Assembly of the transmission adapter to motor was straight forward with bolts, and washers provided.
The collar provided is well made and “presses on” the motor shaft with a woodruff key to lock it in place. Allen head set screws are used to help secure the installation.
The flywheel which has been resurfaced at the local machine shop bolts to the collar with the bolts from the engine installation.
The clutch and pressure plate bolt to the flywheel just like in a standard engine to transmission interface. Use of a clutch alignment tool keeps things straight.
With the motor and clutch assembly together, an engine hoist was used to lift it in to the engine compartment. The Hood was removed and the motor assembly fit nicely in to the compartment with little worry about hitting anything.
Installation required an engine hoist and a few helpers came in handy. Everything lined up well .
Engine mounts are next and the electrical components: controller, contactor, cables, fuse, etc.
After seeing how well the motor lined up with the cross frame member, I got the idea to build simple angle bracket mounts which bolt to the frame cross member and the motor lifting holes. I made a model with light stell plate and had a machinist cut and bend the brackets.
The transferring of the other components from the test board to the truck went well. I mounted the controller in the front of the engine compartment where the radiator had been.
I made mounting rails from angle aluminum and screwed the controller with fans onto it. I found some cooling fans at Radio Shack that had some fancy blue lights.
I mounted the contactor on the firewall along with a relay which is switched by the keyswitch and energizes the contactor. The fuse is mounted on the truckbed front side near the batteries. I ran conduit from the truck bed to the engine compartment with the 2/0 cables to bring battery power to the engine compartment.
The batteries are a little bit of a mixture of surplus 125 Amp Hour deep cycle used batteries and new sears 27M 105 Amp Hour marine batteries. They have a couple of terminal styles that I had to adapt to in order to hook everything up. Here’s what they look like with the initial set of 12 – 12 volt batteries:
I mounted the Manzanilla main battery charger in the passenger compartment behind the drivers seat. I removed the drivers side jump seat which let a nice opening that just fit the charger. I installed a breaker panel with an duplex outlet and connected the charger to it. I ran conduit to the gas fill door and put a connector on the end of the cable for charging. I also mounted an Iota 12 volt charger for the accessory battery.
A battery cover was constructed using a hurricane window protection sheet called Storm Busters Clearview (www.storm-busters.com). The plexiglass-like 4′ x 8′ sheet is light weight and strong. It is also easily cut and shaped, sanded and drilled. I used aluminum channels to make a grove to slide in the top cover then made a rear door with a hasp and lock on the bed floor and a aluminum channel strip in the underside of the top to hold the rear door at the top. I used door bolts underneath the top mounted on the bed top rails to lock the top in place. Finally I made side panels on either side of the rear door to fill the space. I put circulation fans on each side blowing in on one side and out on the other. These right now are each driven from a different battery in the main stack and controlled by a switch on the rear side panel. It is not thief-proof but at least it will make battery theft more difficult and provide some rain prrotection.
