should be highest you can get and aux cooling blower to motors are needed.
Smallest engines or estate models have usually highest gears, look from there. Once again, great conversion candidate that MB of yours. 
Good luck
Harri


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## R2gnl (Sep 5, 2014)

Hi Harru,

I wonder if you're still drinving the xjs? As I'm planning to do my own convert.

Regards, Remco


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi Remco!
I did drive XJS for one summer, i only have one complete motor/controller/battery set. It was swapped to my Range Rover and has been there ever since I do have plans to take Jaguar on road but time has been on short. It is a total blast and pleasure as ev so i do hope that you build yourself one and feel it yourself Best of luck to your conversion!
Regarsd, Harri


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