June 10 2008

Little housekeeping.

While waiting for major components (motors, inverters and differentials, I cleaned up engine compartment, removed remaining no longer necessary brackets and got rid of the turbo air injector. Also, anticipating fabrication of the support hardware for the rear differential, I took measurements around stock unit to map the hole pattern in case I may be able to take advantage of existing support members. Finally, location of centers of the front half-shafts flanges was determined. Knowing this is necessary because after linking front motor to its differential (same applies to rear set up), whole unit must be positioned such that the half shafts' flanges remain in the same position as for stock set up. That's relevant to retain the suspension travel and avoid premature failure of the CV joints should they work at wrong angles. Since suspension has a lot of travel, very precise location of the flanges is not critical; stock Audi CV joints will accommodate couple of millimeters offset, including axial. Yet, of course you'd want as accurate measurement as practically possible.

Here is capture of today's activity; one topic at the time.

This is preferred set up concept if front motor will comfortably fit. Remains to be seen after inspecting differential and options for the shaft coupler.
There is always plan B - using front diff with reverse cut gears, but the ratio choices for this option are quite limited.
To see if stock rear IRS' half-shafts will have to be modified, I wanted to determine the distance between stock diff's flanges and compare to the diff which will go in instead.
Now all dimensions are determined. That also will allow to design supporting brackets for new rear diff if I want to re-use stock attaching points.
Here they are. There will be plenty of room for something large like 9" Ford differential, but if I have options I'll use the one requiring less mods.
Here is a photo showing available room for the rear set up. Preliminary measurements show that Siemens 1PV5135WS28 motor even without cut shaft will fit if linked to the stock differential. Now I need to make sure whatever I will use will not be much longer than the stock one which is 388 mm long.
In front determining position of the centers of the half-shaft flanges was more challenging, so I used 3-D mock up of a plain wire. First attached it to the stock transmission and bent wire so that it points to the transmission's output flanges. Transferring that wire frame to the body and positioning in the same locations where engine support was, I can see where it points to, and take measurements relative to the body parts. It's easier to see than explain.
Another photo - arrow pointing to the center of the half-shaft flange on the right side of the vehicle.
Here is photo of the front cleaned up. It shows transmission tunnel and the room available. It is tempting to try to fit the front motor there, but will see when I will mock it up.


Now, nothing holds the engine and transmission, it just sits on the rear supports. So the pulling was completed as follows:

I'm still debating if I should use a power washer to get rid of the dirt mixed with the oil, antifreeze or whatever else liquids this car had under hood. Cleaning up with gasoline is the best use of it I could find.
And it works well. I can even tell now that these parts were painted and in what color...
Some tubing routed near exhaust manifolds has thermal protection braided shield. Quite odd looking in an EV, so it's out.
While removing unnecessary parts there was one spot where A/C condenser and the air injector turbo are attached to the frame with common bracket. I need to keep the A/C parts but no turbo.
This part is going to be removed.
Turbo injector. The part of the bracket holding A/C condenser is going to be cut off and reused.
Angle grinder is all I need.
Done, looks like stock.
Condenser is back, but no turbo. Easy.

NEXT.


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