Nissan Leaf Motor adapter plate idea. Part 4

[@JamieJones1985]

Using the old gearbox like that seems a decent idea, but I'd be tempted to rebuild the leaf gearbox and and get driveshafts made/welded.

[@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt]

I am wondering now whether the original old gearbox will cope, going to see how it lasts. I am tempted if it fails in the future, if it does break I like the idea of a Tesla SDU.

[@JamieJones1985]

@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt Will have to catch up with the videos to find out what you went with. I'm thinking of changing my motor and swapping to a single speed reduction to clear up some space. Beetle doesn't have much room.

[@jamest.5001]

I would use the pilot portion of the input shaft to aligh the shafts, or depending on power levels , you could offset mount the motor and use motorcycle chain, to fine tune the gear ratios, but even 8 mm plate would work, the forces are in a twist, motion. It should be plenty strong, 8 mm is alot cheaper than 15-19mm

[@richardmarkham8369]

Mayby use a roller chain coupling? It will allow a little bit of miss alignment where as your spines are going to need to be bang on centred and square?

[@twoeightythreez]

I was thinking he could get a custom input shaft made for his BMW trans that would match the splines of the Leaf motor, since he wants a custom job anyway. That way it would just be a matter of making adapter plate. It would just involve him taking his Bimmer trans apart and giving the machine shop both input shafts.

[@cheapygeek]

Damien made it look quite easy, didn't he? I'd go with the aluminum adapter and shaft coupler, had I the choice. Why didnt you use the stock leaf gear set and stuff the whole thing where the BMW diff was located?

[@studiow7]

im very new to this and trying to learn the process as i'd like to convert my mk1 golf. Whats the reason to not use the leaf controller. If you are using the motor, inverter and battery from the leaf? I'm sure theres a reason, just wanted to know what it is so i know for my build. thanks

[@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt]

I have seen video, where people have translplanted the whole wiring loom from the leaf, and yes it could work but you have a load of faults where the controller is looking for stuff, unless you can trick it into beliving its still in the orginal car.Yes you can use the leaf invertor , there are more options from when I first started. I'm now going to use the Thunderstruck leaf VCU now for simlicity . You wire to the box and it tells the motor what to do,

[@studiow7]

@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt thanks for the reply. So the motor and inverter from the leaf and the thunderstruck as the controller?

[@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt]

@@studiow7 yes that's correct, remember that when you get the leaf stack to get the motor/invertor wiring loom, people are not generally not using the leaf charger dcdc as they don't have space under the bonnet. The guys at Thunderstruck are very helpful too. You could try the openinvertor board but you need to be tech savvy for that one.

[@Tore_Lund]

No, don't mess with the Leaf transaxle, it can take much higher torque, you don't need a manual gearbox with a motor this size! Get some drive axles from a Leaf and cut them in half. Do the same with the project car axles and join them with a shrink fit sleeve. It is easy and cheap machining and will be unbreakable. A welded coupler will not be accurate and your manual gearbox will be stripped of its teeth!

[@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt]

Thanks for the feed back, still wondering which route to take , I understand that johannes controller spins upto 8k and could still rise .

[@Tore_Lund]

@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt The leaf fixed gearbox is 1:8 so 1000 wheel rpm = 81 mph on 15" wheels = plenty! Why just not use an off the shelf controller? I know the leaf motor has a coil pickup for position sensing, but that could easily be changed for Hall sensors. There is plenty of room to fit 3 small magnets and hall sensors inside the housing where the current pickup assembly resides and even the cheap Chinese EV controllers come with software setup, so you can dial in the timing, which I think you need on the Leaf as its rotor magnets are skewed to reduce cogging?

[@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt]

@@Tore_Lund You seem very knowledgeable in the EV field, unfortunately if you see any of my later videos i have already cut up the leaf gearbox, my original plan was to do as you say, till i found out that the controllers only spin to 6K, even Paul's controller only spins to 6k . Do you think I will destroy the BMW gearbox with the leaf motor , even if I use just 3rd and 4th gear ? . where would a good place to look for after market controllers ?

[@Tore_Lund]

@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt I did suspect I was too late with my comment;). Gasoline engines are not as torqy as electric motors. My own experiences with a 30kW motor with a 1:3 reduction directly to the diff. First two attempts it broke the key of hardened steel clean off as if it had been done with a bolt cutter. Third attempt broke the 22mm axle stump on the diff, so I ended with another with a 28mm axle and a half moon key 6mm wide, and it held up. So depending of how aggressive your controller setup is, it might be a problem, but I have seen, as you, plenty conversions on KZbin with giant motors that work perfectly small car gearboxes.Aftermarket controllers??? I have no idea. There used to be some big Siemens controllers around the usual places, but I can't remember if the voltage was suitable for 375V or what a Leaf uses. I was thinking more in the line of Golden motors controller, but looking them up, their highest voltage model is only 96V! So maybe this kit 100kW 400V is more suitable: hackaday.io/project/164932-axiom-100kw-motor-controller/discussion-124679. Parts ship from the US, so that is easy!

[@shadowa00]

Go with the lower cost option.

[@twoeightythreez]

There is no such thing as low cost when doing a swap 😄

[@twoeightythreez]

Its too bad you didnt just mount that leaf motor and differential in place of the factory BMW rear diff.

[@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt]

That was my plan till I found out the inverter only spins up to 6k rpm which meant a top speed of 60mph which isn't very good

[@twoeightythreez]

@@IfItAintBrokeStillFixIt That sucks. That reduction gear would be awesome to electric swap a rockcrawler or a tractor though. Over 800lb/ft at trans input shaft then going through a trans, transfer case, and diffs!

[@xXZ31t6esTXx]

If I get my hands on enough batteries, I'd like to make a single gear conversion like this one...anyone willing to be a consultant by then?

[@paulfishanderson]

if you going to machine something you maybe better off getting a spline bush with both original splines 1 each end and just putting it on like a sleeve ..as for controllers this one was made for a leaf www.thunderstruck-ev.com/dilithium-vcu.html then you can add an after market throttle i am looking to do this to my bug