All Parts Are here

It turns out that the transmission is the same as a Geo Metro so they got the bearings and seals easily.
They are starting to put it back together today and I should have him back as early as Friday. He showed me the bad bearing which I will try and get some good pictures of and post them here. The ball bearings and the surfaces that they ride on were very pitted. I am not sure what caused the premature failure but when I get the bearing apart and inspect the wear pattern it should give me a clue. My guess is that it is excessive side loading of the bearing.

As soon as he is all back to normal I am going to get back on the trailer hitch installation, and wiring.

There is a light at the end of the tunel

I just heard from the transmission place that it was a bearing that was bad, and they have it on order. All they have to do is find the axle seal, and Mac will be on the road again. They said as early as this Friday, or early next week.
YA WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The search is on

Well bad news. The transmission is broken. It is not the seal. The axle shaft has side play and is coming part way out of the seal causing the leak. The transmission will have to come out, and I can not have them do that until I can find a place to get parts. The good thing is I found out that it is out of a car in China called "Chery QQ sweet .8l. I have been doing searches, but have not found a place to get parts yet. I did find a place to buy a new transmission but with a minimum order of 10.
If I can not find a place to get parts I will probably look for a different trany that I can easily get parts for and retro fit it to Mac. I really do not want to scrap him. It all depends on the cost because I also wanted to change motor and controller.
I did get a contact person that has contact with the person that bought out all Green Vehicles inventory when they went bankrupt. I might be able to pick up a good trany through them.
If I end up going the retro fit I will likely have to do all the work myself to make it affordable. Unfortunately my garage will not be built for about 6 months so I will have to wait. I suppose I could just keep driving him with the leak :(

Mac has been broke for two months now

Well I have been to busy to get Mac fixed. He started to leak transmission fluid, and I stopped driving him because I do not want anything to break. Now I have the time, and money to get him into the doctor. The company "Green Vehicles" is no more so I am on my own. I am sure if it is just a seal that a good transmission shop will be able to find one. I stopped in at Kirkland Transmission, and they were very exited to work on him. They assured me that it would not be a problem getting the correct seal. I have had work done there before, and they are very good, and professional.
I am going to get it scheduled today and get him back on the road. Then maybe I can get back to the trailer hitch work.
The last two months I have been selling my house, buying another, and moving. Finally I have settled in, and things are almost back to normal. I do not have a carport, or garage though so I am going t o get plans drawn up for a garage, and apply for permit so Mac will have a great place to rest, and I will have a great place to work on him, and prep for building a new EV.

Hitch at the welders shop

Here are a few pics of the hitch assembly at the welders shop. It is all assembled, and just needs cleaning, and painting. It is a bit clunky looking, but it will tuck up undernieth the back and should not be too visable when not in use.

The next step will be to have it welded onto Mac, and then I have to get the wiring done.

Trailer hitch finally started

Well I finally got my design finished. I made a mockup out of wood first so I could see how it looks, and fits. I took it to the Welding shop which at first said they would do it but when I got all the pieces cut and ready to weld they changed there minds and did not want to do it.
I did find a place to do it and dropped off the pieces along with my wood mockup as a visual aid. When they get it done I will get it painted and then bring it back to have it welded to Mac.

Mockup


Cutting the pieces


Ready for welding

No more Triac's

It was sad to read the other day that Green Vehicles has closed its doors. I am surprised that they did not notify me beings I have worked closely with them during the development over the last year and a half, but I guess they had bigger things to deal with. I am sure there is going to be a lot of negative things said about the company as many people are quick to point a finger and say bad things. They had a vision and tried to make it come true. Some make it and some do not. I think they should have made different decisions along the way, but we all make our own decisions. I made the decision to buy a Triac, and I am still glad I did. It is a great little vehicle, and a joy to drive. It has had its problems along the way, but they fixed them and we moved on. I am hoping to get some info from them, but it looks unlikely I will be able to get a hold of them.
I would like to say to Green Vehicles thank you for all your support, and choosing me as one of the lucky people to purchase the Triac. I love it, and plan on keeping it for a long time. It may be difficult getting aftermarket parts for it but I will do my best to keep it on the road as long as possible.

As far as Mac goes, I am still working on the trailer hitch, and am planning on putting him in a car show next month. He is technically not a car, but people love to see him even if it is just for a good laugh.

Parking brake idea / trailer hitch update

One of the things I have not really liked is there is no park like in normal cars. I have the emergency brake, but I do not feel comfortable with it on a steep hill. The emergency brake only brakes the single wheel in the back, and the car is awful heavy for just the one wheel.
I recently heard about a device used in the racing industry called a "brake line lock" It is an electric solenoid that operates with a switch. You simply press on the brakes and press the button and it locks the brake fluid in the lines maintaining pressure. This would work on all three wheels giving me three times the holding power for a parking brake.
I have sent an e-mail to Green Vehicles to get there opinion on the idea. I think it would be a great improvement on there design with little cost for implementing. I am going to take Mac into a brake place and get an estimate for installation. I can do the wiring, and install the switch, but would rather they do the splicing and bleeding of the brake fluid.

My design for the trailer hitch is coming along fine. I am expecting the hitch tube to arrive tomorrow so I can get this moving. I have been so busy it had been moved to the back burner for a while.

Mac and I go mountain climbing

I noticed that there are two charging stations at the top of Stevens Pass so I decided to see how Mac does with mountain climbing. It is about 52 miles to the top with an elevation gain of over 4000 feet. The last 15 miles or so were very steep. I was able to maintain about 50-55MPH, but the temperature gauge was starting to go up, and the battery gauge started to plummet. I was already way past the point of turning around, and was worried that I may not make it. I arrived with no problem, and 30% of my battery Pac still left. I plugged in, and walked around for a while and enjoyed the snow, and sunshine. I was quite surprised at how well Mac handled the climb.



The trip back was a blast. I went a long way just coasting. The trip back used only 30% of my pack. I knew it would use less, but not that much less.

Figuring out the cost

I finally got around to figuring out how much it costs to charge Mac.
I drove to work and back with a little trip during lunch. I drove a total of 50 miles, and used 51% of the Pac. It took 15 Kw to charge him back up according to my kilowatt meter. With my rates that came to about $1.21 for 50 miles.
The range actually looked good as well but I still do not know where the Pac runs out. If it runs out at 10% left that is not good. One of these days I will have to run it down and see where the bottom is.

More Pics

Here are some new pictures of Mac.

I got an adapter cord so that I can charge at the new charging stations being installed. I stopped by the one at the library in Redmond for a test run. Everything worked perfectly. Now I have to come up with a way to find all the charging stations. It seems like every place selling these stations have there own maps. There needs to be a master map that shows all of them for this to really work.
Here are a couple of pics of Mac at home charging.


Here he is eating dinner


Here is his personal plate



Here are a few with the new adapter

Triac update

Well I have not posted in a long time, but I will try and do better.

Mac is doing fine, I have noticed about a 10% loss in range during the cold winter with the heater on. On the couple of warmer days we had ( mid 50's )it was back to normal. I have about 10.000 miles on him so far. I say about because I had the speedometer replaced a couple of times and I did not write down the mileage before replacing it.
I had the clutch break on me, but not the fault of the Triac. I am in the habit of stopping with the clutch out, and down shifting to 2nd (The gear I start out in). Every once in a while it does not go all the way into gear, and when I step on the accelerator the motor just spins. I quickly realize the problem, and put the clutch in and shift. The problem is I do not hear the motor spinning, and I just let the clutch out fast. Needless to say the motor is spinning very fast, and instantly engages the clutch with a bang! After doing this about 5 times one of the clutch springs broke. Green Vehicles paid to have it repaired locally, and sent a much heavier duty clutch with dual springs. Mac is much happier now.

I have almost completed my design for a trailer hitch and am getting excited to get it installed.

The weather is finally getting better here so I will try and get more pictures.

Mac returns to the falls

Since I had to go into work in Redmond I decided to go to Snoqualmie falls afterwards, and then back to Monroe. The entire trip was about 70 miles, and I used 72% of my pac.
I am not sure if my range is improving because of the warmer weather, or if the batteries are getting more cycles on them. Every thing I have read about the lithium batteries is that in the beginning the capacity actually increases before they start to loose capacity.
It was a beautifully trip, and Mac preformed wonderful.

Trip to Stanwood

I decided to go on a trip to Stanwood last weekend to visit my sister. The trip was almost all freeway, so it was a good opportunity to see how my range is at freeway speed. I was driving mostly 65-70MPH, and it is a distance of 40 miles from Monroe to Stanwood. When I arrived, I had used 45% of my battery. With 55% still left I would have no problem making it back. I plugged into her 110 outlet while I was visiting to put a little back in while I was there. I figure that one hour using 110 puts 5 miles back into the pack. If I did not plug in my battery would have run down to about 10% when I got home. It is not good to run it down that far. I try to never go less than 20% left, and I usually never get it below 50% with my normal driving.

I am still planning on taking a trip to the ocean soon. I have found an RV park that has 50 AMP service that is about at the 80 mile distance along the trip where I can plug in. It is a 160 mile trip so that is a perfect half way point within my range. I still need to find a place when I get there to plug in though.

Mac goes up Stevens Pass

I took Mac almost to the top of Stevens Pass. I turned around about 10 miles from the pass because I was down to 55% left in the Pac. I did not want to run it down to 50%. I always forget that I use way less energy on the way down than on the way up. When I got home, I had gone 80 miles, and used 70% of the Pac. I believe the hot weather is helping the range. I stopped and took this picture on the way back. There are several areas that you can just pull over, and walk down to the river and see some awesome views.

Trip to Snoqualmie Falls and North Bend

On Wednesday I took a trip up to Snoqualmie falls. After the falls I continued to the town of North Bend. I was going to try for the Pass on I-90, but I was not sure if I would make it. I drove around a little in North Bend, and back down to Carnation, and then back to Monroe. I drove just under 70 miles round trip, and still had 30% of my Pac left. Most of my trip was flat accept the last 5-7 miles was kind of steep and winding.
After getting home I wish I would have tried to make it to the top of the pass. I keep forgetting that although it may take a lot of the Pac going up hill, it usually does not use hardly any of the Pac going down (mostly coasting).
It is so amazing having Mac this long, and still not having run it long enough to see what happens when the batteries get run down. The closest I have come to 0% is 11 or 12% with no sign of change in performance. I can not say enough good things about Lithium.

MAC is bac!!!!!!

Mac is back, well he has been back since 5/20.

I have been so busy at work, and home that I have fallen behind on my blog. Mac is back, and better than ever. The acceleration from stop is much better now, and the intermittent electrical problem is fixed.
It has been such a joy to be driving Mac again.
I decided to do a range test on I-5 heading north and turn around when I got to about 60% charge left. I quickly realized that on the freeway, you can not just turn around when you want. You have to wait until the next exit. I was not familiar with that far north, and was getting a little worried that I may hit a spot that was far between exits, and it might put me over the 50% mark, but I decided to go for it anyway. The worst that could happen was if I went to far, and did not have enough to make it home I would just have to plug in and wait a while somewhere on the way home. I chickened out at the next exit and turned around.
I went from Monroe to the Stanwood exit, and back to Monroe. I drove 63 miles, and used 68% of my Pac. I was driving about 65MPH most of the time.
I am very impressed with how the lithium batteries are performing, and the state of charge meter.
I am still planning on putting a trailer hitch on him, and making a small trailer to match the design of the triac.
I allso am planning on taking him on a trip over to West Port on the washington coast. I will have to stop at an RV park along the way to recharge, and then recharge while I am at West Port as well.
RV parks have 220 30Amp outlets so charging will be good. I need to find a place at West Port that is 220. It should not be that hard to do. I just need to get to a slow point at work to take some time off.

Rain sucks on a motorcycle

Well I finally broke down and bought a gas vehicle. I would have rather used my tax refund for other things, but riding in the rain on my motorcycle just got too depressing. At least with the bad economy there were a lot of clunkers to choose from.
I am still waiting to here about Mac. I should hear something this week.

Oh Where Oh Where can my Triac be, Oh Where Oh Where can he be

Well, Still no Triac. It has been a little over 6 weeks. It really sucks being on the cutting edge. I am suppose to get an update today. I sure hope it is good news, and that he will be back soon.
My friends are starting to teas me by saying that they are keeping the car until the warranty expires.

Triac In the movie's

Well, Mac (My Triac) is down in California for some upgrades, and service. While he was down there he had the opertunity to be in a short 15 minute movie. he was used as a police car about 4 minutes into the flic. Here is the link if you want to check it out

http://futurestates.tv/episodes/pia

I sure miss him. I am hoping to get him back some time this week.