My Bumblebee Electric, upgrading from DC to AC Options

[palmer_md]

Hello all,

I'm a long time lurker here, and I've posted a few times, but I'm starting this thread to discuss the upgrade I'm doing to my 74 bumblebee LE.

I converted the car to electric drive starting in 1995. I purchased the car in 1994 with the intention of putting in a chevy v8 or something, but after looking at what that would take I opted to put in an electric drive train. The car was sitting in a field with weeds all around and no interior, engine, transmission or anything. It took a few years to just get the car restored before I could put in the electric drive. I got the car on the road as an electric in 1997. It has been a fantastic car for commuting and it is a lot of fun to drive, but with all the lead in the car it was a bit heavy.

I decided last year that I was going to upgrade the car to lithium power which will remove about 700lbs of battery and give me more power and more range at the same time. I purchased a gearbox (BorgWarner 31-03) that is the same as a Tesla Roadster, and I got a Siemens induction motor and inverter that will give me almost as much power as the Roadster. I should end up with a little less weight than the Roadster which should allow me to have similar performance numbers...assuming I can get enough grip from the tires.

In order to fit this motor and gearbox under the hood, I'm going to have to remove the firewall between the trunk and the motor bay. The gearbox sits between the axles (obviously) and the motor will sit above it (hence the space time conflict with the firewall). This is not a problem since I've seen posts with this firewall and trunk floor removed and then triangulating by putting a bar between the strut towers and then two more from the towers down to the rear trans cross bar in the trunk. This part of the build is all pretty clear in my mind. The connection between the strut towers works perfect as an upper mounting point for the motor and gearbox. Existing motor and trans mounting locations work for the lower support.

The area where I have a question is with regard to the gearbox location. In order to put the gearbox and electric motor in the car, it installs like a transverse motor in a FWD vehicle. The gearbox is mounted slightly to the driver side of the vehicle and the motor is to the passenger side. So instead of the existing 901 getting installed exactly in the center between the two wheels, I'll have to mount the eGearDrive about 5" toward the driver side of the car comparatively, and then I'll have to put in an intermediate half shaft on the passenger side to allow for the articulating portion of the axles to both be equal length (about 5" shorter than stock). Anyhow, this is my question, and one that I thought I'd ask for help here first before heading to a drive shaft shop to get opinions. Will the suspension work well with 5" shorter drive axles. It means probably steeper angles as the suspension articulates, but I think it should work. I just don't have any experience in this area and I'm going to have to get some help with this decision before I start cutting the trunk apart to install all of it. If it does not look like it is going to work I'll have to come up with a plan "B".

I'll post some pictures in a later post, but I wanted to get the question about the drive shafts out there since I need that answered.

Thanks,
Michael