I chose this truck because of the low weight, it has a clean title and best of all it was free. As you can see from the pics, I definitely got what I paid for. I started cleaning it up a little and soon I will remove the engine, gas tank and everything required for the gasoline engine. I will retain the four speed transmission but haven't decided whether to use the clutch. I plan make the bed hinge at the back so I can put batteries between the frame rails. I already have an electric motor, a controller and most of the batteries so it shouldn't be too bad. Since this truck probably would have gone to the crusher otherwise, hopefully you won't hate on me too much.

Trying to reduce pic size so I can upload them

 

DUDE!! I wanna see this! I actually thought about the same thing a while back for one. And if you lower the truck, I want to see it in person. There are actually quite a few trucks I've seen at local shows around here that had the conversion. Lets see them pics.

 

Thank you. I was concerned about how some might view this type of conversion. The first ones were how I found it and then after I sanded off the rust and put on some primer. Notice the perfect dash pad. He had it covered with a towel. Also my $50 a set Craigslist wheels. Here goes.....

 

you are converting it to electric? that friggin sweet! i wanted to do that, but i couldnt find the info. Post up how you do it, ive got my eye on another project that could go all electric

 

THATS AWESOME! The red primer blends right into the look of the truck. My suggestion is to let the batteries in the back do their thing and squat the suspension down. Then lower it. Blocks in the back and cut coils are about the only options on the 78 and back trucks, but as long as you leave enough clearance they ride nice.

 

info on the motor?

 

oh this ought to be an awesome build. i cant wait to see it done. and your from medford, id like to see this thing in person hopefully one day. maybe at a Portland meet

 

Thank you for the kind response! I finally got the truck home yesterday. It was only about a mile away but as you know when moving a non running vehicle, it's the first foot or so that's the hardest. Couldn't get the tow vehicle very close so did a quick electric vehicle conversion to get the wheels unstuck. In other words, I hooked up a battery and used the starter to back it up. I think I will swap the 7.5" dual brush motor out of my Ninja and replace it with an identical but single brush version since it really was overkill for a motorcycle. Might have to add additional air cooling for the motor. Once I get the engine block out of the Hilux (or should I say ElectricLux) I will cut the center out of the clutch disc to build a coupler to join the electric motor to the transmission. Then I'll build an adapter plate to mount the motor to the bellhousing. I don't plan to use a clutch for shifting and I have some heavy contactors that will completely remove power from the motor in an emergency. Then hinge the bed at the rear to access the batteries between the frame rails. Somewhere in there I will need to build a larger pulse width modulated controller to handle more amps than the one I built for the Ninja but because of the modular design, that won't be too difficult or cost much more. I guess I should stop typing and start working on it huh.

 

that sounds pretty damn fun..whats the hp and tq out of one of those 7.5 dual brushs? I know its not really measured in those specs but sometimes they list them. What do you think this build will cost ya? ive wanted to do that to my work commute truck, think it would be pretty fun.

 

This dual brush 7.5" diam motor, which actually has four sets of two brushes is about the smallest you would want to run on a small pickup. Usually you try to get a 8 or 9"" dual brush that weighs about over 100 lbs just to be safe. I should be able to get away with this as long as I monitor the temperature carefully and add an external fan if necessary. This particular motor weighs about 80 lbs and was the drive on a Yale forklift. Each 1000 watts (1kw) equates to about one HP after losses so if this motor peaks at 500 amps for a short time multiplied by 72 volts then the peak HP would be about 36 kw or 36 hp. That doesn't sound like much compared to a gasoline engine but as you lug an electric motor down the torque will increase. Cruising at 55 should only take about 15 hp or 15kw or 200 amps.

 

DUDE! SWEET! I wanna see more of this as it gets done.

 

bump!

 

Just to show a little progress here's a few pics. Nothing too purty as this is a strictly diy job. After removing the gasoline engine, I drilled out the rivets that hold the center hub in the clutch. I have decided this will be a clutchless setup. After using a dial indicator to align them, I welded the clutch hub to the splined gear that fits onto the motor shaft. I did remove the part of the hub that held the clutch springs but it would have looked better if I would have removed the extra teeth from the motor gear. Would have looked better yet if I would have taken the whole adapter to a machine shop to be welded and balanced . Next you can see the new adapter sitting on the transmission input shaft. I will be cutting off the end of the shaft that normally goes into the crankshaft pilot bushing. I wanted to catch as much of the clutch splines as I could plus the extra length would interfere with the nut that fastens the adapter to the motor. Soon I plan to cut an aluminum plate that will bolt the electric motor to the bellhousing.

 

This is awesome. I am totally diggin it. Since you will already have a bunch of batteries...put it on hydros

 

Here's one with my little motor as I do a test fit on the transmission. Gave me a chance to check for movement of the motor as the shaft was turned to make sure it was true. As I mentioned, I before, I cut off the non splined part of the transmission shaft. If I would have cut off a half inch more, the motor depth would have been perfect but I wanted to retain as much of the shaft as possible. I will just need to space the motor back from the adapter plate by that amount so it's not a big deal. I also picked up 1/2" piece of aluminum plate for the bellhousing adapter. If the motor was bigger I would have used thicker plate. Too bad I have to start painting our house tomorrow. Oh well, I still need to clean the Hilux up under the hood and paint it. Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend. My son wants to take us boating on Sunday since it is supposed to be close to 80*.

 

Not factoring in any horsepower number comparisons, how would the feel of power be compared to stock? Will this seem quicker than the gas motor, or just enough to get it going? I have thought about making an electric drift car from something really light weight. Something under 2000lbs after the swap. Any websites would be helpful.

I really like this project. Keep up the work.

 

What he said, awesome project!

 

Thankyou for the encouragement! Performance in an electric can be pretty good. For instance my Ninja had pretty good acceleration considering it is carrying +300# of batteries up front. Surprisingly at 72 volts you can feel the front suspension trying to lift.
But setting up an electric car for drifting may be fairly expensive since you would probably need to use lighter lithium batteries. Lead acid would be at least four times heavier but about a one tenth the cost. Lithium would probably cost over $10k for batteries to get the power and range needed to compete. Of course you would need a pretty good size motor and controller. Here's an example of the kind of power that can be had though: http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/whitezombie.php

The pic below is my electric Ninja

 

duuuude. that guy does some badass stuff with electrics. thats what i was talkin about. lol. if i had one, id want it to be as quick as what i have now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAYrsEOxqYc

 

Making a little headway. The under hood pic was before I painted the motor