EV Conversion Warp 9 Motor Installation

71 VW Karmann Ghia EV Conversion

I installed the Netgain Warp 9 motor (WarP 9 EV Motor Electric Car Motor 72V DC Motor Netgain Motor New ECPC USA Stock from eBay) in the VW. It basically went as planned. I used a jack to slide it under the car and then removed the trunk and suspended the motor using racheting cargo straps. I had to remove part of the sheet metal in front of the trunk latch with an angle grinder to make it fit. The spindle shaft had to be cut down as well for the adapter to fit.

Spindle shaft on VW transaxle

Spindle shaft cut

Two cargo straps were used to wiggle it into position. It wouldn't fit without cutting the rear apron.

Job well done. The tail shaft did not have to be removed.

EV Conversion: Shaft coupler fixed, turned and balanced

71 VW Karmann Ghia EV Conversion

I bought a shaft coupler and adapter plate for the Warp 9 motor to mate with the VW transaxle. The coupler arrived from Wilderness EV and I mounted the clutch. Once I spun it up, I noticed a significant wobble. I sent it back to Brian at Wilderness and he said he would replace it. Instead of replacing it, his mechanic turned the face where the clutch mounts. This fixed the wobble, however, since material was preferentially removed from one side, it caused the coupler to be seriously out of balance.

Shaft coupler with the clutch removed. The face was turned.

Bad vibrations

Rather than send it back again at my expense, I took it to JTL Automotive in Keyport, NJ. They measured 41.2 g out of balance. By welding on weights to one side and shaving down the other he got it to about 4 g out of balance. It looks like garbage but there is no more vibration.

after balancing

adapter plate mounted on the motor - Be sure the plate is aligned properly (rotated) or you will have to remove it later for the installation. You don't want the wire terminals pointing down. The plate fits very tightly, needed to be impacted in place with a hammer and torqued down with the bolts.

clutch mounted again and placed on the motor

Final spin up, looks good!

Warp 9 Motor - checking of advanced timing

71 VW Karmann Ghia EV Conversion

I wanted to make sure the motor timing was properly advanced for the CCWDE use.
The Netgain manual explains how to wire for CCWDE and CWDE. Mine is wired for CCWDE which is the most common rotation. As per the wiring instructions, A1 is connected to S1 and A2 and S2 are connected to power. I use a 12 volt auto battery for bench testing. See: bench test procedure for reference.

WarP 9 EV Motor Electric Car Motor 72V DC Motor Netgain Motor New ECPC USA Stock from eBay

Bolts on the back of the motor

This shows proper alignment. I unscrewewd the bolts on the back of the motor, lifted the cover and made sure it was oriented in the CCW most position. The timing positions rotate the brushes on the commutator. If the timing is advanced it should not be run in reverse.

The markings for the timing are hard to read, they show N for Neutral, CCW, and CW. Advanced timing is used for higher voltages (96Volts or more as per Netgain) in these electric motors.

EV Conversion: More Problems with Shaft Coupler

71 VW Karmann Ghia EV Conversion

Netgain sent me the Warp 9 Motor to replace the Impluse 9. The Warp 9 is a beauty.

I am really unhappy with the progress on the shaft coupler. Brian Wilderness EV agreed to take back the original coupler due to the alignment problem which caused wobbling. See my last post for details.
Instead of sending me back a new one, he turned (resurfaced) the transmission side of the disk. This helped align the adapter, however, by preferentially removing material from one side and not the other, the disk is badly out of balance and vibrates when rotated, especially at high speed. So instead of a wobble, I now have a vibrating shaft coupler. To add insult, I had to pay return shipping on the defective part.

Here is the shaft coupler after it was turned by Wilderness EV.

This video shows the degree of vibration caused by the out of balance shaft coupler.