[Rick]

So if someone were to hypothetically ask what this 21 year old college student did with his summer (ok I know this is kind of late considering it's pretty much winter already) here it goes.

I got a new toy! It's a 92 Saturn SC2 I've actually had for a while and never finished. 3 Years ago I started converting it to electric, but never finished until this summer break. Here's some pictures of it as it is now and some of the in progress pictures:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ricksuite ... .dir=/656a

It's been running since early September, and I've found on a few instances I had not even started the Insight in ~5 days and opted to drive it just for the sake of doing so. With about a 40 mile range per charge I the Insight really only gets used for longer trips to the other end of town, or out of town trips. It should be fun to see how long I can go without buying any gas. First month with it I went a month and a day, I'm thinking I can do two months.

 

[b1shmu63]

Very nice work Rick! 8)

What batteries do you use?

 

[Rick]

Cheap Trojan flooded 12 volt deep cycle batteries. They probably won't deliever much in terms of cycle life (at least compared to 6 volt golf car batteries), but I wanted at least a moderately high voltage. When those die, I'm probably going to move up to some Exide Orbital batteries, more of them for higher voltage. I think I want to aim to blow the transmission to pieces. Right now with the current limit set to 500 amps acceleration is on par with the stock engine. The controller is capable of 1000 amps at up to 300 volts! :twisted:

 

[karlinhos]

that looks awesome!

what do you do by trade... something that would assist you in putting something like this together?

very interesting project and it looks VERY well done.

thanks for sharing!

 

[Rick]

I'm a college student. That might change, depends on how much I like the upper devision courses I'll be taking soon.

I did most of the work myself. The transmission adapter plate is the only thing I didn't design. I was told this is not something you want to attempt unless you really know what your doing and have a nice machine shop at your disposal. The battery boxes I designed and did the layouts on, but had a shop around the corner from where I put the car toghether cut bend and weld them. I did all of the steel welding myself, just don't have access to an alluminum welder.

I'd seen some conversions done that are really thrown together. I knew going in to this I wanted it to look good. It's still a work in progress, but I drive it every day. Next after I finish a few other minor things is to make covers for my battery boxes. These will be flush with the original floor of the trunk so once I make those I will put the carpet back in and have a fully functional trunk again!

By the way, free electricity at public charging stations is the most awsome thing in the world!

 

[Blue-AZ]

Very Cool Rick. I enjoyed seeing it in person a couple weeks ago.

Dale
Blue-AZ

 

[bpapa9013]

By the way, free electricity at public charging stations is the most awsome thing in the world!

What do you mean? Are there actually such things where you live? Or are you talking about unguarded plugins on buildings?

 

[Lawson Huntley]

Congratulations on finishing your Saturn, it looks great, very nicely done. How did you deal with supporting the bearing block for the passenger side front axle? That must have been somewhat of a challenge.

 

[Rick]

bpapa, yes we used to have GM EV1's here and they built some what of a charging infrastructure. About half of the sites have been pulled out unfortunately, but some remain. I can't use the paddle chargers that GM used, but most sites will have a normal plug of some kind as well, or the wierd Avcon conductive claw connector, which just supplies 240vac so I can get power through that easily enough.

Most noteably, bank one ball park in downtown Phoenix has a somewhat hidden EV charging location with 7 spots that are hadrly used any more. I've been trying to use whatever public charging I could whenever possible to try and give them a reason to keep it all there.

Lawson, that was a particular challenge that I accomplished by getting a full surround clamp for the motor and made a bracket so it hangs on to the motor and still flexes with it as it would have with the engine. Right now holding the motor securely in place has become the current challenge, but there is an updated part for the transmission mount which I think I'm just going to get and I have a plan to torque bar the motor in place. Just had both front wheel barrings replaced, one was dragging badly and I'm not 5 amps more efficient. Also got the lifting springs put on the rear today so it rides how it should again!