Can I please buy some batteries?

I have been trying to get a quote on 13 Optima D34 Yellow tops from the local wholesaler. Of course I'm usually doing this after hours, so my first choice for contacting them is e-mail.
After 2 messages and no answer, I resort to the phone.
So I sneak out of work to call them and no one bothers to pick up the phone.
This is starting to remind me of my friend with the flywheel...

Just for the heck of it I called them Tuesday AM on my way into work and - surprise - a woman answered.
As soon as I told her what I wanted she asked if it was for a Sparrow. That's pretty cool, at least they knew it was for an EV. I told her what it was and she gave me the EAA discount which made them $159 each with a $5 (each) delivery charge. Not bad. I was estimating $160.
Then she asked me what kind of terminals I wanted... "You mean I get to choose?!" I'd rather have a stud over a clamp any day... So this was good news.

But when I asked about getting them from the same batch, things went a little sideways. (You want to get your batteries out of a single batch because the chemistry can be different in each batch. Having the same chemistry gives them a better chance of charging and discharging evenly.) But she said getting them from a single batch will require a special order and will take 3 weeks to deliver to their shop before being shipped to my address - so closer to 4 weeks .
I wasn't expecting that long of a delay. Then she said that a "sales associate" would need to call to get the details.
Uh oh.

I hope they call soon.

Motor in!

Well, the Sunday before Memorial Day I rented an engine hoist and put the motor in the car all proper-like. The guy at the rental shop asked what I was working on ("Ford or Chevy?") and was a little surprised to hear what I was up to. He then said a friend of his has a converted Rabbit, but doesn't know much about it.
I thought I could do drop the motor in in about an hour and return the hoist in record time, but no such luck. The motor mount holes were off just enough to prevent the bolts from coming through. I ended up disassembling the motor mount and "adjusting" the holes a little bit with a rat tail file. NOW it fits!
I didn't take a lot of measurements or pictures before removing the engine. My theory is that the frame that connects the transmission to the differential will ensure the driveshaft and U-joints have the proper angle. If the motor is too low the rear suspension might wear a little funny, but the nothing should grind, howl or bind. If it is low I can shim it up with some washers. That my theory anyway.m

Motor mount is ready

Sorry for the bad picture...

While I was downtown I dropped into a hardware store and found some 7/8" fine thread 5" long grade 5 bolts. Not grade 8, but at this point, close enough.

Comes out the ones that came with the motor mounts were grade 5 too, but a little short at 4".

Drilled out the holes in the subframe, stuck in some 2" washers on the underside dropped on the rubber donuts (with their metal covers) and there you have it.

Now I'm ready to drop in the motor.

Nothin's Easy

Saturday I set off to buy some nuts and bolts for the motor mount. I needed:

• Seven 17 mm nuts and lock washers for the adapter plate


• Two 1.5" 13mm bolts and stop nuts for the ring clamp


• Two 5" 14mm bolts to connect the motor mount to the subframe


• Plus I needed 3/8" hex drive and some locktight for the flywheel.

Seemed pretty easy. 2 days, 8 trips and 5 hardware stores later I still didn't have what I wanted, but I think I have enough to put it together.

First problem is finding metric anything. Sure you can find metric nuts and bolts, but the selection is pretty limited and aren't hard enough for my application - grade 5 is OK, but grade 8 is better. And 17 mm nuts could be found, but not at the right "pitch" - how close together the threads are. You can find 1.25 and 1.75 at Home Depot and Lowes, but I needed 1.50 which I finally found at an ACE Hardware.

So I went for SAE for the ring clamp bolts and the motor mount bolts. I couldn't find 5" grade 8 or grade 5 in 7/8 width, so made the dubious choice to buy 6" lengths, cut threads with a die and then cut them down to size. Comes out grade 8 is hard to cut (duh) and I didn't have a 7/8 die. Disgusted, I took a break to rethink the mounts. I was concerned that the lower rubber piece would extend down too far - cutting the ground clearance. Since my bolt idea isn't working and an electric motor doesn't create the vibrations that an ICE does, I decided to keep just the upper rubber piece and run the bolt directly through the subframe. This way, a 4" bolt will work which is what was shipped with the mounts.

So the ring clamp bolted up to the motor well after "adjusting" one of the bolt holes a bit to improve the alignment. The "torque bolt" idea was scratched as the bolt heads that stick through the holes I cut in the ring clamp and should keep the motor from spinning in the clamp.

The instructions for the adapter said to use a 3/8" hex drive to tighten the allen head bolts to 35 ft/lbs. I found a 3/8" hex drive at Kragen, but of course it didn't fit. I used an 8mm hex key to tighten the bolts by hand and so I traded in the 3/8" unit for an 8mm one - but it didn't fit either =\. I ground down the 8mm a bit and NOW it works.

The adapter is now on nice and tight and next is to make sure the flywheel is properly set to the "magic distance" - this is how far the flywheel is from the adapter plate so that the clutch operates correctly. The instructions say the flywheel needs to be 1.520" +/- .01" from the adapter. There is a hub that mounts on the motor shaft which the flywheel bolts to. This hub can be adjusted back and forth until the distance is correct. But the only way is to do this is to mount the flywheel, measure the distance, take the flywheel off and adjust the hub. With a 16 pound flywheel and the motor on a cart on the garage floor, this is a real pain in the back! Took me 5 tries, but it's now within tolerance.

So, we got the ring clamp on, the adapter on tight and the flywheel and clutch finally in place. I still have to drill the holes in the subframe for the motor mounts, but once that's done I can drop the motor in for real : )

Weekend update

Did a couple of little things over the weekend:

1. Busted the ring gear off of the flywheel. It's not needed since there is no starter, and removing it will save a little weight (surprising little, but better than nothing). People say the teeth of the ring gear creates turbulence as it spins, slowing the flywheel down, so, even if it doesn't save a lot of weight, removing it may help a little.
2. Pulled the motor out. I stuck my head out of the garage and spotted an unsuspecting neighbor who was easily talked into risking flattening some of his body parts by helping me lift the motor out by hand (no winch, no cheery picker, just a nylon strap and two he-men).
3. Did some adjusting and fitting of the engine mount. Cut the hole for the bolt head on the top of the ring clamp, added the rubber backing to the ring clamp and tried to assemble it with out much luck. The bolts are too short to bring the two halves of the clamp together and one of the bolt holes does not align. I still need to do a little cutting and welding for my "torque bolt" idea and now I have to "adjust" the bolt hole in the lower clamp and pick up some new longer bolts.

Zilla is here!

Got an email from EV Source that my Zilla shipped on Wednesday and received it on Friday. My records show I ordered it on January 13th which means that Otmar and crew beat the 4 month lead time commit by 10 days. Not too shabby.

Now I wish I was ready to install it, but got a few things to do first...