EV Pusher Project

Archive page two

 

January 31, 2001. A new page for a new month (February). I'm working on completing the installation of the AC generator before I start on the towing tongue and cut the car down the middle. It seems to be a lot easier to reach the engine compartment without having to lean over a bunch of hardware attached to the front of the car, and this generator is damned heavy, clumsy to handle, and is requiring a lot of effort to make fit into the engine compartment.

Today, I decided on a mounting bracket configuration, and began construction on it. I have a lot of welding and small fabrication to do, but it should be pretty much done within a day or two. I still need to move the radiator about ¾" towards the driver's side of the car. Doesn't sound like much, but I am out of room, and running into obstructions. I did think about taking the radiator to the shop and having it cut down an inch, but that would be, well, expen$ive!!!

Feb 3rd. Today was a complete wash-out as far as the weather goes, but yesterday, I purchased 15' of 2"x3/16" steel box tubing and a trailer coupler fitting so I can begin construction on the tongue. Also picked up some fasteners, and traded a full tank of argon gas that I purchased a couple of years ago to weld aluminum for a tank of 'Cougar', which is a 25-75% mixture of CO² and argon. Using this instead of straight CO² will improve the quality of my welds, and make welding thin steel much easier. While at the welding supply store, I also got a fresh tank of acetylene for the gas torch.

Evening yesterday, I converted my drill press (such a handy tool!) into a light-duty milling machine to make some needed modifications of an aluminum fan spacer that I will use to mount the second pulley on the crankshaft for the generator belt to run in.

Today I mostly just cleaned house and cleaned the Crown (see elsewhere on the site), which I have been using as a workshop for the last two months while working on the pusher. This evening I used the on-line ordering feature at Jameco Electronics to order a ball bearing servo motor to use to remotely control the engine throttle on the trailer. Now I won't have to use a piece of string tied to the injection pump like I was planning. To finish up the day, poked around on the 'net and learned more about servo motors and how to control them. It's soooo simple when you're exceptionally intelligent like I am!!

 

 

Feb 8th. The first meeting of electric and diesel. The much-anticipated snow storm didn't happen today, and in fact, it didn't even rain until late afternoon, so I got out and flushed the cooling system on the pusher so I could put in some anti-freeze and stop fooling around draining the radiator after each time I ran it. (Oh yes, the radiator is installed now, I spent yesterday constructing custom mounts and carving up 5 radiator hoses and reassembling the pieces to connect the radiator to the engine.)

Since it was required to run the engine up to operating temperature three times to flush, rinse and mix the antifreeze compound, I decided to use some of the available power to charge up the EV using the now fully installed AC generator on the engine. The results were mixed. The on-board charger on the Rabbit requires line frequency to be pretty close to 60 Hertz to operate. When I tried to set the speed of the diesel to give me that output from the generator, the engine would kind of "avalanche" past where I wanted it to run, revving too high for the charger to work. Not sure what that's about, might be normal, or I still might need an injection pump. I'm considering other options, such as converting the AC to DC so that the frequency is irrelevant. The batteries want DC anyway, so why stress the small stuff?

Before going in for the evening, I built a small electronic circuit to test the servo mechanism that I intend to use to actuate the throttle. It worked well enough for a test. In the next few days, I'll create a more sophisticated PWM circuit to try.

 

Feb 11th. Now I'm learning robotics. In order to make the throttle work, I'm designing circuits from scratch to have the attributes necessary to adapt the RC model servo mechanism to properly actuate the accelerator lever on the diesel injection pump. In this image, the custom circuit on the prototyping board at the middle is sending the servo (bottom right, with the round white wheel) a pulsed signal corresponding with a position of approximately 45° from the at-rest position. The servo is connected to a spring scale, which is indicating about 4 pounds of thrust, which is about what the diesel injection pump lever requires to move. The digital meter indicates a servo current of 0.33 amps, or about 2 watts at 6 volts, not a lot. I let the servo hold this thrust for about a half an hour to see it anything got hot, fried, or failed. Looks like this servo can easily pull 8 pounds, and as much as 10.

At right is the face of the oscilloscope, showing the pulse waveform, and the frequency counter, which indicates that the pulses are occurring every 16ms, or at 60 Hz. To change the position of the servo wheel, the circuit changes the ratio of on-to-off as shown on the 'scope screen. The original purpose of the integrated circuit I am using is as a switching power supply driver, but it makes a dandy pulse width modulator as well.

Not shown here is the work I did Friday and Saturday, cutting out the pieces and beginning to weld up the towing tongue that will be mounted in the front of the remainder of the car. More on that when the weather improves. Working outside with cold steel when it's 35° F and drizzling rain isn't my idea of a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

 

 

Feb 13th. As the Klingons say, "Today is a good day to weld", or at least better than yesterday. I thought that laying some beads down on the thick metal of the towing tongue would be a piece of cake, but when I tried to assemble the pieces, I had nothing but trouble. Adjusting the wire speed, current, gas flow, and technique yielded little improvement. All of the welds penetrated the base metal OK, but the appearance was totally unacceptable, they looked like an amateur had gotten a hold of a wire feed and went nuts. I ground down the ugly welds, and today used my reliable old stick welder to go over the joints to improve the appearance and fill in the shallow beads. Of course, stick welding leaves it's own imperfections, like spatter and slag, so now I have still more grinding and wire brushing to clean things up a bit.

Valentine's Day. And what better way to say "I love you" than with a spray gun? In spite of being basically out-of-commission with some dreaded virus, I pressed on and finished the welding and grinding, then laid on a coat of red oxide primer-sealer. So now this part of the project is done, it just needs to be bolted in place.

I think I figured out why my welds with the wire feed were so bad a few days back. I'm pretty sure I must have gotten a contaminated tank of gas. When I switched back to pure CO², all of the problems disappeared. Wish I'd tried that before I was doing the last several welds.

Feb 15th. I am so sick, even my hair hurts. Didn't get very much done, as I felt like trash. In what few minutes I was able to work, I managed to disconnect the exhaust system, and pull out all of the fuel lines in preparation for the big cut. Just before crapping out in the afternoon, I did some small stuff to prepare the servo to be attached to the accelerator cable. Uhg. Off to bed....

Feb 18th. Uh oh, this project has been discovered by the EV community. Now the heat will be on to actually finish it and make it work.

 

Tomorrow, I'll begin the quest to gather parts for some kind of device to actuate the clutch. I only need to move the lever on the transmission 1½", but the maximum thrust is 80 pounds, so It's got to be something strong. I'm inclined to use the windshield wiper motor and gearbox for power, perhaps with a lead screw to take up the lever. I'll look for garage door openers at the salvage building materials yard, they should prove to have some interesting mechanical parts inside, limit switches, lead screws, gear, chain, and belt speed reduction stuff, etc. Maybe I can get the whole pusher to work off of a 'clicker', so I don't have to run wires!!

 

Hey! What kind of a Pusher update is this??? Feb 22nd. Part of the reason for little progress on the trailer is that most every spare minute I've had for the last four days was spent either trying to get caught up with work for clients, or completing the installation of this Tachyon.net satellite earth station which gives me wireless 2Mb/sec download speed. Here, the L-band antenna is set up on a temporary stand behind the Crown as a test to see if my site can receive the satellite signal, prior to mounting the hardware permanently. Now I can download files from the net at amazingly fast speeds, and even listen to web radio without interruptions in the audio stream. I probably have the world's only Housetruck satellite uplink in existence!

Progress on the Pusher will resume soon. My trip to the salvage yard was delayed until Tuesday, due to Abe and George's birthdays. Once there, I looked over about 10 cast-off garage door openers, looking for useable parts. The openers were of two types, chain drive, and lead screw drives. The chain drive units might have yielded some useable hardware, but they were pretty rudimentary, with large v-belt pulleys, or proprietary worm-drive transmissions coupled to hefty synchronous AC motors. The screw type were all direct-drive, with specialized sealed motors. None of them looked like something I could hack into something more useful.

I decided that I could probably do better with something else, and on the way out, happened to notice an old scissors-type auto jack laying on a shelf. It had a lead screw with matching nut, a thrust bearing, and only cost $2. In the next day or two, I'll see what kind of mischief I can get into with a grinder and saw to make this work as a clutch driver.

 

 

You know the old saying, "Half a Rabbit is better than one".... Feb 25th. I didn't really set out this morning to do the cutting thing, but about 4:30PM, it was obvious that the time had come. Spent some of the morning installing the limit switches on the clutch throwout mechanism, then installed the towing tongue after lunch. Some disappointment there, I thought that I had accounted for the angle of the car and tongue, but apparently not, as the tongue is about 3½" too high in the front. This is visible in the image above. Once again, there is no substitute for working on a level concrete surface. One day I'll have a nice drive-in shop so I can be warm too! Anyway, this problem can be fixed, I just have to block up the trailer (I can call it that now), remove the tongue, radiator, alternator, and AC generator to give me some elbow room, then make the mounting holes in the frame elliptical using a rotary file and drill motor. As I say, disappointing, because if I had been able to measure this before building the tongue, I could have simply offset the mounting holes in the tongue when I drilled them. Ach, live and learn.

For the record, and in case anybody cares, it took 20 minutes to cut the car in two, including some time fiddling with the saw after the blade came off. I knew it couldn't be too hard, after all, I cut a 40' bus in two the long way! That was difficult!

For now, the rear of the trailer is longer than it will be when finished. I wanted to have some fudge factor when I begin gluing the back end of the car onto the shortened front.

Feb 26th. I guess that the big news of the day is that the hard disk in my computer crashed after breakfast. I've spent a couple of hours recovering data not contained on the latest backup CD-ROM, but it looks like I'm going to have some important stuff that won't be recoverable. I'm updating here using my old 486/33 laptop with a monochrome display, hand editing the page in Notepad+, so don't look for any fancy stuff until I get a new drive and have all of my programs loaded and ready to go.

 

I did work on the trailer today, pulling it out into the driveway and doing some alignment, using some 2 x 4's, a straight edge and tape measure, before locking the steering rack into a straight-ahead position. Also removed the heater assembly, pedals, steering column and some superfluous brackets from the under-dash area.

 

March3rd. It's been an intensive week. Aside from purchasing and installing a new 30 Gb hard drive, and then reloading all of my programs, retrieving files and restoring from back up CD-ROM disks, I also managed to work on the pusher some as well. Now that I have Front Page 2000, Phototshop 5.5, and the drivers for the memory card reader of my digital camera installed and working, I can go back and add some images to the week's work.

 

 

This was the scene on Wednesday the 28th. After spending the previous afternoon installing the original muffler in the space provided by the 'hump' between the seats and running the short exhaust pipe out the center of the floor pan, I was able to start the engine for the first time in a while. This explains the fuel container on the floor section. The project in the afternoon was to install the salvaged towing hitch to the rear of the EV, which was a fairly simple no-brainer, drill some homes and insert the 7/16" bolts, tighten to almost breaking. Now the problem with the towing tongue is fairly obvious, the tail of the pusher is way in the air compared to the EV's angle. The remnants of the back of the car look like some ramshackle bum's shelter, covered with tarps and plastic. Can't wait to saw it into manageable pieces, cull out the useable parts, and haul it off to be recycled!

Today was a fairly low-level Saturday. Went out to check out a new job installing wiring at a tropical fish store, ate lunch, took a nap (yawn), and worked a little more on the controller for the trailer, at least the prototype that I'll use to test it with. As I build the electrics, I expand the project with ideas and enhancements, and have to keep in mind that the complexity of the controller changes when there is an automatic transmission in the final (?) product. For now, the controller will supply ignition (injection pump fuel solenoid), monitor alternator and oil pressure idiot lights, and control the clutch in/out. Future enhancements will include starter, fuel gauge, water temperature gauge, glow plug control and maybe radiator fan manual switch. Important safety features including throttle defeat, deadman interlock, breakaway kill, and more will be needed in the final controller.

No promises, but I hope to have everything ready for a road test by next weekend. I have the controller to finish, installing the PWM circuit for the throttle servo, stop, tail and turn lights to install, and a head unit that installs in the EV, so I can control the throttle and clutch from the driver's seat. Sunday morning should be a nice, quiet time to have some space to myself on the highway, so that's what I'm shooting for. We'll see what the next week will bring. First the flu, then a hard drive crash, what's next, an earthquake?

 

 

March 7th. Question: "Say, isn't that a Skil© Xtra-tool hammer-chisel-drill in your engine compartment?" Answer: "Oh you recognized it..."

Once I had the lead screw and bearing installed on the clutch arm, the 13/16" hex nut on the end was a convenient way of running the screw in and out. I finally decided that a drill motor would be the easiest power source to adapt to working it on the finished trailer. Since I had this drill motor under the workbench, awaiting a new variable speed trigger (waiting for the last 12 years, it seems), I decided to just use it in the car, mounting it on an aluminum bracket, and coupling it to the lead screw via a spare spark plug socket from the tool box. Using this motor means that I will need 110 volts AC on the trailer to operate the clutch. Since I have a few spare DC-to-AC inverters laying around, this isn't going to prove to be much of a problem.

It was one of those two-steps-forward-one-step-back, two-steps-forward-three-steps-back type of days. Trying to run the drill motor from the controller didn't work, and I ended up having to replace two defective relays in the controller. These things happen when you build projects out of junk box parts. Then, as I was demonstrating the drill motor clutch actuator to a visitor, the clutch arm traveled a bit past where it should have stopped, and broke the lever arm off of one of the limit switches that senses where the clutch arm position is. This resulted in a complete redesigning of the limit switch assembly, a project for construction tomorrow...

Almost another week of work on the trailer, but a week of no updates.

March 12th. No I didn't get the pusher out on the road last weekend. After repairing the clutch limit switches, I needed to insert some speed control in the release motion of the drill motor, so I shredded a lamp dimmer and inserted it into the controller. After that, I tried the system on a 300 watt inverter that I had lying about. Worked fine on the "disengage" cycle (full drill motor power), but the inverter didn't sense a load through the dimmer module for the "engage" cycle, so I had to insert a time-delay relay into the circuit to give the motor full power for about ½ second when the "engage" command is given. After the time-delay relay releases, the motor goes to lower speed. so as to not over-travel at the end of the clutch arm's limit. Whew, one less problem, or one more problem I wouldn't have if I had an automatic transmission.

 

Yesterday, I began construction on the control head that will mount in the EV so I can ride herd on the controller's actions back in the trailer. Worked out a few bugs, such as the ignition being back-fed through the alternator warning lamp, resulting in no way to shut down the engine once it was started.

The three colored lamps are: green: glow plug activity, yellow: alternator warning lamp, red: oil pressure warning lamp. The red lamp will also have a second function, which is to flash when the throttle servo circuit is in "fault mode", which occurs when the EV's brake lights come on, or the trailer's clutch is disengaged without the servo being returned to "idle" beforehand. Just a little safety interlock to prevent accidents and engine overspeed.

The controller itself is gaining in complexity with the additional circuitry required to support the requirements and features I'm building into the system.

 

 

Just a quick little update, Mar 14th. An inside view of the controller head, with the PWM circuit installed. Only about an afternoon's worth of stuff stands between me and a road test now. I need to make an extension cable for the controller head, so I can operate it from inside the EV, there's still a short cable from the controller to the servo to be made, and I have to get some tail/stop/turn lights on the trailer so it will be highway legal.

March 22nd. Everything is ready for the test drive. I completed the control head and extension cable, installed trailer lights, hooked up the inverter, and even used some leftover aluminum from the ceiling of the bus to make a teardrop enclosure to conceal the battery and fuel container. This cover will be replaced by parts of the original sheet metal from the donor car, but for now, it was quick and easy to smack this in place using a couple of sheet metal screws.

 

 

I did tow the pusher out on the road today as a test. No power, the engine was off and in neutral, but I wanted to see what the general response of the front clip was to being hauled around. Got it up to 40 MPH on some smooth pavement, and basically couldn't tell it was back there once I was at speed. Of course, the car was a little less peppy (well, I guess it would have to be "peppy" in the first place to be less so) and I used about 20% more power from the batteries than I would have without the trailer along for the ride. No matter on that, the point is to use the diesel for power, it's not like I'm going to tow it all around town each and every time I go out on an errand. That's the point of building it into a trailer, it can be disconnected and left at home when not needed.

The fuel container is topped up with diesel salvaged from the tank in the car, all of the electrical connections are done, and now I just have to hope for a sunny weekend morning so I can get out on the road and try it out. More about that when the saga continues.

 

 

EV Pusher Project

Archive page Three

 

What? No Photo???

 

March 23, 2001. A red-letter Friday. Not content with the weather forecast for the weekend ("showers likely"), I decided to try out the pusher on nearby residential streets in second and third gear. It must have been quite a sight, as I turned many heads while billowing huge clouds of blue smoke until the engine got warm and all of the unburned fuel from many failed stating attempts in the past burned out of the muffler!

From what I could tell, there isn't much of an affect on the EV when the clutch engages on the pusher, you can just feel a little surge in the car's motion. Cranking open the throttle then causes the diesel to begin pushing, and I can watch the EV's ammeter drop, then go into regenerative braking as the car picks up speed. Of course, 2nd and 3rd gear on the pusher is only about 25 and 40 MPH, respectively at moderate RPM's, but this was enough for residential streets with cross traffic and pedestrians.

From this test, I have concluded so far that it's possible to engage and disengage the clutch without causing the car to lurch, lag or leap, and the acceleration seemed to be smooth and progressive, same with deceleration. At 40MPH on fairly straight smooth pavement, there was no discernable affect on the EV's steering or handling. In fact, it didn't feel any different from when the car is being driven by the electric motor, except for the eerie feeling of being under power while holding the clutch (on the EV) to the floor. There wasn't even very much engine noise that I could hear, but then I was pretty busy making sure that I wasn't going to drive right up the back of the car in front of me in case it slowed unexpectedly.

I do have some small fix-ups, there are a couple of minor coolant leaks, and I couldn't find any sticky- back Velcro to attach the controller to the dashboard. The clutch actuator switch is exactly backwards of what is intuitive, up is disengage, and down is engage. I'll fix that before I take the pusher out next time.

Next step... If it doesn't rain all weekend, I'll put the pusher in fourth gear and get up on the freeway, and open this baby up! 65MPH, here I come!!!

 

 

Mar 24th. In spite of forecasts for rain, and a few sprinkles on the windshield, I decided I couldn't resist getting the pusher out on the open road in fourth gear for a real test. Headed out of town on River Road, past the last of the condos and into fertile farmland and past rural produce stands, such as the quaint scene above.

What I found was that I could engage the pusher clutch at any speed over about 20, and accelerate from there, with or without significant assistance from the electric drive motor in the EV.

On the way north (out of town), I ran the car and pusher as a parallel hybrid, that is, both the diesel and electric motors engaged and driving the car forward. As I was stuck behind some slow (45MPH) traffic, I busied myself with experimenting with the throttle control on the pusher, trying combinations of diesel and EV power. The various combinations include: using partial electric and diesel power; diesel power alone by backing off the EV throttle until the E-meter showed 0 amps, with the diesel throttle set to the speed I wanted; and battery charge mode, accomplished by setting the diesel throttle higher than needed to hold the speed, and then backing off on the EV throttle even more, so that it went into regenerative braking.

I stopped at the railroad bridges near the end of Love Lake Road to check the diesel, investigate a slightly hot odor I detected, and turn around. Never did find out what the odor was. It might be from the Rabbit's fuel gauge, which I am using as a temperature gauge for the diesel. This hasn't worked as a battery state-of-charge indicator since I've had the car, so maybe it just needed to burn out some spider webs or something.

On the way home, I ran the pusher as stand-alone, engaging the clutch when the car reached 20MPH, then putting the EV transmission in neutral and allowing the diesel to provide all of the power. This worked well, with steady, but not astounding acceleration all the way up to 60MPH, which is where I chickened out. River Road is only two lane, and has cross-traffic. I'll save the high speed heroics for the interstate at a later date.

Getting on the freeway to go home, I decided to try some full throttle acceleration, using both the diesel and electric drives running flat-out. It wasn't really enough to require wheelie bars, but I was able to merge with the 55+MPH traffic smoothly on an uphill onramp.

Still no anomalous handling problems to report. The car behaves just as it should, as if the pusher wasn't even there. I was able to hear the engine, but it's not loud, what with the road noise inside the car. When I get the control and trailer lights cables fed into the car with connectors instead of running through the unlatched hatch-back door, it will be quieter still. I also have my eye on a heavily insulated hood from a diesel at the junkyard. More acoustic deadening.

Mar 29th. A teeny update on not much being done. I've working way too much on way too little sleep for the last few weeks, and now I'm feeling strung out and fatigued. In what few spare minutes I could work into the pusher, I installed a couple of new circuits into the controller. One circuit monitors that glow plug power and flashes the indicator light while the power is still flowing after the timing cycle has ended. I've been having bad results using the glow plug light to time the wait before starting the engine. The lamp goes off before the power to the plugs stops, so the new circuit will allow me to wait 5 -10 seconds more until starting the engine, while being assured that the plugs are still heating. Hopefully, this will get me more reliable starts.

The other circuit is an automatic reset for the AC inverter that runs the clutch motor. I found out that the inverter goes into overload when the battery voltage sags under starting load. I've gotten caught a couple of times with no way to engage the clutch because the inverter is in error mode, so now it gets reset when the oil pressure light extinguishes after the engine starts. Should solve the problem for good.

I've been thinking about my desire to use an automatic transmission on the pusher, and considering my experiences with the manual transmission so far. The clutch actuator built into the pusher seems to work very well, and I've yet to experience any problems associated with the manual transmission, such as bucking, unexpected deceleration, additional unwanted load on the EV before the diesel begins to supply power, etc. All in all, I think I can live with the pusher's manual transmission. The main reason for wanting an automatic was to make the conversion easier to do, but now that all of the mechanical and electronic interfaces are built, I'm inclined to try it out for a while and see if I even need the AT. I'll have more power and better fuel economy with a stick, and if the hill-climbing ability is within reason, I don't see any reason to have to downshift while under way, so the manual may just stay.

I do know where there is an '83 rabbit 4-door with an AT. I'll call about that tomorrow, if it can be had cheaply, I'll probably get it. It's time to get the body panels I need to make this project a bit more ship-shape, and if I buy a whole car, this saves me the bother of scouring wrecking yards for a hood, tail lights, etc. Also coming up is a new battery that will fit inside the engine compartment, some less ratty tires, fitting the original fuel tank into the body, and finally, the Rabbit rear end in place of the curved sheet metal. Oh, and I have just gotta get caught up on some sleep.....

 

March 30th. The big news of the day is that the pusher has a new blue hood. Yeah, big whoop, but this is the first step towards getting the body work completed, and making the trailer weather resistant, so I don't have to hide it under plastic and tarps. This hood doesn't have big holes from the vandalism, and it has a thick sound-absorbent mat attached to the underside. While I was at the wrecking yard, I also picked up a manual (as opposed to cable-operated) hood latch, a rear hatch unit (the original is bent and damaged beyond repair), replacement tail and side marker lamps, and pocketfuls of small, free parts for both the pusher and the EV. Also checked out used tires, of which there were many that still have good tread, and even found an automatic transmission for $100, although I don't know if I even want it now.

Of course, the pusher attracted a lot of attention in the wrecking yard parking lot, and I ended up giving tours to interested customers for about half an hour before I could get away and get back to wrenching used parts.

Before setting out in the morning, I used some self-stick knobby gripper material to attach the controller head to the dash, just within reach of my right hand while it rests on the steering wheel. This makes controlling the throttle and clutch much easier than when the controller was sitting on the passenger seat, and any passengers I carry will probably appreciate it too!

Today, I tried bump starting the engine by letting out the clutch while the car was in motion, rather than using the starter. This is the first time I've felt any roughness from the trailer. It kind of caused the EV to decelerate, then more or less jumped forward a bit when the engine started. Nothing too dramatic, but compared with the mild disposition I've experienced during the other trials, it was 'different'. I also found out what happens when you accidentally engage the clutch on the pusher while standing still. As expected, the engine dies, nothing more.

 

 

The Latest, as of April 3rd. Work, Rain, Income Taxes. Also used some time between storms yesterday to install a new trailer light connector on the EV, along with a 24 conductor AMP connector for the controller circuitry. These installed very neatly behind the flip-up license plate on the back of the car, along with the existing 30 amp AC connector for grid charging.

Today, I welded up a new battery bracket so I can install a battery in the engine compartment.

New facts and figures. Been doing some research on propane fumigation for diesel engines. This consists of introducing gaseous LPG into the intake manifold of a normally aspirated diesel engine in order to increase power output, increase mileage, and decrease emissions and particulates (smoke). Wondering if it could work on the pusher. Of course, trying to wring 20% more horsepower out of that worn engine might be asking for trouble...

Mar. 5th. Short update, no photos. Several days of fooling around with the new battery box and installing the rest of the permanent wiring to the engine compartment. Moved the "cold start knob" to a more functional location at the front of the engine compartment, and installed the battery isolator that will allow the alternator on the engine to charge both the pusher engine battery and the auxiliary battery in the EV. Sent off a mail to Yuri, who has some experience with propane conversions on gas engines. Here's a clip from the mail detailing my plan for the fumigation system, when I get around to installing it:

<snip>

I think that a complete propane carburetion system is way overkill for my purposes, and they are impossible to find used around here, I've been looking for years and years. There are several problems using a conventional LPG setup on a diesel. First of all, normally-aspirated diesels have essentially no vacuum present at the intake manifold, due to the absence of a throttle body and butterfly valve. This is one of the reasons they are so efficient, there is no loss from the pistons pulling against a restricted air intake.

Some of the fumigation devices I've looked into either have a venturi that has to be inserted into the intake airflow to produce a measurable vacuum, or they are for turbo diesels, and use intake boost pressure as an indicator to modulate the LPG. I'm looking for something much simpler. Here's my plan so far:

1) LPG pressure cylinder (vapor output valve), approx 2 gallons (US).
2) Pressure regulator (11"W.C.).
3) Solenoid valve, controlled by the ignition and interlocked by the oil pressure switch. "On-Off" switch on the dash of the EV.
4) Salvaged gas BBQ valve, mechanically linked to the throttle actuator. When the throttle is at idle, gas valve is closed. 50% throttle (cruising speed) = valve wide open.
5) A "T" or "Y", with two rubber hoses leading to the air cleaner housing.
6) Two orifices of 6,000 BTU each, injecting the gas into the air cleaner housing (cast aluminum, lots of mixing volume) right between the ports (long, curved "ram air" tubes) leading to the four cylinders of the engine.

I'm figuring 12,000 BTU based on a 10% mix with the diesel. These engines get 50 MPG at 60 MPH, so I'm "guesstimating" about a gallon of diesel per hour, based on 128,000 BTU/gal of diesel. If I have good success with the 10%, I might try upping the rate by drilling the orifices, but I won't want to go all out, this engine has significant wear already. Some of the mailing list messages I found mentioned that trying to pump too much of it into an engine results in nasty problems, mostly cracked pistons, where the rings break the shoulders between the rings.

Anyhow, that's the plan. I have a lot of other more important stuff to do on the pusher first, but I hope to be able to try out some dual fuel by the end of the month.

</snip>

[edit, Dec. 14, 2002] There's now a page dedicated to LPG fumigation on this site. For more information, go to the LPG Fumigation page [/edit]

Been trying to get to this update for days. April 10th. Saturday, I spent pretty much all morning in the wrecking yard, picking through cars for parts and locating a suitable set of used tires. After looking at what seemed like every tire on every car on the lot, I found three 175/70R13 radials on a scrapped out Dodge Colt. These were in as-new condition, and although they are an off-brand, I purchased them and had them mounted and balanced. If I'd been satisfied with the stock Rabbit tire size (155/70R13), I would have had a lot of choices, but since the spare for the trailer will also serve as the spare for the EV, I wanted exact replacement size tires.

On the way back from the tire store where I had the mounting done, I had the opportunity to drive the pusher on wet pavement, and then set a new land-speed record for my EV, of 65 MPH. I'll have to remember to put the GPS in the car before I go out again. It seemed like I was really flyin' low for 65, and the guy in the black Mustang who thought he was going to pass me gave up and dropped in behind me.

Other tiny niggling projects that I completed in the last few days are replacing the transmission gear oil with synthetic lubricant, retorqueing the cylinder head, installing the AMP connectors so that attaching the control cable for the pusher is faster and more secure, replacing some shields that direct air through the radiator, and finally, trying to figure out why I lose a quart of coolant every time I take the diesel out on a run. The antifreeze just seems to gush out of the expansion tank cap, even though I tried a different cap. Next step in this process will be to install a pressure gauge on the cooling system and get some idea how much pressure is building up in there. I have this bad feeling about leaking head gaskets, and compression byproducts ending up squeezing past the seals, but the coolant is clean, albeit a bit foamy.

 

Monday, I dug into the 55 gallon barrel of high sulfur diesel that I have had stored out in the shed since filling up the Crown's fuel tank. I pumped about 4 gallons into a container, and refilled the plastic fuel container on the pusher. I've burned something like six gallons while fooling around trying to get it started, running it in the driveway, and now, powering the EV down the highway. The next aspect of this project will be to get the real fuel tank out of the remainder of the car and get it mounted in the pusher.
     Here's a photo of the battery bracket and isolator (the blue heat sink in the rear). Oh Damn! You mean to tell me that the terminals and caps are supposed to be on top of the battery???? Relax, it's a gel-cell (sealed battery), no leaks, no maintenance, and it will only fit under the hood if it's mounted on it's side.

 

Half Rabbit goes wheelie!

 

Apr. 11th. After an afternoon of groveling on the dirt, I'm one fuel tank closer to disposing of the rest of the car. The tank (in the foreground, in front of the yellow-and-red fuel container), had no less than six hoses connected to it and I had to unbolt the rear axle to get it completely free of the body. It's kind of oddly shaped, with contours in the top the shape of a seat bottom, as that's exactly what was pressed against it from the inside of the car, the rear seat.

Also today, I installed a 0-30 psi pressure gauge on the expansion tank of the cooling system to see if I could figure out what's going on there. The gauge goes right up to 20 psi, where the pressure cap starts venting, after only a minute of engine operation, hot or cold. Not sure if this is normal, an indication of leakage from the cylinders, evidence of cavitation, or what. Maybe it's time to fire off an e-mail to the VW Diesel Tech Help guys and get an expert opinion. I do know that after shutting down the engine, it will hold 15 psi of pressure for hours afterwards, so how much of a leak inside the engine could there be? Also there is no contamination of the coolant, no soot, oily residue, etc., so I'm leaning towards cavitation, the formation of gas bubbles due to engine vibration and mineral deposits.

 

Well, the VW Tech Help guys thought that I had either a bad head gasket, or a cracked head, so this is a problem in search of a Band-Aid. April 14th. This image of underhood spaghetti is my temporary, half-assed solution to the air-in-the-coolant problem. Air and coolant mixed comes out of the top of the radiator at bottom right, goes into a ¾" Tee, where the flow slows down due to the enlarged passageway, and the bubbles rise to the top, to be vented out via the vent valve (blue top). Coolant, sans air, is returned to the cooling system expansion tank, while the air (still mixed with a small amount of coolant) goes into the bottle. Actually, the bottle has since been replaced by the windshield washer reservoir, which is handy, because I can use the built-in electric pump to return the accumulated coolant to the expansion tank. Top center is the 0-30 psi gauge, that I'm leaving in to check on the system pressure.

On a 27 mile test run today, I lost no coolant on the road, it all went into the reservoir. The system pressure was occasionally higher than I like to see (25 lbs), but the engine isn't overheating, and I am recovering all of the antifreeze, so it looks like this patch-job is a success.

Monday, I'll find out if I can get possession of a 1.6 liter diesel short block that I found outside the automotive technology shop at a local institute of higher learning. The engine was covered with dirt and grass clippings, and looks to be abandoned. If I can get it, I'll probably rebuild it instead of the engine I have now, because if the head on this engine is bad, I just want to start from scratch and do a complete and proper rebuild.

 

Welcome to Sharkey's Chop Shop. Easter Sunday. This is what remains of the rear of the car this afternoon. Morning, I cleaned up the exterior of the fuel tank and test fitted it into the trailer. This got me to thinking about what parts and pieces I'd be able to use to make the sheet metal fabrication easier and more workman-like. It was difficult to imagine some of the relationships between the various parts without being able to measure them and hold them up together, so I decided to begin removing the parts I thought I'd need and getting rid of those I didn't. After spending some time figuring out the various bits of tubing going to the fuel filler and tank, the Sawzall was brought to life and the sectioning began in earnest. It's kind of scary how flimsy modern automobiles are. Do I really want to get up on the freeway in one of these and do 65 MPH??!!!

Very early in this project, I knew that the pusher would need a little styling enhancement. What I had in mind was a small spoiler or maybe a couple of vertical tail fins. This is the ultimate!!! A full Daytona-style airfoil wing!! Actually, I just haven't quite decided where to make the cut to remove the top of the hatch. It will be reconfigured to serve as a deck lid, and I need to make sure that I don't remove too much material when I top it. Otherwise, the rear is still way too long. About 24" will be cut off from what you see here to compact the back end. I should still have some room in the "trunk" for a couple of tool boxes or maybe a small cooler of refreshing beverages.

 

 

April 23rd, finally getting an update posted. Last week I was bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug, and got busy hauling a lot of useless junk out of the yard. A trip to the dump to haul away the winter's household garbage (two trash cans full, I recycle nearly everything else), and all of the broken glass, ratty wet carpet, and shattered plastic parts of the pusher body. While at the dump, I recycled all of the surplus steel, body panels, rear axle, and other sundry ferrous metals from the pusher. A trip to the wood products recycle yard eliminated about a ton of rotted dimensional lumber and all of the bark and duff from last winter's firewood. The local battery distributor paid me $13.50 for 1,200 pounds of dead lead acid batteries that had been stacking up for almost a year.

Friday, I got busy and began a project that has been needed for six years or so, building a rear wall into the work shed, using corrugated aluminum that I had in a stack just for that purpose. Now I can use the space along the back wall for my work bench, metal closet filled with extension cords, etc, air compressor and other stuff without having to cover it all with plastic to keep the rain off. The wall also gives me a new level of privacy from my sociopathic, nosey-old-bat of a neighbor, and helps keep much of my tool noise from invading the rest of the neighborhood, not that I really care about that too much. Sometimes it must sound like a boiler factory up here on the hill. Still to come is a 5' extension off of he left hand side of the shed to house the air compressor, trash cans and the big drum of diesel fuel, freeing up still more space for projects. As you see above, the Pusher is now securely under a roof, and needs no plastic or tarps for protection from the weather. I also now have at least a little bit of area in which to work that is sheltered from rain and direct wind and sun.

 

        

 

Saturday, I constructed a new air/coolant separator device. The old unit is on the left, and has been replaced by the new, more efficient design on the right. Longer tubing allows the air bubbles to float to the top of the flow of coolant, and the vertical runs of tubing at the "T" junctions allow the air to rise up, filling the top tubing, and then being expelled through the vent valve at the top. This device is mounted in front of the radiator, which was about the only long, unobstructed area I could find in the engine compartment. The bonus is that it's location in the airflow through the grille helps to cool the antifreeze mixture and might even have a beneficial effect on the separation process.

Greg came over today for a test run with the Pusher. We did a round trip out to Fern Ridge Reservoir, stopping on the way to weigh the car and Pusher at the County scales on Clear Lake Road. The EV still weighs 3,100 pounds, and now I know that the pusher tips the scale at 1,100. Multiple stops to check the engine and coolant pressure revealed that the system is running about 8 pounds of pressure. The coolant recovery tank was about half-filled on the way out (about 16 miles), but gained almost no additional fluid on the return trip (???). I'm still on the learning curve about this cooling system. Maybe it's getting time to take a 50 mile trip up to Lebanon to work for some clients, and see what happens on an extended trip.

Before that, though, I'll be installing the 18 new Trojan T-105 batteries in the EV. I can't see any reason to be hauling around a half-ton of batteries that only put out a couple of hundred pounds worth of power. New cells should make the EV much more long-lived and give me better acceleration. Besides, if I'm going to get very far from home, I want the ability to run the car to the end of it's range in case the Pusher konks out in the middle of rural timbuktu.

Not pictured here is my huge swollen left foot, which I managed to nearly impale on the end of a crowbar while attempting to unseat the bead on one of the old VW rims while removing the tire for disposal. It'll be interesting to see if I can walk in the morning....

 

 

EV Pusher Project

Archive Page Four

 

Time to archive the last page and start a new one. Apr 24, 2001. Consumed most of the day patching holes in the pusher firewall, steering linkage hole, heater hose hole, brake line holes, holes that I made while extracting spot welded brackets with the pneumatic hammer, etc. The biggest hole was the air intake for the heater, about 8" x 8", covered with an aluminum plate and riveted in place. All of this to get ready for installing the original Rabbit fuel tank in the rear of the trailer.

Before quitting for the day, I managed to scratch together the parts needed to prototype an LPG fumigation system using a BBQ regulator, 12 volt solenoid valve, and a 11,000 BTU orifice from the same BBQ. The blue line carries the low pressure propane to the air intake on the engine, simply dumping it into the intake horn on the air cleaner. This will suffice for a test. Passing the gas through the air filter element would be a good way to eventually clog it up, so the final product will inject directly into the intake manifold. The finished LPG system will need to be interlocked to the engine and ignition, and will have a metering valve connected to the throttle. This setup is strictly for test, I'll try it at speed and maybe climb a few hills and see if it really does improve performance.

Also got a start on affixing the controller cabinet to the body of the trailer, attempting to tidy things up a bit in preparation for mounting the permanent fuel tank.

[edit] Don't forget to view the LPG Fumigation page [/edit]

April 25th. Trial by Fumigation (sort of). Had to work in the morning, then did three loads of wash and hung it out. Didn't really get started on the trailer until 3PM or so. Mounted the controller box and glow plug relay off the floor on the left-hand kick panel, and reinstalled the inverter wiring that I had removed to plug holes in the firewall. No surprise, the cables were too short for the holes they now needed to go through, so I had to make new, longer ones. Piddled around with a spring on the throttle lever, and decided that it could wait until later. Modified the controller to have a slave relay for the fumigation solenoid, and installed a temporary switch on the controller head in the EV so I could turn the LPG on and off.

So, about 7:15PM, I headed off to the grocery with the pusher in tow. The nearest Food Flood market is about 2.5 miles up Delta Highway, so I thought this would be a good time to try out the propane system. After attaining 50 MPH, I gritted my teeth and flipped the switch, which didn't have much of a discernable effect. In fact, it had no effect whatsoever. No gain in power, no huge flames out of the exhaust, no booster rocket acceleration, nothing. At the market, I checked to see that the gas was reaching the air intake (it was), and put the trailer into 3rd gear for the surface street trip home. Tried turning the gas on and of at 35MPH, with no results.

At home, with the engine idling, I switched on the gas and noticed that the engine speed increased by 60-80 RPM. Hmmm, about 10%, roughly the same as the gas-to-diesel mixture. The one effect that was quite noticeable was the change in the odor of the exhaust while idling on LPG/diesel. Gone was the ugly, oily smell, with hints of sulfur and old crankcase drippings. While I wouldn't call the odor pleasant, it was considerably better, somewhat reminiscent of propane fueled vehicles, but with a diesel twist (but then, I'm pretty used to the smell of diesel at this point).

Perhaps the magic effects of propane fumigation aren't fully released until the oft-touted 20% mixture is attained. Let's see, that would be about 25,600 BTU...That would mean drilling out the orifice in the system to 1.5mm, or a #53 twist drill size. Maybe I'll double up on the 11,000 BTU jets, or use one 11,000 and the 15,000 that I have. Oh no, more experiments to come.

Apr 26th. After drilling out the orifice on the LPG system, I washed both the EV and Pusher, then left home to pick up some building materials for the shed, purchase some feed for the animals, and on a whim, stopped by the wrecking yard to inquire about purchasing a complete 1.6 liter diesel for rebuilding. While wandering about, trying to remember where all of the Rabbits in the yard were, I passed through a row of pickup trucks. There, hidden in the middle of all of these Detroit locomotives, was a 1988 Rabbit Cabrolet (convertible), with a complete and very straight rear clip. I guess that being hidden in the truck section, no one looking for VW parts had found and stripped it yet. Checking into the office, I found that the engines were "core" (considered not running) and were $250. The rear clip was $75, if I prepared the body for cutting, clearing away any trim, cables, wiring and, most importantly, any fuel lines. As I've just finished cutting the rear off of one of these cars, I know how simple it is. I'm very tempted to buy it because I'll save hours of body work trying to straighten the one I have, and the Cab rear has a vertical door instead of a diagonal hatch, and I think it will be much easier to integrate it into the pusher body.

As for the 25,000 BTU propane system, I still can't tell any difference. One would think that more power would equal more speed at a given throttle position, or less throttle to hold the same speed, but over the course of the short distance I tried it, there wasn't any change from gas-on to gas-off. Maybe once I get it out on the open road with straight, level pavement and lots of room to move? Also considering tha the fuel I'm using is over five years old, and although diesel keeps well, the Cetane rating (like Octane for gasoline) suffers with time. Either trying some fresh fuel, or purchasing a Cetane booster might be a good thing to try.

 

 

Just enough time for a speed-of-light update while trying to cook and eat dinner, put away the horse, chop firewood and shower. May 2. After two days of pestering the wrecking yard to get the rear of the Cabrolet cut off, they finally went out and got the right tool and did it. Monday, I spent the entire (very rainy) morning doing the preparation to this car, getting it ready to be cut. I also noticed a lot of small parts that had been removed, like the weather stripping around the door, the gas spring from the door, etc. I made busy and collected those needed parts from the other Cab on the lot and made sure that I got a complete rear clip. Of course, to top off the morning, I locked my keys in the EV and had to beg a ride home from Greg to get my spare.

So now, with the rear clip on site, I can start making some progress on the body. I also found out today that the clutch in the pusher slips when I really lay on the throttle. I don't remember this happening before, so I'm wondering if it's the effect of the LPG fumigation and increased horsepower.

The other project I'm lining myself up for is to convert the EV to have rear disk brakes. I found a 1986 Golf GTI with everything I need to get 4WDB for $30 plus any machining, parts, etc.

More later, including a photo of the famous vertical rear door...

 

Yep, here's the famous door. Spent some time yesterday and today (May 4th) cutting off the bits of the rear clip that I knew I wouldn't be using, things like the inner fender wells. Also made some best-guess cuts on the front of the clip to make it fit in closer with the rest of the trailer so that I can begin fitting the two together. Sawed about 5 inches off the end of the pusher, and had to remove the muffler and tail pipe until I get the rear clip fitted better and can carve out a mouse hole in the rear roll pan for it to exit through.

Before burning out from lack of sustenance, I fitted a trailer lighting connector to the pigtail leading to the tail lamp assemblies on the rear clip. Since I sawed the supports off for the former temporary lighting, I decided to make these lights functional, but detachable until I get the clip fastened in place.

A week+ of updates all at once... May 12th. Some progress, and a bunch of related and unrelated chores over the last week. Last weekend, I installed 18 new Trojan T-105 6 volt batteries in the EV, cleaning out the battery compartment of dust and dirt, and making sure that all of the terminal connections (all 36 of 'em) were properly made and secure. The car seems to have a bit better acceleration now, and I think I'm using less ampere hours per mile, but I've only put 12 miles on it since the switch.

Also intruding on my time was several trips to radio stations to install equipment, and resurrect dead transmitters. Spring means outdoor chores like grass cutting, so I installed some of the batteries from the EV into my electric tractor and got the mower attachment after the vegetation that my horse won't eat down to stubble.

So, on to the pusher. I've been continuing to trim and fit the rear clip onto the back of the trailer. In this photo, the alignment is getting very close, the height is proper, the length about where it will be in the end, and I'm formulating plans for sheet metal that I'll have made and will weld in to support the back, and seal it up so that the weather stays out. Today, I cut the first few inches of metal off of the front of the doors to use as a transition from the front fenders to the rear, and then cut the back four inches of the doors off to use as an armature to provide the needed support and contours for the new construction. The old body off of the pusher is getting to be just a pile of splinters laying around waiting to be recycled, you can see some of it on the right of the image. Note that the remnants of the "A" pillars have been cut flush with the top of the body. I always worried that I would smack into those sharp posts, but didn't want to lop them off because I wasn't sure if I needed them to join with the rear. Well, I sure don't need them now! (I hope).

May 17. As nice as it would be to say I'm making progress putting the trailer together, this photo shows that I'm more busy tearing it apart. It turned out that the vandalism damage to the right fender was severe enough that I couldn't use it to align the rear clip, so I had to replace it before going any farther. Actually, I found two perfectly straight fenders (left and right) for $40, so I bought them both. Now I don't have to do any body work to either of them. Removing the fenders at the wrecking yard was an adventure. In addition to being held on with nine screws, the diabolical German engineers decided to also glue the fenders onto the car!!! A thick layer of really stiff rubber adhesive was applied between the rear of the fender and the firewall support post, and all over the heads of the screws, making the task to getting the body parts off without damage almost impossible, but I did it (with a little bending of the inner fender well where it doesn't show).

Back at home, I found that the pusher's left fender had no glue goop at all, and the right had so much that I couldn't even find the screw heads, and had to poke around with an ice pick just to locate them so I could cut away the caulking to remove them. Such consistency! While the fenders were off, I used a high pressure washer to blast all of the dirt out of the wheel wells, so now they're really nice and clean.

Thinking I'll wait to caulk the fenders back into place until after I've gotten the trailer prepped for painting. It'd be nice to be able to get them off again for sanding and priming.

Let's see, there are major parts from at least seven cars in the construction of the pusher at this point. When I locate a short block to rebuild, the tally will go even higher.

 

 

Time for the (now) once-a-week pusher report. Last Saturday (May 19th), after welding up a temporary support and installing some retaining screws to hold the rear clip in place, I took the longest trip with the trailer yet, 42 miles round trip to the site of the Oregon Country Fair, where I needed to do some planning for the renewable energy trailer's placement inside Main Camp. No problems to report, although I noticed today that one of the retaining bolts on the AC generator lost the nylon locking nut holding it tight. These diesels are hard on fasteners. I guess next I'll have to try double-nutting the generator and see if it can rattle loose again.

The engine ran nice and cool, but I lost a lot of coolant to the recovery tank after only 20 miles, nearly enough to overflow the tank. Since the goal is to drive it 250 miles to Eastern Oregon, I'd have to stop about 12 times to transfer the coolant back into the cooling system at this rate. Until a rebuilt head/engine is installed, I'm going to try to limit the loss of coolant by the addition of a needle valve on the recovery line. The idea is to slow down the flow of air escaping the system so that less liquid follows the air out the vent valve. This will be another try-it-and-see/adjust-it-some-more jobbies.

This will be the last photo of the pusher with it's ass in the air, when I got home from this trip, I removed the tow tongue and redrilled the mounting holes, so now the whole rig is sitting level with the EV.

Wish me luck, or burn a candle, or whatever, because Sunday, I'll be attempting another distance record, 100 miles round trip to a client's radio station. It's a straight run up the Interstate, no hills, and unless I have to stop to fool with the coolant system, no starting and stopping. Watch this space for exciting details (or not, if I get completely stranded on the way up or back).

Well, I made it! 46.5 miles each way (I know, big deal!!!). Sunday, May 27. Stopped twice along the way to check the coolant level and pressure, once at 26 miles, and again at 36. Looks like I have the needle valve set pretty close, the coolant recovery reservoir was only about three-quarters full when I arrived at the job site. The EV used 12.5 ampere-hours on the way up, running in parallel mode with the diesel. This is about what I'd expect to use in four miles of city street driving.

On the way back, I began to notice a slight lack of power about 12 miles from home. "Good" I thought, "This means that the propane cylinder is empty, so it really is making a difference." About 7 miles away from home, I began to notice a pronounced lack of power and power surges from the diesel. Figuring that the pick up hose in the fuel container had reached the end of the fuel level, I disengaged the clutch to motor home under electric power. The diesel promptly died, leaving me to struggle along at 50 MPH, pulling 200+ amps from the battery pack. One thing is for sure, I'm not planning on towing this trailer very far under EV power!

At home I did find that there was about a gallon left in the fuel can, but the hose had curled up out of the liquid and was pulling air. I filled the container full this time, as I don't want a repeat of this tomorrow when I return to finish the job. Since I'm still using the stupid plastic fuel can, I can't really say how much diesel I burned on the course of the 90+ miles I drove the pusher today, but I'm guesstimating something like 35 MPG, not great, but then the trailer is hardly aerodynamic at this point.

May 28th. Thank Goodness for dual-fueled hybrid vehicles! The trip up the Valley was uneventful, except for the semi trucks that were checking me out. I think one of the drivers (who honked and waved as he passed me) must have radioed ahead, because I was nearly always driving with an 18-wheeler right beside me as they looked over the pusher.

When I started the EV to begin the trip home, I found that the controller had failed, leaving me with no accelerator for the electric motor. It would idle just fine (at 1,800 RPM, as usual), but I couldn't speed it up past that. After deliberating a bit, I decided to just head home and hope that the pusher would keep running the whole way. Since the EV will reach 40 MPH under idle by upshifting through the gears, I was able to reach enough velocity to engage the pusher's clutch and apply power. Acceleration was a bit sluggish, as I had to disengage the EV's motor at 40 MPH, but I was able to hold 65 MPH the entire way home with the EV in neutral and the electric motor shut off.

The controller failed in this same manner last year at about this same time, so I'm hoping it's the same problem, a small $2 relay on the printed circuit board. If it's more complicated than that, I may not get it fixed right away, as I have no documentation on the controller, and have to reverse engineer the circuits before I can try to find defective components.

At any rate, I made it home in good time, and now need to decide if I should drive the EV/pusher to the job tomorrow (without an accelerator), or use my pickup. If the diesel dies without being able to accelerate the EV, it would be a very long and slow crawl home on farm roads. Maybe I'll have enough time in the morning to examine the controller and perhaps jumper out the relay as a test.

May 30, 2001. Over the course of the last four days, I've put 378 miles on the pusher driving back and forth to the client's radio station. This has been a good shake-down cruise, and I mean that literally. The biggest problem I've had is keeping the various nuts and bolts holding the accessories to the engine from abandoning ship due to vibration. Yet more problems with the AC generator mountings, the engine alternator lost a bolt, then sheared off the replacement. The neat chrome tip on the exhaust pipe lost it's screw, but the tip stayed on, rattling mightily and making me think I had thrown a rod or something else mechanically drastic. Of course, I didn't replace it immediately, so now the back of the trailer is covered with diesel soot (yuck). Guess I'll have to double-nut everything to keep the fixtures in place.

The 5 gallon fuel container is no picnic either, I've had to fill it each morning before leaving, removing the hoses and lifting it out of the back, and then replacing it while trying to not spill diesel all over the trailer and myself. Time to get the real tank installed. It would also be nice to have a larger propane cylinder, the little camping fuel containers had to be replaced at each end of the trip up and back, as one container (16.4 oz) wasn't enough for a round trip.

The controller problem turned out to be a shorted field control transistor. I popped in a generic replacement that I had on the shelf, and it seems to work fine, although I ordered a military-spec exact replacement part for the permanent repair.

Now it looks like the engine alternator isn't charging the battery, so I have another repair project (and money sponge).

 

 

Just a quick blip. Monday, June 4th. Yesterday, after the flea market, I went to look at a 1978 Rabbit Diesel that I found for sale in the classifieds that I thought I could use for a replacement engine for the pusher. Although the price was right ($325), the car was a total pile, poorly maintained, mostly wrecked, and had a soaking wet drivers seat because it had been sitting in the rain with the window open. It did start right up and idle fine, and even seemed to have a bit of power on hills, but the expansion tank was completely empty, as the owner had never checked the coolant level in the four months that he had owned and driven the car. Pouring in some water revealed some murky, diluted antifreeze, with an appearance similar to the polluted coolant in the pusher. All of this plus the obvious need of a new clutch made this car no bargain. I decided that at minimum, it needed a head gasket, and most likely, had a warped cylinder head like the pusher's engine. If I'm going to rebuild another engine for the trailer, I'd rather it was a later model 1.6 liter, and I'd rather start with one that wasn't damaged beyond routine repair.

In other cooling system news, today I installed the Rabbit's original heater core behind the grille and connected it to the engine, giving me another 14% radiator surface area. The original diesel radiator had been smashed in the vandalism, and the replacement I installed was from a gas engined Rabbit and was smaller in size. During my long distance trips last week, I noticed that the engine temperature went up after a period of acceleration, and took quite a while to cool off again. Hopefully, this will help with that, as I don't know how the pusher is going to handle mountain passes in the summer heat.

Don't know how much more I can cram into the engine compartment. Space is getting tighter all of the time under the hood. Maybe I should have started with a bigger car, like maybe a Cadillac?

June 21, Summer Solstice. An update, even though I don't deserve one.

No progress to report on the trailer. I'm just returned from a ten-day vacation to the Monterey Bay area, including a five-day, four-night stay ay Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, which is located 40 miles inside the Los Padres National Forest, outside of Carmel, California. The center is operated as a hot springs resort in the summer months, and I can't say as how I accomplished much of anything productive except for a lot of relaxing soaking in the hot mineral waters.

While visiting in Santa Cruz, I attended the Soquel Drive-In flea market, where I found four as-new Goodyear Invicta GLR low rolling resistance tires that will fit the EV for the price of $75.00 for all. Last year I paid $69.00 each for the tires that are on the car now. Cramming the tires into the sedan (which was already packed with luggage for two travelers), was a bit of a chore, but I got it all to fit.

The other notable find was a 2 gallon LPG cylinder that I've installed for the fumigation system.

Thinking I need to get some body work started on the pusher, and I'm also casting about for a replacement engine. Hope to get something useful done before the summer slips away...

 

 

EV Pusher Project

Archive Page Five

 

 

The results of today's efforts is an aluminum top cover for the rear compartment. Although I intend for this to eventually be covered by a vinyl tonneau cover, I'll want something that a knife can't slit open for security reasons. For now, this fitted sheet of previously-Crown-bus-roofing will eliminate the aerodynamic drag that the large open area caused.

Also visible is the fuel filler cap, which I began installing in preparation for mounting the original fuel tank in the trunk. Yeah, I know, I said I was going to do this a couple of months ago, but I'm getting to it now, OK? I have almost exactly one month to try and get ready for the SolWest renewable energy fair in John Day, OR, a round trip of 500+ miles over the Cascade and Ochoco mountain ranges. At this point, I don't have a chase car arranged, and I'm still not too sure about the cooling system on this pusher. Great idea, taking it over two passes and into the desert in July all alone, no???

Not evident in the photo is the square metal tubing spreader the I welded in to hold the rear clip at the proper width, or the 1.6 liter diesel core engine and automatic transmission that I ordered and paid for at the wrecking yard yesterday. The engine and transmission won't be ready for the John Day trip, as the engine will need to be properly rebuilt and installed with the AT. That ought to take me about another year...

Yesterday, one of the local wrecking yards had an "all-you-can-carry-for-$35" sale. They did have a few Rabbits, even some diesels, but the cars were so packed together that it was almost impossible to get the doors open. Added to this was the hazard of cars stacked three and four high. Sometimes I had to climb up a tower of teetering vehicles, only to find that the parts I wanted were on the car, but not accessible. I did manage to get a flimsy plastic and light steel bumper (known as a "Euro Bumper") that is perfect for the rear of the pusher, but I didn't pay the full price for it and some small parts. The original "5 MPH" bumper weighed a lot, and stuck out too far. All I can say is that I'm grateful that the wrecking yard I usually frequent is laid out like a parking lot, with the cars well-spaced, not stacked, and the lot is fully graveled and not a mud hole.

Today, I ordered some custom sheet metal parts to help me join the front and rear clips, and purchased and fabricated some angle iron to support the fuel tank. Here's a story about getting the trailer licensed at the local State Department of Motor Vehicles.

Onward. I try to shake off the doldrums brought on by post-vacation depression, and set my sights on John Day or bust.

July 7, 2001. Here's a job I've been dreading since cutting the car in two, dealing with the transition between the old floor metal and the new rear clip. It's mostly done now, but involved laying on the ground scraping thick grease and dirt off of the bottom if the floor pan, grinding off the layer of paint, then welding custom 1" x 1" 18 gauge metal angle to stiffen the end and make a vertical edge for the metal which will enclose the space between the front and rear clips. None of that shows in this photo, and neither does all of the preparation for installing the fuel tank which was done last week. Before I can finish that, I need to remove the temporary supports for the rear clip, which requires this fabrication, so I must forge onward.

See those two 4 x 4's stacked up under the rear of the trailer? Those were my pillows for the better part of the afternoon while I used the gas welder to lay beads overhead. Of course, the top of the floor pan has an undercoating layer of something that burns like napalm, and it ignites with every weld done from the bottom. In all I'm going to be pretty glad to see this phase of the project finished as soon as possible, like tomorrow!

 

 

July 12th. Nothing unusual about continuous interruptions, I had a bunch since last week, and tomorrow is the first day of the Oregon Country Fair, which I am supposed to be working. This morning, I went over to the wrecking yard and picked up my new (used) engine and automatic transmission. both of which you see here after unloading at home. Although it doesn't show, this engine has a ****chrome valve cover**** Oooooh.... Began tearing the cylinder head off so I can take it to a machine shop and have it checked out. The wrecking yard will exchange it for another if it turns out to be warped or defective, but I need to know that before the 30 day grace period expires.

July 21st. A week-plus with no updates, but a lot of work accomplished. The head on the core engine was defective, it had a huge crack that I didn't need a machine shop to find, so the wrecking yard gave me a replacement, which is at the machine shop being tested and rebuilt.

Over the course of the last week, I've finished the bulkhead at the rear of the trailer, built a proper mounting support for the muffler, welded up a reconfigured filler pipe and installed all of the hoses for the fuel tank, designed and consigned a spacer for the AC generator pulley on the front of the engine, welded up the AC generator adjustment arm, installed new wiring and a slave relay for the towing lights, built a proper bracket for the LPG fumigation cylinder, and a whole bunch of stuff I can't remember right now, but yes, I was busy!

Today, I received 10 gallons of Biodiesel fuel, compliments of Ian and Tomas of Eugene Biosource. These fellows had a booth at Energy Park at the Oregon Country Fair last weekend, and I approached them about buying some fuel for my trip to SolWest next Friday. The were most gracious and accommodating, and are allowing me to use the fuel in exchange for future consultation or fabrication, although I still think I should at least pay them what regular petro-diesel would have cost me for the trip.

Anyway, here I am "washing" a sample of the fuel using water and compressed air. This process removes any residual methanol and lye from the reaction process. It's really and extra-credit step in making the fuel, but I wanted to have some involvement in the process, and it seemed like a kind of backwards way to get hands-on experience, starting with the finished product, then working my way up to making it from used vegetable oil.

Speaking of hands-on, I did manage to slop a little of the fuel on my hands while putting in the hoses and air stones. It's great! No stink and no phobias about toxic solvents leeching into my skin!! Thomas and Ian arrived in a VW Vanagon diesel which was running on this same fuel, and it only emitted a slightly greasy smell similar to candle paraffin. This bus has a newly-rebuilt engine that has been and will only be fueled by Biodiesel.

The next week is sure to be hectic, as I prepare to make the trip to John Day. Watch for at least another few updates before I leave.

 

 

End of the Month update. July 31st. In this photo, after six days of frantic preparation, I'm as ready as I'll ever be to leave for my trip to Eastern Oregon. A bicycle rack has been added to the tongue of the trailer, and sheet metal cut from the old doors has been welded to the sides of the pusher to enclose the holes left by the old wheel arches. The details of the preparations are now lost, but suffice it to say that I spent the last few days before the trip working on the trailer 15 hours a day.

Now all that's left is to hit the road and burn up some pavement. Sharkey's Big Adventure is chronicled in SolWest 2001.