# junk pickers dream



## tinkerer (Feb 3, 2008)

I never realized I may have half of what I need already.
I was going to build a electric boat, but at 3 bucks a gallon...
Here's what I have: All of the guts of an electric golf cart, a trimph spitfire
without a motor (1200 lbs), and a desire to stop funding the oil barons.
Will the motor have enough power?
The transmission is close ratio and the rear end ratio is 3.56 
The original gas engines only made 70 h.p.
What's my next move?


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## xrotaryguy (Jul 26, 2007)

I also have a triumph spitfire. I'm selling it as soon as I am done replacing the clutch, clutch slave, rebuilding the transmission, figuring why this new tail shaft seal still leaks (lousy leaky British junk!), and then reinstalling the engine and tranny. God these cars are unreliable. Sell the spit and buy a VW or, even better, an old Japanese car... something that was engineered by someone other than the British. Oh, and something that has a roof would be good  

btw, I don't think that the golf cart motor will get you going even as well as the spitfire motor did... which wasn't good to begin with  maybe I am wrong on this one, but I am pretty sure that golf cart motor is just too darn small.


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## tinkerer (Feb 3, 2008)

I've had dozens of british cars, and have found them to be a reliable as anything else, provided you maintain them. as for the rest, keep your negative comments to yourself, and i'll wait for somone that knows what 
they're talking about.
don't reply back, 
goodbye.


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## xrotaryguy (Jul 26, 2007)

Sorry if you thought that my comments were that negative. Most British car owners are more willing to take a friendly jab in the ribs about British reliability. Personally, I have owned dozens of Japanese cars and while I do like the comparative simplicity of British cars, it is easy to understand why nearly all of Great Brittan's automotive cottage industry went out of business more than 20 years ago. Hey, if you want to build an electric British car, go for it. If you really like British cars that much, and we can all see at this point that you do, then you're building the right car. I just wanted to give my input as the owner of a handful of British cars and as the owner of over 100 cars from various other countries. Again, I sincerely am sorry that my comments came across as being overly negative.


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## Testit and u shall know (Jan 27, 2008)

xrotaryguy said:


> I just wanted to give my input as the owner of a handful of British cars and as the owner of over 100 cars from various other countries. Again, I sincerely am sorry that my comments came across as being overly negative.


Do you have over 100 cars in your possesion? Are you a collector? Why so many vehicles?


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## TexomaEV (Jul 26, 2007)

I wouldn't try the golf cart motor, as most of them bolt into the differential. So when you remove it, the front of the motor doesn't have a faceplate/bearing. They also aren't usually rated for the HP you'd want, even for the spitfire most likely.

Check out some of the motors and even kits at: www.beepscom.com 

I've found them to be very reasonable on pricing. If you really want to be frugal, find a salvage yard of electric forklifts. There's a goldmine...of parts.


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## Hi Torque Electric (Dec 23, 2007)

Hey Tink

At 1200 lbs the donor is lighter than most, but a "typical" golf cart motor weighs in around 50 lbs and isn't big enough to handle what you're looking to do. As was stated, they usually don't have a drive end (DE) plate or bearing, but they also tend to have shorter commutators and small brushes. Some older units do have DE plates and actually have a keyed shaft you could mount to, but you'll fry that little guy faster than a pancake cooking on max heat

In fact there is someone here on the forum, that bought one of the D&D (E15? I believe) motors listed at the Beep site and burnt it up in 40 minutes of drive time (just talked with him couple of days ago). Furthurmore, all of the D&D pictures shown at BEEP are the same motor, so the one you buy from them may not be the motor pictured!!! Sorry if I sound snippy about this, but I'm the guy people call "after" they buy "to small" of a motor which they've hurt (sometimes beyond repair) who are now stuck with an expensive boat anchor! There are people out there who are using smaller motors, but they are usually blower cooled and are surface street lower speed conversions.

It is one thing to grab a cheap, old motor and tinker with it, but yet another to puck down bucks on something that ends up not working. Even with that said how much time and money will be waisted in adapting the motor?
Hope this helps

Jim Husted
Hi-Torque Electric
http://www.hitorqueelectric.com


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## xrotaryguy (Jul 26, 2007)

Testit and u shall know said:


> Do you have over 100 cars in your possesion? Are you a collector? Why so many vehicles?


Sorry, I do not currently own 100 cars. I currently own 7 cars. Four of them run  However, for a period of about two years, I supplemented my income by buying cars from salvage auctions and then reconstructing them for resale. I purchased an average of one car per week. At 52 weeks per year, that is more than 100 cars. I had owned quite a few cars before that period, and have owned quite a few since then, so I have definitely owned my fair share of automobiles. One thing that I learned while working on all these cars is that one can purchase a collision-damaged American car and repair all of the damage only to find out that the motor had a rod knocking at the time of the accident or to discover that the thermostat was stuck and the head was cracked, but that the driver continued to drive it until the collision. I guess they were as fed up with these cars as I am.  I only came across two Japanese cars during this time that surprised me in this way. Both had more than 170k miles on the clock, so I guess it was time. II did not purchase any British cars at this time. British cars usually get parted out before they get the chance to collide with another car.

My Triumph has only covered 80k, and in the year and a half or so that I have owned it, I have rebuilt the differential, had the drive shaft rebuilt, replaced u-joints, rebuilt the carburetor, rebuilt the transmission, replaced the clutch (in progress), and replaced the clutch slave, rebuilt the clutch master (man did that thing make a mess of the rear bulk head. Nothing more entertaining than washing a repainting a firewall)... sigh. There's more I'm sure, but it gets tough to keep track of British car repairs after a while. 

One of the things that I hear electric car owners brag about is the low maintenance requirements of their electric cars. I really don't think that British cars make good candidates for electric conversion for this very reason... well, that and they tend to have only two seats and zero roof. Oh, and parts are generally all mail order... unless you live near Moss Motors or another large after-market British parts supplier.


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## Testit and u shall know (Jan 27, 2008)

xrotaryguy said:


> One of the things that I hear electric car owners brag about is the low maintenance requirements of their electric cars.


They are refering to the motor. A combustion motor has to many parts to maintane.


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## xrotaryguy (Jul 26, 2007)

Fair enough, but what is the point of a low maintenance motor if the clutch, clutch hydraulics, transmission, drive shaft, half shafts, rear wheel bearings, cardboard transmission tunnel... everything but the brakes. the brakes really are quite good for the vintage of the car... are constantly in-need of repair?


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