Thursday, April 26, 2012

Adaptation

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy with school and this project and everything else, but I've managed to get a few things taken care of. First, I bought a OEM BMW e34 spec M5 clutch disc and e36 M3 pressure plate with a lightweight aluminum flywheel made by UUC. This will replace my stock dual mass flywheel, changing the weight from 27.5lbs to 8.5 lbs. From the factory it's balanced to 11,000 RPM, which is good because my motor is capable of spinning up to 10,000 RPM.

Next, I bought a chunk of aluminum for the motor-transmission adapter plate. I oversized it, because I wanted to make sure there would be enough material, so I ended up buying a 2'x2'x0.75" chunk of solid aluminum. Last week I took it down to a machine shop near where I live with the motor, transmission, clutch and flywheel kit, and some other small components and explained what I needed done. As it turns out, some other EV enthusiasts in my area had commissioned similar work from this shop, so the guys there knew exactly how to make an adapter plate. I'm waiting for them to finish up projects they had backed up, but I'll post again when I hear from them.

Finally, I bought a charger. Since I'm pretty much set on using A123 amp20m1hd-a cells, I decided that a Manzanita Micro PFC-30 charger would be the right size for charging my car. Expect another post when it gets here.

That's all for now. It's time for me to get back to reading the user manual that came with my car.