Installing the new motor

The motor assembly was lifted on its place by hand. After fixing the assembly with bolts into the gearbox one of the front wheels was rotated to find out how well the shafts had been aligned. It turned out that the shaft alignment had succeeded well and the motor assembly did not add much friction in addition to the gearbox internal friction. The clutch operation was also tested and it seemed to work nicely although the clutch fluid was found to be in a bad condition and must be replaced. The Corolla is now ready for a test drive and to meet its first electric driven meters!

Motor assembly ready to be fitted

Once the motor plate was carefully aligned with the gearbox shaft it was then welded on its place. The motor plate was then removed and welded from the other side to secure the flat bar pieces in their correct places. Now the ME1003 motor could be mounted into the motor plate and the flywheel assembly into the motor shaft. Two guide pins were mounted on the motor plate to get it installed back on the same position it was just removed from. Similar guide pins were used to position the original gasoline engine as well. The guide pins were made from M12 bolts using a lathe. One of the pins can be seen on the right side of the motor plate in the picture.

Alignin the motor plate

The motor plate is now on its place, but still unaligned. It will be aligned with the gearbox shaft with a simple method that one of my workmates suggested. An iron nail is attached to the gearbox shaft using strong magnets. The gearbox shaft is then rotated by rotating one of the front wheels with a gear selected from the gearbox. The distance between the motor shaft hole wall and the iron nail is then adjusted to be equal in every rotary position of the gearbox shaft. This measuring method should make the alignment accurate enough. Once the gearbox shaft is centered with the motor shaft hole, the motor plate will be secured in its place by welding. After this, the motor itself can be mounted with the flywheel assembly.

Fixing plate for ME1003

ME1003 motor fits tightly on the built fixing plate. The motor will be bolted on it with four 5/16-18 bolts that were bought from germany through ebay.

The next thing to do will be to align the plate accurately with the gearbox shaft. I will soon know whether it is a tricky or a simple task.

The rest of the motor plate

Four pieces was cut from the 10x100mm flat bar and welded togheter to form the fixing plate for the motor. A hole for the motor shaft and an engraved shape to center the motor was done using a lathe. The motor shaft hole will be used to align the motor plate with the gearbox shaft.

Mounting plate half way done

The first two parts of the mounting plate are on their place. A bigger part where the motor will be attached will be bolted on top of these parts. After the motor shaft is aligned with the gearbox shaft, the mounting plate parts will be welded togheter. This is the plan at the moment, we'll see if it works. This step has needed a lot more work than what I could expect. However it is a rewarding step as the first very limited test drive can be done after the motor is mounted.
The ME1003 has imperial threads on its fixing points, so I'll need to find suitable imperial bolts which is not easy in Finland.

Mounting plate for the electric motor

I bought 2m of 10mm x 100mm steel flat bar from Rautasoini located in Tampere. It's an excellent source for different metals in different shapes. The new mounting plate that will attach the motor into the gearbox will be built from pieces cutted from the flat bar. A jigsaw with a good steel blade togheter with cutting oil and patience cutted the flat bar suprisingly well.

Motor with flywheel

The weld on 1210 taper hub was welded on the center of the flywheel. After that the flywheel was centered on a lathe using a dial gauge and a new slightly bigger bore hole was machined to correct the positioning errors that were left after welding the hub. Hopefully the flywheel mounting errors are now small enough. Otherwise vibrations will occur and the motor bearings will have a hard time.

Fixing the flywheel

In Corolla eFX the original clutch and gearbox will be maintained. The flywheel will be mounted directly on the shaft of the electric motor. A 1210 taper bush with a 7/8 bore and a weldable 1210 hub were used for fixing. These taper bush parts were bought from Britain through ebay. Ebay seems to be a great place to buy these kind of parts as a consumer.

Motenergy ME1003 48V power curve

Corolla eFX is planned to be powered with a 72VDC battery pack that makes the ME1003 motor run 2800rpm on the rated 11,5kw load. While driving 80km/h with corolla's fifth gear, the motor runs 2500rpm. This gives hope to reach a top speed of 80km/h on electric power. Will it be reached, time will tell.

Corolla's new motor arrived

Motenergy ME1003 PMDC motor was chosen as the motor for this conversion. It's diameter is 200mm and it weights less than 20kg. The rated power is 11,5kw @ 72V, so this car will not be too fast.. The motor was bought from the swedish Motenergy dealer Quadmotion.

Lifting off the original power source

After removing everything that was attached to the engine I found out that more parts would be needed to be removed before the engine could be lifted from its narrow mounting place. Water pump and many parts surrounding it were removed to make more room. Finally there was enough room to lift the engine out.

Making room for the electric motor

Corolla's engine is designed to be removed by dropping it through the bottom togheter with the gearbox. I wanted to keep the gearbox on its place, so I decided to lift the engine alone. It looked like there would be enough room to make the lift.

Corolla in its new home

The frame of this conversion project was driven to its new home from Hyvinkää. It had a small engine fault, but otherwise the car was in a very good original condition. This frame is a very good starting point for the electric conversion project.