Conversion begins
Sept 02, 2007
With this tight engine compartment, it's tough to do any layout planning so the engine needs pulling to get on with the next phase.
A perfectly good 37k mile engine... about to be pulled
Randy being sucked in while attempting to remove a fuel line
Bob is disconnecting the last wires. After a few hours above and below the car,
the ICE is nearly out
The hanging item will be put on Craigslist. The other item will be transformed.
The available space is quickly sized up and it's looking good for fitting the planned EV drive system hardware
The next steps: clean up the plumbing in this compartment and begin layout planning
The original motor mounts are nicely positioned for this AC motor to take advantage.
The air conditioning compressor you see hanging on the left will be replaced with a small variable speed AC motor integrated with the compressor that will reside just left of the bell housing/motor body. It's total size is slightly smaller than the original ICE driven unit above.
Update Aug 2009
I had to install this auto hoist for the sake of the Rav4EV upgrade project.
This helps the project BMWe tremendously
Nearly the first thing I did was to yard out the old gas tank.
Yep, that is a cut through the middle. I didn't want to remove all the stuff just to pulll it out in one piece for $140 worth of tank.
