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The holidays were filled with family and fun and many playing gigs that meant the e-Bugeye project lay dormant for about six weeks. But now we're back in project mode, and that means finishing out the mechanical layout so we can get on with battery placement and all that entails. A consulting session with my father who was visiting from North Carolina (a great mechanical engineer in his own right) yielded the inevitable. The motor was wedged up against the front chassis cross-member, deforming the rubber on the transmission mount. Trying to install the drive shaft left us about 1/16" shy of being able to clear the differential pinion flange. After much head scratching and what-if exploration, we came to the conclusion that the driveshaft must be shortened, and the motor/transmission assembly moved back in the chassis to relieve the stress on the system.
So the transmission mount was relocated 1/2" to the rear.
And the drive shaft was taken to Inland Truck Parts and Service for shortening. When it was returned, it was also cleaned up, painted, and balanced. Too bad no one will ever see it. It fit perfectly!
Now to fabricate the front motor mount. I used 0.10" aluminum for the motor attachment plate and tied it to the mounts with steel angle.
I used two spare motor mounts I had from my ZENN, and bolted them to existing threaded mount holes for the steering rack on the front chassis cross-member. This provides the vertical location and clearance and should buffer road shock.
The original (new replacement) gas engine motor mounts were tied in to the mount plate with steel strap to provide fore-aft location and torque control.
So now we have that 1/2" clearance and the motor/transmission unit is fully buffered with rubber mounts.
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