I was fortunate enough to be able to get these batteries, slightly used, for $12 each - essentially scrap metal prices! One downside of these batteries is that they are picky about charging voltage. They can not leak or spill acid, nor do they require watering. These are Deka Dominator true Gel-Cell batteries. This car uses 6 x 12V batteries, for a 72V system. The motor won't do you any good, unless you have some batteries to power it with. Congratulations! You have an electric car drivetrain!!! Line up the motor and transmission, with the coupler halves between them (with the spider in there) and bolt both the the adapter plate. I was able to get the very center, splined section, of the brake out, and use it to make the motor half of the coupler. I took the drum brake apart, sure enough, it was the same spines on the back end. Fortunately, the motor was double-shafted (one on each end) and the back end went to a drum brake, which was the parking brake on the forklift. The motor spline COULD have been more of a challenge, as I didn't have any part with a spline on it for the shaft to go to. The machinist cut off the ears, lathed a step in the Lovejoy coupler, pushed the clutch spline in there, and welded it in place. Poof! you have a mechanical connection! Lovejoy couplers are designed with a keyway and set-screw, but both the shafts on this project are splined! Splines are much stronger than keys, but much more difficult to machine! For the transmission, I took the old (broken) clutch plate and ground off the rivets to get just the middle splined center out. Put one connector on either shaft, and a rubber "spider" between the two. Lovejoy connectors have three fingers and a shaft-hole. While there are a number of ways to do this, including keeping the clutch and machining the flywheel, I chose to keep it simple and use a "Lovejoy"-style connector.
The coupler is a means of connecting the rotary power of the electric motor to the transmission to power the car.
#Build a car engine online series#
(If you are more interested in electric MOTORCYCLES, please see this intractable: įor more in-depth construction information, check out the instructional Video DVD available at I have now also converted that original DVD to a series of YouTube videos. For a good intro to basic electric car construction, stick with this Instructable. I have plenty of videos about this project at: and The primary "build blog" for this project is at: but watch out! That is a good read for when you have WAY too much time on your hands. Can't afford a Nissan Leaf? No Problem! Build a cheap electric car yourself by removing the the car engine, replacing it with a forklift motor, and adding batteries. Now, I'm driving a used Mitsubishi iMiEV electric car and power it with my Solar Garage! Please take a look at my other Instructables and at for the latest on my clean transportation adventures!) When I built this car, pretty much the only electric car available was the $100,000 Tesla Roadster. (AUTHORS NOTE, July 9, 2017) Hi Everyone, there' been a lot of views on this project lately! Thanks for coming by to read through it! Much has changed since I originally built this car, including the fact that there are a LOT of great commercially built electric cars available for sale, including used at good prices.
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