Motor Mounted for Good!

This is a kind of repeat of this post showing the motor going in but the motor is back in the car - for good (fingers crossed).
The terminal box is fitted and all the high current wiring is attached.

The black wire trailing out the side of the main terminal box is for the embedded motor temperature monitoring. The grey wire emerging from the small terminal box is for the shaft encoder. The unused black cable gland is for the motor fan wires.

View from the front of the car. I regret not putting the fan wires on - I'll need a cut-down screwdriver. I didn't want to attach it because the wire already has the correct connector on it, but I now realise I'll have to connect it before the battery cradles go in.

View from the engine bay, taken by poking the camera into the transmission tunnel. Not much clearance. The problem is the far left terminal cover bolt. I ground it down to about 1.5 to 2mm thick and used a star instead of spring washer. At least you can see daylight over it.

As with the previous photo, I couldn't actually see this - only the camera could. This is a view from inside the car poking the camera down into the area where my head doesn't fit. The one at the right is the tight one.

I also got the battery mounts de-rusted and primed and started on splash proofing the DC-DC converters.
More later...

Final Terminal Box for Motor

My old nemesis, the motor terminal box is finally solved (cross fingers because I haven't actually put it back in the car yet). This time I cut it down with a hacksaw. (See previous terminal box changes).

Here is the custom modified, tapered version. Brass terminals cut down to just-long-enough and the thermistor (temperature measurement device for motor) cable gland moved to the "other" side where there is more room in the transmission tunnel.
I cut the mounting for the terminal block down so far that I felt I had to add a bit of "meat" to strengthen it. You can see the pink body filler in the mounting holes (filled then drilled then countersunk a little bit).

Side view.

On motor. I bought a 1.5mm thick piece of Neoprene rubber which covers the whole underside of the lid to provide electrical insulation for the very-close brass terminal bolts - instead of just having a gasket around the edges. The cover plate hasn't got the 6mm bolts in it yet but they should fit.

A bit further back to give an idea of size. The black wire is for the motor thermistor.

I did my first big crimps last night for the three motor cables and I'll show them as I connect up some wiring soon.
Now to get the motor back in....

Later addition May 2013
This is perhaps the only picture I took of the shaft encoder before improving its IP rating (using a spray can lid). The encoder is only IP21 and is the little black gizmo on the end of the motor. This picture was taken around March 2010.

Motor Terminal Box Height Adjustment

I have a problem that the terminal box on the motor is too high, preventing me from placing the motor just where I want it (See Motor Positioning a few posts ago). I bought a diecast box from eBay but it really doesn't fit well - I would have to modify it.
Someone suggested that I cut down the terminal box I have by clamping my angle grinder. Off to Bunnings (large hardware store) for an aluminium cut-off wheel. The orange plastic let me slide the terminal box easily.

The bucket in the background is because the terminal box got VERY hot. I had to dunk it in water after each side. I left the corners slightly intact until the sides were cut through. I made a huge mess - aluminium shards and dust everywhere. (I cleaned it up before taking this photo - sorry!)

 

  

The lid will be too large now so I will get some 2-3mm aluminium sheet and make a new one.

 

 

 

 I will have to fill the old cable entry gland holes with epoxy and drill & tap new holes for the cover (and make a cover) but at least the really messy part is done.