Step 5: Motor
What's an electric car without a big electric motor to run it!?
I bought my motor for $50 out of some guy's garage. He had bought a junky forklift to build his own automotive lift, and had no use the the motor and some other parts.
The motor was very rusty and greasy, but it did spin (not fast or easily) when I applied 12 volts to it.
Rebuilding an electric motor is very easy. There are only a handful of parts to it.
I degreased it, removed the coils and sprayed them with insulating epoxy, checked the bearings, put it back together, and painted it.
I also had the machinist put the rotor on his lathe and take a tiny bit off the commutator. That makes it looks new, and provides a smooth, conductive surface for the brushes to ride on.
I also replaced the brushes, purchasing new ones at a shop that specializes in forklift motors. $50 for the new brushes brings the total cost of $100 for a pretty decent electric motor.
I bought my motor for $50 out of some guy's garage. He had bought a junky forklift to build his own automotive lift, and had no use the the motor and some other parts.
The motor was very rusty and greasy, but it did spin (not fast or easily) when I applied 12 volts to it.
Rebuilding an electric motor is very easy. There are only a handful of parts to it.
I degreased it, removed the coils and sprayed them with insulating epoxy, checked the bearings, put it back together, and painted it.
I also had the machinist put the rotor on his lathe and take a tiny bit off the commutator. That makes it looks new, and provides a smooth, conductive surface for the brushes to ride on.
I also replaced the brushes, purchasing new ones at a shop that specializes in forklift motors. $50 for the new brushes brings the total cost of $100 for a pretty decent electric motor.
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You need a completely different type of device to control the speed of an AC motor than that of a DC motor.
HOWEVER, I do know several people with in interest in DIRECT DRIVE washing machine motors. Some front-loading washers now have the motor directly on the tub, instead of connected by a belt. Those motors have a plenty of torque, and might be modified to be HUB MOTORS - going directly on the wheels of a vehicle.
If I remember correctly, Washing machine motors are Universal, Meaning.... well. I'm sure you already know.
I've tried to run a Vacuum motor from a 12 amp, 1 1/2 HP vacuum cleaner. It worked very well. Spun slower than usual, but hey, it's only 12 volts with over 4 amps going through it.
But I can't recall trying a washing machine motor, I may have, but still, I don't remember. Brighten me on the subject.
The motor I used in my electric car weighs about as much as an entire washing machine. (Ok, I exaggerate, but not by much....)
In this case, drive motor = washing machine motor.
Anyway.. I found a kit online at : http://www.e-volks.com/electric_car_conversions.html? and was wondering if I can use that. Or do you think it's too cheap? I find it extremely affordable. Thanks.
The max voltage of the controller will limit speed, but not a problem if you are just in the city anyways.
also the downside to that is it isn't geared down. Connecting a 100+ HP motor to the transmission is going to work better than connecting them directly to the tires.
I believe that the electric motor drives the forklift and a hydraulic pump for the lift.
The drive motor is typically a series-wound DC motor with FOUR power connectors on it. This allows for very simple control of spinning the motor in either direction - forward and reverse drive on the forklift.
The hydraulic pump motor typically does NOT have a driveshaft. Instead, it has a female connection, and the driveshaft is on the PUMP that it drives. You can still use a pump motor as a drive motor for an electric car, but would have to design a "stub-shaft" with bearing to connect the motor to your car.
Pump motors typically also only rotate the one direction, so make sure that's the direction you need the motor to turn in your car! With only the two power connections, it's more difficult to reverse the direction of the motor. You need to open the motor and reverse JUST the field coils connection inside. On a series wound motor, just reversing the power cables to the motor will NOT reverse the direction of the spin. (You are reversing both the armature AND the field coils. Backwards of backwards is still forwards....)
http://www.evsource.com/tls_warp11.php
creating a electric for my engineering project need to know the specs of the motor that u used . please its real urgent
It came out of a forklift designed to run on either 36 or 48 volts.
I cleaned up the motor, revarnished the field coils, replaced the brushes, and painted it.
The motor weighs between 100 and 150 pounds.
I have mostly run it at 72V, and it works very well. I have experimentally run it at as high as 144V.
To run at high voltage, It would be a good idea to advance the brush timing.
Horsepower can be calculated based on electrical power used. At 72V, I might use 100 amps to cruise down the road, that's 7200 watts. One horsepower is roughly 750 watts. So, that's roughly 10 horsepower.
However, I have run the motor at 144V at 300 amps, that's around 55 horsepower. Keep in mind that you don't have to rev an electric motor to get power the way you do with a gas engine.
Also, an electric motor typically has more torque than a gas engine.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Toyota-Lift-Truck-Alternator-6FD-30-2DZ-Engine-290-207_W0QQitemZ350304025741QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518fbf3c8d
also could you create a parts list so i can buy all this stuff up before the summer?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOTOR-36VOLT-FORK-TRUCK-MOTOR-BRINKMANN-P2ZX620_W0QQitemZ350298404029QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Lifting_Moving_Equipment?hash=item518f6974bd
like if you used the other bottom terminal