Kaptain Kleaver's Electric Mini Pickup: Motor and Gearbox

Motor and gearbox

here's the monster motor I've got, it's 15 inches long, 10 inches diameter, and weighs about 100 lbs !

For the full story of how I reconditioned the motor, click here

The plan is to attach this motor directly to the Mini gearbox using a large toothed belt drive.
this fits where the transfer gears and torque converter used to live. A plate will close off the
gearbox's side ( I haven't built this bit yet ) to keep the oil in and hold the belt and
motor in the correct places. The motor's weight will be taken by a big saddle-shape
bracket, that will clamp it to the top of the gearbox ( I haven't built this yet, lots to do ! )

I started out thinking I would use an automatic Mini gearbox, and control the gears using
fluid solenoids to route pressurised oil, but this looked to be extra complicated. The machining
required to build the adaptors and support the input shaft properly is difficult.
So I decided ( after taking Paul Compton's advice - he's doing the machining! )
to make the car direct drive, but still using the auto gearbox. We'll strip everything out
except the final drive gear that turns the differential. This gear runs on its own bearings with
a hollow shaft, so we can put a simple shaft through it, clamp it to the gear and put the power into
that shaft with the belt drive. Together the belt and diff ratios should give me a range of
between 3.2 to 1 all the way up to 7 to 1 for the reduction ratio, depending which
belt sprockets I use. By changing belt sprockets, I can vary the ratio.

Here you can see the adaptor parts Paul has machined up for me - nice work Paul !
The adaptor on the end of the shaft is particularily crafty... it uses one of the original hydraulic
clutch plates to engage with the dog teeth on the final drive gear's carrier.
A section of thick plate carries the new support bearing. This fits closely into the
gearbox where it was bored to take the original geartrain, and supports the shaft so it can
take the large radial loading the belt drive will generate.
Paul's even made up a special bolt to hold the shaft in, which will allow me to hook up
the original speedo drive - cool !

The old petrol engine is now out....click here to find out more!

Below you can see the frame that holds the gearbox and motor into the subframe, with a mounting at each corner.

The motor's frame is attached to this using two spherical rod ends and two bolts.

These allow me to adjust the motor's orientation in almost every way imagineable!

pictures, from left to right: rear mounting to subframe , motor and gearbox frames , motor going in for test fitting

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