Fabrication Progress

The motor/differential/speed reducer assembly and the motor controller (the two largest components in the engine bay) are mounted in their final locations. It barely fits - had the controller been 1 inch larger on any side and it wouldn't have fit in the engine bay unless the motor and transaxle were a parallel unit (motor laying flat, transversely in the car), with the controller laying flat on top of it. An advantage of the current configuration is that the motor, controller, gear drive and differential are all visible from the top, useful for outreach/demonstration.

Motor/speed reducer/differential assembly Version 2.0 is hanging from the lift; on the right you can see the motor controller (the black box) mounted in a polycarbonate enclosure (we went a little overkill on the waterproofing).





This photo is taken from inside of the engine compartment; you can see the clearance between the motor controller box and the top of the hood (the underside of the sheet metal) is about half of an inch.






The new motor frame, as seen above, clamped to the welding table - this is necessary to prevent the welding heat form warping the frame. This is version 2.0, which is slimmer and allows for the clearance to mount the motor controller next to it in parallel.





The components for the chain-drive speed reducer. From the left: flexplate adapter (connects the lower chain sprocket shaft to the differential); spline shaft and sprocket spacers (connects to the motor at the top); lower chain sprocket shaft with the lower bearing mounted and the other side of the triangular flex plate adapter.