This is where it begins. September 13th 2008 I drove to Hollywood FL to purchase the donor vehicle for this most important project. 1996 Ford Ranger manual transmission.

The goal is not just to build an electric car but build one that can have the range of our current vehicles and never rely on gasoline again. Follow my adventure by checking back on this site frequently.

Shortly after purchasing the donor vehicle above I was able to place the order for my kit. After reading several posts over the last nine months on the internet I have found that the AC kit from Electro Automotive would be the best kit for my needs. I work 45 miles from my home so a round trip is 90 miles. My company is talking about adding outlets in the parking lot for employees to use but I want to make sure I can cover the round trip plus, just in case.

The AC system has built in regenerative braking and is smoother on the transmission. It also uses less current than a DC system and should allow the batteries to last longer. All will be tested and published on this site.

Also purchased was a tent from Shelters of America. I live in the Florida Keys and so the car will be modified in the Keys. Tent should arrive September 23rd and more pictures will follow.

The Shed is up with a little help from my friends! The first of many components has also arrived. The step by step guide to converting a gas guzzler to electric. Convert It by Michael Brown available from Electro Auto. Next step is to read the book and prepare the car for the removal of the engine. It is suggested that I purchase the Dealer Service Manuals for my donor and I am in search of those now. Removing the engine and the transmission together will make it easier to connect the new AC motor.

In order to receive the adaptor plate Electro has asked that I send a rubbing of the transmission bell housing. I will attempt this once the engine is removed.

October 11 2008, received an e-mail that my motor was being shipped and the controller was not too far behind. Mike stopped by and we worked on the tent, adding a roll up door and vents in the top.

We removed the plastic truck bed that will be replaced by a coating sprayed on after the truck is complete. This was done to expose the 6 bolts holding the bed. In order to use the space under the bed as a battery box I will need to install hinges. First I need to find a star bit big enough to remove the bolts.

We added lights to the tent so I can work out there at night now. Need to start cleaning the cables in the engine so they can be labeled for removal. My neighbor is a hot rod builder so he offered to help me remove the engine. He also has the cherry picker to pull it out.

The key chain is designed and cut.

The motor has arrived. A few days earlier than expected. This was only a problem for my wife who had to wake up at 7:30am to a tracker trailer in our front yard.  Good thing to have also is a hand truck to move the motor when you get home. The freight company will drop it in your yard and that is about it. The motor alone weighs 220 pounds.

October 19, 2008. I finally began the disassembly of the engine components. Against everything I beleive in when it comes to something working I have now made it not work. It is however on its journey to becoming cleaner, faster and more powerful than before. This photo is where the air intake used to be. The battery was removed first and now the fluids are being drained from the radiator.

The book on Electro’s web site suggest labeling things as you remove them. I have labeled the connectors of everything I removed using a hand held label machine that I keep in the tent just for this project. This photo shows the radiator removed and the battery compartment empty. I also removed the back half of the exhaust system. Next is to remove the oil and gasoline before pulling out the engine. Hopefully very soon.

This falls under watch what you wish for it might come true. I noticed my neighbor outside in his yard around 11:00am today October 20, 2008. I went over to ask him to look at my engine to tell me what he thought I needed to disconnect before I removed it. 5 hours later the engine was out!! Two showers and a half gallon of orange hand cleaner and I still can’t get 12 year old grease off of my hands. More pictures in the photos section. Now the bell housing rub...tomorrow.....

I started today with the goal to remove the gasoline and the tank. My neighbor stopped by and told me it was easier to remove the gas if the bed was off since the gas tank has a bladder keeping me from removing the gas. Once the bed is off I can remove the pipe feeding the tank and take the gas out that way. More picks in the Photos section!!!

Back from a few weekends off to finish the tile in my house. Thanks Bry! I removed the gas tank and exhaust. After which I fabricated hinges for the bed. I used a heavy duty lock hasp for an outdoor shed. The 1/2” slot for the lock loop to go through created a way to adjust the bed to get it back in the right place. I used a 3/16” piece of steel to extend the top of the hinge. Now I can weld the steel to the hinge and the bottom of the hinge to the frame.

So after getting the truck bed to work on hinges the way I wanted I had to take everything apart!?!?! The steel and hinges are new metal and needed to be painted in order to prevent rust. A friend of mine told me about POR-15. A permanent solution to rust. Not only do they have what I need for the frame but they also carry a bed liner material I will probably use. The three steps were simple but most of the time was in waiting for the metal to dry between each step. There is a degreaser, metal prep, and the paint itself. Takes about 3 to 4 hours before the first coat is dry and they recommend 2 coats.

I purchased starter kits from POR-15 just to see if I would like it. I used what was left to put a first coat on the rest of the frame up to the cab. I placed a 5/8 bolt in the frame and stacked washers on top of the nut to adjust the height of the bed. I’ll probably use hockey pucks as spacers and to keep the bed from rattling as I drive.

Removed the overflow bottle for the radiator to make more room under the hood. Also removed the AC coil to the right of the windshield washer fluid. It appears I will have direct access to the duct work from here for my new AC unit. Also removed the engine computer mounted in the empty slot above the AC coil box.

Moved to the inside of the cab and removed the 10 Disc CD changer and all the wires left inside the dash. Also removed the front panels of the dash and the gauges. I have to figure out how I want to use the box and cables left over. I may recycle the speedometer but remove everything else.

Here it is January 6th 2009. I have been working on the truck but mostly waiting for parts. The last two pieces of the puzzle are the power steering kit and adaptor plate for the motor. I am unable to mount anything until I get the motor in and for that I need the adaptor. The frame in the engine compartment is painted and the new motor mounts are in.

I also completed the custom instrument panel. I took a picture of the old plastic box and created a wooden replica and mounted my meters. I used a picture of my truck to create the turn signals. The wording I etched in reverse and filled the inlay with silver and then black paint to hide the words until lit. Now I need to make the custom cable to attach it to the truck’s wire harness.

The adaptor arrived and was well worth the wait. This had to fit specific to my truck so it took from September until now January 30th to receive. Having the pieces in my hand made reading the instructions in the Convert IT manual much easier to understand. The round ring bolts to the motor. The bell housing ring bolts to the round ring. The tapered key slides onto the motor shaft and the hub slides over the key to lock it to the shaft.

So the morning started off great. I got the motor out of its box and on the horses. Mounted the ring and plate and everything was going smooth until I got to the flywheel. I held it in place three different ways and the bolts would not line up. I found out with a few phone calls to Electro that I needed to fit the hub to the flywheel on the bench first and mark the hub. It only fits one way. Now the clutch and flywheel are attached the to motor,next trying to squeeze it into the frame!!

The motor is IN!!! Many modifications later the motor finally makes it. What is the top of the motor now was actually the bottom. The top eyelet was cut off to avoid hitting the bottom cross member and the motor mounts had to be removed so the motor would go in straight. The passenger side motor mount would have hit the electric cable and the driver side would have hit the side of the motor. Now on to fabricating the new motor mount brackets.

Motor mounts are finished and the only things supporting the new electric motor. Thanks Frank! Purchased the Star Board to mount above the motor that will hold the components. Frank has already started making the plates that will bolt to the frame and then weld to the legs to hold the Star Board. I tested the electrical system today to make sure my turn signals and gauges still worked without the computer. All is well so far.

No guts no glory. Finally cut and soldered all the wires for the new instrument panel. I chose white lights for the background on all the meters. They each came with a choice of red, green or white. I thought white would go with any color I chose for the new radio.

Installed and functioning. I will make a video of the lights working but I wanted to publish the pictures tonight. I had to add spacers behind the panel and use longer screws because the new speedometer is much deeper than the old. I could not believe how nice the bezel fit even with the additional spacers. I will need to come up with a fill piece for the bottom as there was glass here with the old panel.

Finally figured out how to make the bed work with gas springs. I found a web site that sells every size gas spring you can think of. I used a 24.5” 150lb spring on each side. I added a 1” steel bar between the hinges to mount the brackets. Now that it is place I can weld the brackets to the hinges and remove the bar for paint.

Installed the AC inlet that came with the kit from Electro. Used the first photo I took of the empty gas door and laser cut the cherry to fit. Then I used the measurements that came with the inlet and cut the holes in the wood. The is a 220V 15A plug. Now I need to run 10/3 yellow wire in the bed and up to the cab for the charger.

After installing the inlet above rated at 15A I found out the charger I am going to use draws 30A. I found a panel mount inlet from Northern Tool and designed a bracket to hold it.  I used 10/3 yellow  cord from Lowe’s and ran it above the wheel along the bed. More pics of that in the Photos section.

Since I’ll be charging her at a nuclear power plant I thought I would have a little fun with the cap. The cap is actually cut to fit around the prongs in the inlet and has magnets inside to hold it on the door while charging.

The new AC is installed. I cut away the plastic to face the unit toward the front. This will give me more room over the motor for components. The only problem I have now is the vents are stuck on defrost because there is no vacuum. I wrote to Electro to see if I can tap into the vacuum I am installing for the brakes.

Mounting of the power steering pump is complete. Need to pick up 8AWG wire since it draws 50A when turning the wheel while parked. NAPA solved about 5 of my problems with one visit. One of them was the high pressure hose for the power steering. They had the female crimp end to match the pump and they made it on the spot.

The star board is cut and I have the controller just sitting in its place. Now to think about all the components that need to be mounted in here.

All Components for the starboard are mounted and the wiring has begun. Batteries are ordered and should be here this week!! I need to make a few modifications to the frame and finish the rear battery boxes. Had to remove the wires that ran through the old computer compartment. They were blocking the vents from working correctly.

The batteries have arrived! They are  the exact size that Jim Ramos from American Battery said they would be. This is important because all I had to work with was a wooden jig my neighbor Frank built, based on Jim’s dimensions, to fabricate the front battery boxes. Now the FUN begins!!!

Started the prep for the battery installation. Frank and I decided that the racking would not work and that we need to build steel frames for the batteries. Picking up steel tomorrow after work!?!?! Chopped out one of the cross members that was there just to hold the old gas tank. Looking to try and double stack the batteries over the rear. Should be OK as long as we stay above the differential. Did a lot of wiring up front more pics in the Photos section.

Frank came to me Sunday with a concern about stacking the batteries. He thought it would be too much weight on the axel. Probably ruin the bearings and may break the axel. Decided to put the batteries in the bed, This way the weight is centered between the axels. I am going to leave the hinges and gas springs because once the ultra capacitors are out for the general public I’ll put those under the bed in place of the batteries. So I finished the bed paint tonight and by Sunday I can put the batteries back there. I also decided to use some of the space under the bed for the charger and my spare tire.

The battery pack is wired and installed. A few sparks and 330 volts showed up at the input of the controller. A very exciting moment as I installed the original 12v battery for the accessories. No sparks so I grabbed the key and got inside. Turned her on and the normal lights showed up for seat belt and parking brake. The volt meter for the pack pegged over 300 volts all is good... Then I tried to move her. I placed the car in first gear and pressed the gas pedal. Nothing. I pressed harder. Nothing. I floored it and the car jumped backwards. Long story short the car moves forward in reverse and backwards in first gear. Also found out you need to ride the clutch just like an IC engine. E-mail out to Electro to find out if it is just a configuration issue with the controller or not!?!?!?!? In a DC configuration the wires are reversed on the motor if this happens. I have an AC motor. Almost there....

IT’S ALIVE!

No picture updates but got word back from Electro that I needed to change one parameter on the controller. EE2ShaftDirection was set to 1.0 and needed to be -1.0.

NICE! She moves forward in first gear. Took Lisa for a ride for the first time tonight. Didn’t take the video recorder, yet... I now know what the EV Grin is all about!!!

Testing...Testing...and more testing. After getting the motor to spin the proper direction I ran into two problems. 1. The speedometer did not work and 2. The charger keeps erring out but also placing a very high voltage on the pack. 15 minutes and the pack went up to 370V. The error is audible and the LED flashes RED which means I have a non conforming battery pack or missing pack. I have checked all the wiring to make sure I didn’t wire the AC wrong and Electro has asked for my battery layout diagram. Waiting to hear back from them...

The speedo is a better story. Turns out there is a harness on the old ICE that carried many signals up to the on-board computer. I am not using the computer anymore but the harness also carried the reverse switch and speed sensor. Removed the whole harness from the engine. Pulled just the wires I was going to need so I could make a 6’ cable 2’ and BAM I have movement on the speedometer. So tonight I was able to calibrate the speedo by driving 2 miles and then 2 miles back. Pack dropped to 275 the entire time and I could barely hit 45 mph in 3rd gear. Still waiting on the charger...

Electro got back to me on the charger and said that it was acting like it should for the first time being used. So I went for it and Thursday night plugged her in for 3.5 hours. It looked like it was going to rain and I still needed to water proof the charger so I unplugged her and took her for a spin. I went out to route 1 where I had calibrated the speedo the night before and could only hit 45 mph. There was a car behind me which means more pressure to catch 1st gear and I was off. I hit 45 mph in 3rd gear in just a little more time then it takes for the Mustang to hit it. Then I shifted her to 4th and cruised up to 55 mph where she ran drawing only 25 amps. NICE! I charged her up Friday and took her for the longest ride this morning. I needed a hair cut so I was able to get a 16 mile round trip out of her and the pack hasn’t moved. Working on interior stuff this weekend and working with my company to get the chargers installed at work. Check out the truck and many others on EVALBUM.

Took her for the longest ride yet. 40.5 miles round trip. I charged her last night for the first time all night. When I came out in the morning the charger was off and no breakers had tripped. I parked her in the tent all day while I was at work and drove her when I came home. I went 20.2 miles from the house to Anne’s beach here in the keys. More shots of the beach in the photos section. Drove her 20.3 miles back watching the battery pack drop lower and lower as I tried to accelerate, The lowest she hit was 280V on my pack meter but she always bounced up over 300V when I let up on the pedal and I was always doing the speed limit or more. I am going to drive this same trip a few more times to see if the batteries get better. I need 45 miles to get to work.

Since Father’s day weekend I was trying to find a wobble while the truck was moving. Turned out to be a bad tire but I found in the interim my transmission mount was shot. Something to check when you have everything out. There should be rubber in the middle of the metal!?!? She has new tires now but I want to change the front brakes before I go on any more long runs. She has over 150 miles to date.

Took her close to work this past week. Ran into one problem. The controller shut off on me at 45mph on a road we call the stretch. I have sent logs of the controller to Electro for review. I think I have a setting too sensitive.

I took her to her first car show this weekend. people were very interested and I never answered so many questions at one time. Waiting for the results of the log files before driving her to work again...

!!!FINALLY!!!

Electro wrote back and gave me the setting to change on the controller. EE2DisabledChargeError needs to go from 1.0 to 0.0. Once I made this change the truck drives like a dream. No more feathering the clutch to move her. I can put her in 2nd gear take my foot off of the clutch and press the throttle and away we go. I took her to work and let some of the guys drive her in a parking lot near work. Still no outlet at the plant but hopefully soon...

It’s December 15th 2009. I have started this project over a year ago and I have made it to work for the first time today. October and November brought on a new problem that took replacing the 12v battery in order to remedy. Looking back it is probably a good idea to replace the original accessory battery to guarantee the battery is charging. The problem I had was the controller would fault and the truck would make a loud noise like the transmission was going to fall off and then no power. The fault name was Current_Calib_Fault. I did the ground dance checking all my connections with no luck. It seemed to happen when the truck was slowing down using regen braking. With Electro’s advice I replaced the 12v accessory battery and no trouble so far.

Here is a shot of her at work. FPL has set aside 4 parking places for electric vehicles. We have 1200 people working at the plant. I would love to see the parking lot filled with EVs!!!