Sunday, September 2, 2007

Subframe

To make the motor, transmission, and car more or less one unit, I need to build a subframe. This will also serve as a platform for the front battery boxes. It was difficult to measure everything outside the car, so I decided to install the transmission, block it up to where it should be, and build the frame to it. Here's the transmission in place with the first cross member:
This is my first stab at TIG welding, so the welds aren't going to win any beauty contests. I'm happy with the overall result, though. Next, the top half of the subframe:

Mr Motor, meet Mr Transmission

I have been out of town for the last couple of weeks, so I was excited to work on the car all weekend. The shaft locks arrived while I was gone, so I set to work attaching the motor to the transmission. I had one small setback. The motor is a metric 112M size, which means that it is 112 mm from the base to the center of the shaft. It also should mean that it has a 28mm diameter shaft. For some reason, though, this one had an 1 1/8" shaft. This was a problem because the shaft lock I bought is 28mm. No worries, though. 28mm is smaller than 1 1/8", so I just turned the shaft down on the lathe.
This was good, as it gave me an excuse to take the motor apart.

Next, I test fit everything, and ran the motor for the first time attached to the transmission


Everything ran smoothly, so time to start putting it all in the car!