I made it to the metal yard and got some raw material. Here’s the piece of 6061 that will soon be a flywheel:
Before I can turn the flywheel, I need to machine the hub (this is what attaches the flywheel to the motor shaft). The hub is a bit complicated as it has a taper-lock taper on one side and the flywheel hole pattern on the other. There is also a locating feature to center the flywheel on the hub. Two tries and 8 hours of machining later I had my hub:
I will start machining the flywheel next…
It’s been a couple weeks since I updated this page. During that time I have been doing a lot of head scratching trying to figure out this whole transmission coupler/adapter issue. I have waffled back and forth between using a stock flywheel, a modified stock flywheel, a custom steel flywheel and a custom aluminum flywheel. At this moment I am leaning toward the custom aluminum flywheel. In fact, if the metal supply yard is open today I might go down and see if I can find some material to start machining one (that way I can’t change my mind).
I am also still waiting for my axles to come back (hopefully they will be the correct length) .
On top of all that, I have slowly been installing software on what will someday be the car computer. It’s a Mac Mini core duo now with XP. I am planning to use it for music, navigation and general car data collection. If I get ambitious I might use it as a front end to the climate control.
Last, but definitely not least, I have been looking at wheels. I haven’t decided on any set yet, though I have decided that I don’t want to spend $2k.
On Sunday, I had a chance to work on mounting my seat shells (they will eventually be upholstered and become “real” seats). I bought by seat rails from cip1.com
I bent up some brackets to set the seats at the correct angle (well at least what felt correct).
I also welded a cross-bar on to give it added strength.
Now I just need to mount them to the chassis…
