The so-called donor car, the gas powered car that will be converted to electric, is my 1987 Honda Civic Hatchback. It's running on three cylinders, blows smoke, needs major engine work. The body and transaxle are in good condition so I have chosen to convert this car to electric. Click on the picture below to bring it into the garage:
In the garage:
I measured the distance from the fender well to the ground for each wheel (white arrow in the picture above). This will tell me if I will need to beef up the suspension when all the batteries are in the car.
I'll weigh the car before the conversion. I have a bathroom scale. I put the scale under one end of a 2x10 board and supported the board on the other end with blocks of wood. Then I let the car down on the board using the auto lift:
I read the scale, measured the length of the board and the position of the tire:
Using the concept of a lever, or torque or something, W1 x L1 = W2 x L2.
Where W1 is the reading on the scale and W2 is the weight on the blocks on the right. I can solve for W2, add it to W1 to get the total weight at that tire.
I did the same thing for each tire. Here is the left rear tire sitting in the middle of the board, so I just have to double the scale reading:
A table of weights:
tire |
weight (lbs) |
front right |
698 |
front left |
668 |
rear right |
434 |
rear left |
436 |
The total weight is 2236 pounds. I will be able to compare the weight of the electric car to the gas car using the same method when the time comes. The higher weight for the front right makes sense since the transaxle is on the right side of the car.
I am ready for the next step: removing the internal combustion engine.
Batteries
Testing
Driving