An Electric Drive Eclipse (ED-E)          Version 2.1b

The conversion of a stock petrol fueled automobile into an electric vehicle is a relatively straight forward process.  One removes all the internal combustion engine (ICE) related items, including the engine, exhaust piping, catalytic converter, muffler, fuel tank, fuel pump, etc.  Next, one installs a big electric motor, a large number of batteries, a DC controller, and a few other required items... and you have an electric vehicle.  A quality conversion will take 9 to 18 months, and will often - in reality - cost as much as $10,000 to $15,000.  This price is assuming the traction battery pack is provided by valve-regulate lead acid (VRLA) batteries, and does not include the cost of the donor vehicle.

A typical driving range of 25 to 40 miles can be expected, if a very light weight donor vehicle is used, and the traction pack employed is at least 120 to 150 volts (nominal).  If a heavy donor vehicle is employed, such as is the case with my Eclipse, then the range with VRLA batteries is typically 10 to 25 miles, depending on the type of driver, driving terrain, and the ambient temperature. A range of something like 30 to 60 miles can be expected if  Lithium batteries are used to replace the current Eclipse VRLA batteries.

As one looks around the Internet, it is clear that the overall quality and operational aspects of conversions can vary widely.  The selected major components, along with a variety of custom manufactured pieces, must be adapted and coupled to the donor vehicle with care and cunning.

The Electric-Drive Eclipse (ED-E) project, which is concisely documented in this very long webpage, resulted in the conversion of a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse from a gas powered vehicle to a two-passenger battery electric vehicle (BEV), which has power steering and A/C, and is quite highway capable. 

A goal of this conversion was to produce a reliable and very stock looking vehicle.  There are only a few very subtle indications that this car is not stock.  First, there is no exhaust pipe.  Second, the interior instrumentation has been altered to include a number of helpful electric vehicle instruments and readouts.  For example, a Metric Mind Corporation... EVision System has been added with the Triple Display Module mounted by the driver's side A-pillar.  An additional module of the EVision System - termed a Human Interface Module - is mounted in the center console, just behind the fully functional manual 5-speed shift lever.  In addition, a six-sensor temperature monitoring system has been included for monitoring the temperature of the motor, controller, DC-DC converter, the mid-car battery box, the rear-car battery box, and the outside/ambient temperature.  Otherwise the car looks completely stock - until you open the hood!

Another major goal of this conversion was to produce a fully functional electric vehicle that could be used for around town driving, and for work and back.  Not only does my place of employment have a number of charging stations, at the present moment there is NO charge for using them!  Currently, ED-E  uses about 1/2 the pack power to get the ~10 miles to work - with the current AGM lead acid traction pack.  This current traction pack weighs in at 1050 pounds!!  The presently planned lithium traction pack, which will fill a bit less volume, will reduce the battery traction pack weight by over 600 pounds. And this planned lithium pack should have about two to three times the useful power of the current pack.

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Major Component Overview   
 

Traction Pack:

Passenger Compartment
 Heater:

Instruments:

Top Speeds:

Interior:   

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For an example of an excellent type of donor vehicle, and a great story on going overboard, see the White Zombie (aka, the Blue Meanie) at plasmaboyracing.com

A list of work to be done, including cutting the openings for the battery boxes, was prepared.  I was not sure the Joe and Keith would be interested in this work, as they run a very busy shop.  So, I decided to drive down and talk with them directly.  Before saying much, I handed Joe a list of the tasks I needed done.  I clearly remember him reading the list for a bit, before a smile appeared and he looked up and said "And what are you up to?"  We discussed the project, and he was very willing to get involved.

The following month Middle Country Automotive (in Selden, NY) had the car for about a week. They cut the two battery box openings (Great Job Guys!), afterr removing the each of the following items:

Soon the WarP-11 motor will be mounted to the bell housing, with the original clutch intact.

      Transmission Bell Housing (Clutch Assy Removed)

This would normally have been a real concern, except I am most fortunate to live near Mike Savino of EV-Propulsion, located in Bayport NY.  As you will see Mike did a lot of the hard mechanical stuff.  This included mounting the motor (while retaining a fully functional clutch), designing several engine and axle supports, and providing a perfectly centered and mounted motor.

 The intent from the start was to keep the AC system if at all possible. It is not very usable (for the most part) with the current lead acid batteries, but will be ready for the future lithium pack. Currently planned for when I find a buyer for the current VRLA pack, or near the end of life of the current pack (say 2 to 3 years).

While waiting for the battery boxes and the custom motor mounting pieces required to install the 11" electric motor, it seemed like a good time to deal with removing the dash board, pulling wires, and installing the ceramic heater element.

I had done quite a bit of reading, and found John Wayland's "heater comparison" article to be quite helpful (see http://www.evsource.com/articles/heater_compare.php).  So the decision was made to install the ceramic heater directly is the center of the original heater core. Great way to go. Very factory result in that most of the heater and air flow controls can be used as provided from the factory.  One small issue.  Today's automobiles use heater core elements that are NEVER intended to be serviced or replaced.  They are expected to last for the life of the vehicle. Accordingly, getting a modern day heater-core out and back in again... is not for the faint of heart. OUCH!

Early in the disassembly of the center and right side of the dash. Currently removed are the radio, heater controls, center console, the air bag cover and airbag element, and a number of other items.  Sounds like a lot of stuff, but in the end, the entire one-piece dash board shell must be completely removed. Just about everything other than mechanical understructure and wire harnesses comes out... to get a look at the heater core.

In the picture to the left... The instrument 'combination cluster' - including the speedometer, the tachometer, and the no longer needed fuel and temperature gauges - has been removed.  The cluster will be re-worked to include a traction pack voltmeter and an ammeter (in the locations of the former fuel gauge and temperature gauge, respectively).


 

After several hours of removing smaller attachments, inserts, and many many screws and bolts, the one-piece shell is now ready to come out.

And once the one-piece dash shell is removed (and stowed on top of the roof of the car), the view of the interior is a bit freighting.  I sure hope the 100+ digital pictures I sporadically took along the way help to get this mess back together again.  However, this was the only option to get some heat in the car, and to properly pull the many wires that must run between the soon-to-be motor compartment and the passenger compartment.
 

And on the right and below, if you study the pictures, you will see the end-view of a slot, into which the heater core is inserted.  The white arrow should help.  Note the aluminum tube with the right-angle bend, which enters the close end of the heater core.

Next, both of the tubes must be cut, several more plastic duct pieces must come out, an electronic module or two must be removed, and magically... the heater-core is out...  And pieces of the dash are everywhere!

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Before moving on to the installing of the 1500 watt ceramic heater-element, it was time to pull some cables and wires.... And start the re-harnessing of the motor compartment.
    

Regarding the image below, and the mess of wires running past the back of the 12V accessory battery, most of these wires will be eliminated. 

Why are so many wires no longer needed?  Well the original V6 engine had many sensors, including rotation, knock, coolant temperature, air temperature, air pressure, left bank oxygen, right bank oxygen,... sensors. All of which required wiring.
 

Most of these unneeded wires were cut back to just short of the main electronic control unit (ECU) inside the passenger compartment.

The modified heater-core element is shown on the right, after the 1500W ceramic heater element is mounted using a very high temperature (engine manifold gasket) RTV sealant.  The RTV sealant is really tough stuff that was highly recommended by a local auto parts store.

 

Note that this yellow cable is run into the motor compartment using one of the original heater core water tubes.  The other water tube was used to pass a group of other wires to/from the motor compartment.
 

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The mounting location for the electric PS pump took a while to determine. An initial goal was NOT to have the electric PS pump near the rear of the passenger compartment due to noise considerations. I wanted to mount it up front as far as possible.  But that idea was not workable. The first issue with a forward mounting location was the need for a very long high-pressure hose to run from the output of the pump to the power steering assist unit, which is located low and close to the firewall in the engine compartment. Second there was no suitable and open location to mount the pump unit.

In the picture to the right, you can clearly see the horizontally mounted PS pump, along with the 1-foot long high pressure line (which is black).  In the upper right of the picture, an item with a finned and black heat sink can be seen - with the heavy red wires connecting to it. This unit is the solid state relay (SSR) that will be used to energize the PS pump.



 

This micro-computer based PS controller board clearly has not yet been implemented on a printed circuit board (PCB), and must also be updated to include vehicle speed sensing.




 

As shown below and to the right, the motion of the steering wheel will be sensed via a rotary pulse encoder (RPG) and a friction wheel arrangement. As can be seen, the friction wheel is arranged for contacting the steering shaft.

Accordingly, as the steering shaft turns, a shaft of the RPG turns, and the RPG creates a proportional number of pulses.  The pulses are sensed by the custom PS controller (shown above).
 

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Electric Vacuum Pump and Additional Vacuum Reservoir

Today, in many cars, the only major use of vacuum from an engine's manifold is for the power brake assist. Which of course is quite helpful and important.

While reading and studying the quality of EV vacuum pumps (mainly on the Internet), one generally will find a lot of unhappy folks -  with less than desirable results being reported as the norm.

When it comes to most compact vacuum pumps, they are VERY noisy. To be sure, the vacuum pump employed on most electric car conversions, is the noisiest item on the car.  If you have ever owned a low cost electric air pump, useful for inflating things such as pool floats, balls, and tires...  you fully understand how loud these devices can be.
 

In the end, I settled on a rather expensive pump, that was rumored not to be TOO noisy.  Actually it was described as being "whisper quiet" when talking with a sales person over the phone, and comparing them to other known and available units.

An additional feature of the chosen vacuum pump, which definitely caught my eye, was an oil filled muffler that was provided over the air intake port. This is the light beige colored rectangular item mounted to the side of the vacuum pump housing.  This unit also looked rock-solid, with a heavy casted housing.

And this time, I was determined to mount the pump way up front, and as low as possible.
 

See the images provided below for a view of the vacuum pump installed in the motor compartment. The employed arrangement resulted in the muffler facing into a small substantially closed area, which hopefully will provide additional sound isolation.  [The vacuum and PS pumps ended up being suitably quite, and quite reliable (at least since the Spring of 2009 when they went into service).]

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The MCBB was designed to be about as large as the stock frame will allow.  This resulted in the MCBB being fixed to very solid (frame) support structures - on three of the four sides of the BB.

On the 4th side - which is the rear/back facing side of the MCBB - mounting support was nicely provided by two spaced 'flaps' bent down and formed by original sheet material of the opening (that was NOT cut away), when this opening was enlarged to fit the below installed MCBB.

Note also the lightly colored "High Voltage Contactor Board", which will sit just behind the original rear seat seatbacks (when later installed).

Note the white 800A slow blow fuse in the middle rear of the MCBB.

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The second battery box (actually an assembly) is located in the original trunk area.  Both the mid-car BB and the rear-car battery box (RCBB) are mounted as low as possible. This is done for several reasons, including to lower the center of gravity for the resulting conversion.

Recall further that as a result of the location of this important structure, three of nine batteries to be located in the rear-car battery box will be raised to sit over this rear axle support.
 

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The RCBB shown below, fully assembled with the box lids removed, and ready for installation.
 

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Once a lug end is crimped onto the 2/0 wire (as shown below), it is common to use a heavy duty shrink tubing to complete the end of the cable.
 
 

The Battery Box Wiring...

In addition, there must eventually be room for a shunting balancing regulator to be mounted atop each battery in each battery box. 

In the case of ED-E, should the Raptor controller actually fail full on, and BOTH the front and rear contactors will not open, then there is one other option that is sure to work: the fully functional factory clutch.  In fact, some believe a driver is much more likely to depress the clutch pedal before even thinking of reaching down and shutting off the ignition switch. 

  HV Plate (red) with a Controller and Other Components
 

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The plate is shown on the left, early is the fabrication process. At this point many holes have been drilled and tapped, and a few components mounted.

A special thanks to Lester Orlik, a very competent machinist and mechanical designer for helping with several mechanical pieces used on the front HV Assembly.

Accordingly, if you look closely at the upper portion of the image to the right, you will see a black tube, about 1" in diameter, running parallel to and behind the motor.  This will be the rear support for the HV assembly, and will enable the plate/assembly to be lifted (at the front) to provide every good access below the assembly, and to the motor.

One item that a number of conversionists have trouble getting working is the in-dash tachometer.  This is an important feature as a driver of an EV must keep the revs up on an electric motor for it to run most efficiently and to pull a maximum air flow through the motor.  Remember, when it comes to electric car components (other than the batteries) cooler is better.

If the donor car has a factory in-dash tachometer, it is actually not that difficult to get the tachometer (tach) working. One simply must locate the engine speed signal cable, which was very easy to locate and re-harness in ED-E, and provide a pulse waveform that is proportional to the motor speed.

Now attention can be turned the next chore... finding a suitable electronic pickup to sense the motor RPM. This RPM signal must produce two (2) pulses with an amplitude of  0-12 volts, for each revolution of the motor. The reason that there are just two pulses required, instead of the three that would be expected with a tach from a 6-cylinder engine, is that the replacement tach that was purchased, when tested, was determined to have come from a 4-cylinder Eclipse (wherein only two cylinders fire per revolution).  See the schematic below from the Eclipse service manual for a clear indication of the engine speed signal, which is a shielded cable.

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There are several sensors made to bolt onto the motor on the tail shaft side, but with ED-E that was not possible due to the use of the AC drive pulley.  After some research on the Internet, a magnetic reed-switch manufactured by Cherry was used (click here for more information). The cherry MP201701was installed along with some stud magnets, and seemed to work well when manually turning the shaft of the motor.  But when the WarP11 motor was energized, even with a small 10 to 20 amp current, a magnetic field of the motor completely saturated the magnetic reed-switch, causing it to close and stay closed, regardless of the position of the stud magnets mounted to the tail shaft AC pulley.  To explain this a bit differently, the RPM of the motor was originally to be sensed by 2 stud magnets, which are threaded into the AC drive pulley.  As such, as each magnet passed closely by the magnetic reed pickup - as they rotate with the motor's shaft - the magnetic reed switch closes, and then re-opens when a respective magnet has passed by.  The tach unit simply counts these pulses (2 per revolution) and displays the engine/motor RPM.  But alas, this failed due to the strong magnetic fields generated by the very large electric motor.  Several magnetic shielding attempts were tried and failed, and so did several other sensors.

 

Shown at the right is the S3054, with a custom mounting bracket that should do nicely.

Shown at the left, the inductive pickup is mounted, and the wrapped harness routed upwardly to the power steering controller (& junction) box.

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