Or put the motor(s) in the trunk/boot and put all the batteries under the hood/bonnet
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hmm i would have assumed the gas tank is in the safest position considering crashes happen front / back mostly 
edit: just called a mechanic friend and he said he would do it below the footspace or where the tank was if the space is sufficient
depending on battery weight you want it to sit reasonably low
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There was nothing connected to the steering column at all, so I’m thinking that the mechanisms for steering are hidden in the space between the firewall and the back of the dashboard. It’s not a huge deal that I don’t know how this works currently, something to figure out in the future.
I’m not aiming for super massive range so don’t mind how many batteries I can fit into the fuel tank. Not only will the batteries be inside the tank itself, receiving protection using that, I will also reinforce the bottom of the tank so that nothing is able to pierce the tank. Keep in mind how rare a pierced fuel tank is, so I’m not too worried about this issue.
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If I was working with a rear wheel drive then I would have placed the motor in the back. Unfortunately due to it being a FWD means it makes more sense to place the motor in the front
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Definitely will be using the tank itself and the space that the tank takes up. I wish there was more footspace underneath the car as that is what EVs usually use. Keeping the batteries low will help keep the centre of gravity lower which means better steering and handling, as well as a far lower chance of rolling the vehicle.
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The power steering is usually ran off the motor via a belt. The splined end of the steering rod connected to the old pump in all actuality. It not, it probably did not have any.
May also still be attacked to the steering rack/pinion that controls the two front wheels.
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Check out evwest.com they actually have conversion kits to use VW transmissions with an electric motor… the spline adapter may fit your transmission spline…
Your weld method will work but id worry about your welded adapter having good balance.
https://www.evwest.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=46&osCsid=0e7fqk40e3k746gf3ot95qicg0
Theres a link for thier used parts page. I spy a electric steering column and an electric vacuum brake booster… … decent price both from a smart car so its probably a good fit for you.
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Thanks for the link mate, definitely some useful products there. I will have a look at their conversion kits and see if the spline adapter is useful to me. I will try and use the stock steering column as its a lot of work to change that over, but if no other solution presents itself at least I have that option
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Any updates??
Not at this stage, it’s been raining on and off for weeks. I’ve gone through a brand new gazebo and a car cover trying to keep it protected. Still also going through the decision making process as I’m terribly unorganised. The money to buy parts won’t be available for a while but there is still a bunch more stuff I can do to the car currently to prepare it before getting random stuff thrown in.
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Cheeers, gazebos are great.
Had wind gusts of close to 100kmhr one day, and the neighbours were looking very concerned for their safety so thought I had better take it down. During taking it down the whole cover just ripped in half, good stuff
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Oh damn, good judgement call on that one. Theres a good amount of youtube videos of wind carrying pools.
Just some thought processes about the conversion so we can keep this on track.
I’m not sure if I want to have this car go really fast or if I want to do that with another vehicle. I was looking at high performance gearboxes for FWD cars, and the options are few and far between. The Toyota e153 has been floated as the most capable OEM option, but used models can reach up to $2K. For aftermarket options the range can go from a couple thousand to tens of thousands of pounds (not dollarydoos). This made me realise that the power levels that I wanna reach eventually will not be attainable without a far more robust gearbox solution. I am considering having this vehicle just be ‘good enough’ and then buy another RWD vehicle down the line, but wanna make this lil thing go quick!
I figure the current box handles at least 50kw as the original ICE maxed out at 48kw. I have been looking for DC motors on alibaba that are around the 40kw continuous (EV motors can peak far higher for first few seconds of acceleration) but the options are few and far between. I also hate dealing with alibaba sellers as they are either unresponsive or won’t give me the options I’m asking for. I have also been looking at used EV motors such as the Nissan Leaf setup or some used DC motors but have struggled to find something I like.
Just last night I have discovered that my town has an EV club, which I assume is a bunch of old dudes that have too much time on their hands. I’m gonna head to their next meeting and see if maybe some of those people have sources for parts and stuff. Also will be nice to meet some people with this interest as its hard to find other like minded people.
If anyone has any questions or points to make then go for it!
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Anyone with a US address and experience shipping batteries wanna help me out? This place only ships to the US but the cells are so cheap it’s too good to pass up
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Wow. Thats a good deal. Almost a kwh for 65 bucks
Hey guys so development has grinded to a halt on this due to the fact that I lost my main job to the virus for a few months. Not to worry, this has given me time to look into other options besides my initial plan of just a basic DC motor. For a while now I have been watching a bloke named Damien Maguire on YouTube who has been making detailed and informative content about DIY EVs for years. In the last couple years he has started taking closed source electric solutions such as those from Tesla as well as the Toyota/Lexus hybrid systems and hacking them and developing open source hardware and software for controlling them.
This has led me to the Toyota Prius. Damien makes a control board for the Gen 3 inverter, which he sell for 300EUR (530AUD). I can go out and buy a used inverter today on eBay for $225 shipped. This inverter/converter system includes two inverters, which are limited to a max of 50kw normally, but have been tested at up to 600v and 350A for MG2 and 250A for MG1, which is a total of 360kw. For $225 dollarydoos this is an incredible deal. The package also includes a boost converter which can act as a battery charger, as well as a DC-DC converter for powering the accessories battery. This one package contains all of the electrical goodies that I would need, besides a motor.
The Prius inverter will obviously work best for the Prius electric motors. The Gen2 transaxle is slightly more powerful than Gen3, but the transaxle will work with the inverters no matter the version. There is two stators in the transaxle, one for starting the ICE, and another for running the car. In the case where there is no ICE, both can either be used to power the car or the smaller one (MG1) can be used to charge the battery, in conjunction with the inverter. One of these transmissions can be found on eBay for $250 shipped, and has a max power of 50kw and 400nm on MG2, not sure about MG1 as documentation is hard to find. That is a crazy low price for the power output and will work perfectly for the vehicle that I have here.
So the cost here will be $500 for Damien’s board, $220 for inverter, and $250 for transaxle. All I need is the batteries and I’m 95% there. I plan on slowly acquiring these pieces over time and figuring how they fit into the vehicle and begin making necessary modifications to the cars body such as an aluminum skid plate at the bottom of the engine bay to protect the precious electronics.
Speaking of batteries, here’s how YOU can help me:
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Chassis Electrics
For this conversion I want to keep it as stock as possible, with all original items inside the vehicle working as intended including the stock instrument cluster. What I also have planned is the addition of extra features, such as electric windows, central locking, and hacking in Bluetooth support to the stock tape deck. I also will need to add extra warning lights for various thing such as low pump pressure in the various water-cooling loops or a low battery voltage or something. To do all this extra stuff, I was thinking of designing my own circuit board that utilises a microcontroller to control the various inputs and outputs that I will be using here. I’ve never done anything like this before, but have done some basic stuff with Arduino and raspberry pi in the past. My question would be, is there a specific type of product I should be looking at to achieve what I what to achieve? Is there a solution with a large number of configurable digital and analog inputs and outputs? Any info that will help guide me will be awesome, especially when it comes to circuit design
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Cool thread man I have been reading through it and its really fun to see you take on this project. Good luck with the project and I will be looking forward to the updates in the future 
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