I am so doing this...
Can a higher torque drive motor be ordered? Gawd I'd love to spank my bro in law's Tesla..

 

I have a bunch of questions..

How does one 'pick up' some leaf batteries? Can you just go to Nissan and order them?
Aside from the goodies you hand built on your bench, where can one order the rest of the conversion specific parts to get the majority done?
Maybe I missed some details in the thread but with the 32 batteries installed do you have an estimated range?

Thanks for the detailed build - it seems you've inspired plenty of us.

Ron

 

spanking the tesla could be difficult/ costly.
You could get a more powerful motor but you would need a lot of batteries to be in the realm of beating it (assuming its a p85) but then you'll have a weight problem and a friction problem because teslas are direct drive.

You'd get close, but its a jag, so you would at least win on cool points.

the batteries can be picked up from a wreckers. there are a variety of companies selling electric motors. EVTV or EVworks sell some powerful motors.
EVTV have listed dual 11inch DC motors ($6000 i think) which would make a jag a serious contender to the Tesla for speed.

 

Itchy!
Point taken on the direct drive - I forgot about that. However the P-85 is no lightweight. I'm pretty sure they're around 2 tons. I was thinking about the direct drive thing though. I wonder if I could squeeze two motors out back with outboard brakes and keep the IRS...
I need to crawl under my car and take some dims. Having said that, the wrecking yards are not exactly overflowing with wrecked EVs. I am however exploring other sources. Thank you for the tips for finding motors.
Keep posting this great stuff!

 

Hi Bry5on, I have a Series II that I might like to convert. I live in the area -- would you be up to show off your car? Or do you ever take it to shows?

Thanks!

 

 

Excellent work, thanks for the thread.

 

Well, I haven’t been super great about updating this thread, but I thought you all might be interested in seeing my fake tailpipe bike rack


I’m daily driving the car these days and it’s got 200-240 miles of useable range, depending on speeds mostly. The vast majority of my time has been spent in writing/improving the software for the motor controller, and fixing little things like re-keying locks to match, adding trunk struts, making the gauges work reliably, etc. I’ve also designed a drop-in electric replacement for the original heater core that needs to be installed, and I picked up a Tesla AC compressor that needs to be final installed and plumbed. And I still haven’t put my new carpets in that I bought three years ago -_- will do those when I do the heater core.

 

Looks like I also forgot to mention that it has a Tesla model S 60 pack and DC/DC converter as of the past year or so

10 modules under the hood, 4 in the spare tire well. It’s just barely overweight up front and underweight in rear, judging roughly by suspension sag on level ground. Happy with it though!

 

bry what do you use for the vacuum brake booster?
ron
and NICE work , 100% different than this site sees!
a friend has this old Mustang ,you may have seen!




pix about 4/5 yrs ago, Austin tx. 0-60 in 1.95 sec.

 

Thanks Ron!

Originally I was using a hot rod vacuum booster but it was loud as hell with a piston style pump. Now I’m using a hella UP30 with a vacuum relay for on/off and it’s real quiet and very low duty. Would 100% recommend it. https://www.google.com/search?q=hell...&client=safari

I may also have an electric non-vacuum ‘Bosch ibooster’ brake booster sitting on the shelf...

 

This weekend I picked up 3 more Tesla modules to make a total of 17. This will let me run a slightly higher voltage than the model S/X at almost 430V.

Tonight I installed the first additional one under the hood, making a total of 11 in the engine bay, wired it up and took it for a test drive. Works great, as the original brackets were designed with this expansion as an option (clears the hood).

More material is on order to build up mounts for the additional two in the rear, hopefully in time for fabrication and installation this weekend.

 

The last two went in over the weekend, I had to raise the trunk floor about an inch and a quarter to get them to fit. I’ve done almost 100 miles, mostly on my daily commute, and the data is telling me I’ll get 320 miles of range with this type of driving. Less is expected from highway driving, so I’m estimating somewhere around 280. Overall I’m super happy with it now, but there is still more to do, as ever.

 

Lots of work has been going on since I last posted, mostly trying to resolve some software issues when starting smoothly from a stop. Ultimately I've decided that I'll be going to a different motor setup - utilizing a lexus 'transmission' (two electric motors inside) with a locked input shaft as a replacement for my homemade setup. This should be more reliable and will let me give it the beans from a stop.

In the last 9 months, I did get a chance to finish the trunk floor, do most of the carpeting, and replace my AC/DC charger with a Tesla unit that does 11kW. Seen below..

 

Bry5on ,, nice work, seems more and more Tesla wrecks are showin up in junkyards,, but also the costs ,guess because people are gettin on the future of EVs!

 

Absolutely extraordinary.

I don't pretend to understand the many aspects of this build, but I do recognize outstanding craftsmanship, taste, and a beautiful mind when I see one.
Whew...bravo.

Thank you very much for sharing.
Congratulations.

 

Hi Brison, wow, what a great project and fantastic achievement so far. Please continue sharing your journey as it is an inspiration for many of us. If I may aske about the original Jag series 1: did it have a manual transmission or automatic? and was it a rear wheel drive or front wheel drive? The reason I'm asking is most series 1 and 2 Jags here in Australia are automatic front wheel drives, so I assume that the ev conversion could be much more problematic. Any thoughts? Thank you

 

Yurony, yes you are correct this is a fantastic achievement. But all series 1, 2 &3 Jaguars are of course REAR wheel drive.

 

Thank you for clarifying, Mekon. And from the interior photo it looks like the original transmission was automatic. I read that the simpler/ideal set up is rear wheel drive with manual transmission. Would be great to hear from Brison on how he connected the engine(s) to the driveshaft and whether there any issues with the automatic transmission. Thanks

 

Yurony, if you had read and understood the thread, or if you have done any research into electric vehicles, you would realise that the transmission is redundant in these cars. It has neither an automatic or manual transmission. The electric motor turns the prop shaft - end of story.