Freelander 1 Freelander EV

Nodge68 said:

Wow, that's quick Ali. I'll be interested to see what arrives.

Once it's home, the real fun can start!

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I've been watching for one for a while including damaged cars in Copart. I think buyer beware in Copart as the last car I saw sold for over £3.5k without a battery. I doubt the buyer realised the battery was missing though as it had lots of panels and two doors missing so wasn't worth that much without a battery.
Just don't expect too much too soon from me as I tend to be slow at my projects. As I get older I suspect I'll get slower.

So it looks like this nonsense has moved on a notch.



This is a 2011 Nissan Leaf which is complete and undamaged apart from the HV battery being removed. I was able to purchase and have it delivered for just over £1400 so a complete car for less than breakers are asking for the motor and drive train. This gives me most of what I need to move on the the next stage.
It is a shame to strip a perfectly good car but it's 9 years old so the cost of replacing the battery would be more than it's worth, also a lot of the display comes up in Japanese as it was imported in to the Republic of Ireland before I imported it into the UK.

So the plan (subject to change) is as follows and not necessarily in this order.
Strip everything I need from the Leaf.
Sell whatever is left.
Figure out how to drive the leaf motor, probably with a circuit board from Openinverter.org.
Remove engine and gearbox from Freelander along with fuel tank, exhaust and all other ICE related bits.
Couple the motor to the Freelander gearbox.
Source a suitable battery pack
Throw all the bits at the Freelander and hope some of them stick.
Drive away with smug grin.

Simples.

Interesting project. I have a similar project though am planning to use Tesla parts.
Following and will definitely compare notes.

Shared my project here

Alibro said:

So it looks like this nonsense has moved on a notch.

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This is a 2011 Nissan Leaf which is complete and undamaged apart from the HV battery being removed. I was able to purchase and have it delivered for just over £1400 so a complete car for less than breakers are asking for the motor and drive train. This gives me most of what I need to move on the the next stage.
It is a shame to strip a perfectly good car but it's 9 years old so the cost of replacing the battery would be more than it's worth, also a lot of the display comes up in Japanese as it was imported in to the Republic of Ireland before I imported it into the UK.

So the plan (subject to change) is as follows and not necessarily in this order.
Strip everything I need from the Leaf.
Sell whatever is left.
Figure out how to drive the leaf motor, probably with a circuit board from Openinverter.org.
Remove engine and gearbox from Freelander along with fuel tank, exhaust and all other ICE related bits.
Couple the motor to the Freelander gearbox.
Source a suitable battery pack
Throw all the bits at the Freelander and hope some of them stick.
Drive away with smug grin.

Simples.

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Good to see you making a start now Ali.

I think you're spot on on your sequence of events too.

It makes sense to strip what you need from the Leaf, and sell on what you can't use. This will both clear up space, and recoup a decent amount off the purchase price of the car.

Have you made any more progress on the Ipack? I'm waiting for the next video update.

Nodge68 said:

Good to see you making a start now Ali.

I think you're spot on on your sequence of events too.

It makes sense to strip what you need from the Leaf, and sell on what you can't use. This will both clear up space, and recoup a decent amount off the purchase price of the car.

Have you made any more progress on the Ipack? I'm waiting for the next video update.

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I haven't spent any more time on it as I think I have everything figured out that I need to.
No doubt that will return to bite me on the bum but for now will concentrate on stripping the Leaf.

I made a start last night and did another hour tonight.



This was only three or four hours work although getting the bumper off was a right pain.
I always knew having a full car would be better than buying the motor etc alone but hadn't thought of things like coolant pipes and pump, nuts, bolts, connectors etc.

Alibro said:

I made a start last night and did another hour tonight

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Good to see you cracking on with it Ali.

Alibro said:

This was only three or four hours work although getting the bumper off was a right pain.

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It's funny that front bumpers are always a pain, regardless of the vehicle make.

Alibro said:

I always knew having a full car would be better than buying the motor etc alone but hadn't thought of things like coolant pipes and pump, nuts, bolts, connectors etc.

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Absolutely. You'll get loads more from the FL1 too, so you should be fine for hoses, clips and fittings to make up whatever you need for the conversion.

I had today off work so spent a few more hours stripping down during the day and again this evening.



This is a Gen1 Nissan Leaf so the motor and Inverter are mounted separately with a large cable between them (Gen2's have the motor and inverter bolted together). At first I thought I could just unplug them but now I think maybe the cables go into both units and are secured using bolts. This means I have to remove the motor and Inverter together as there is no easy way to get access to either. I don't think that is an issue though as I have most of the electrical connections and hoses out of the way now.
I also managed to get the drive shafts out of the transmission, this car was a Japanese import and it's a real pleasure working on a car with so little rust. I'm hoping it will only take an hour or so to hoist motor, transmission and inverter out together tomorrow. I may even try and drop the subframe with them still bolted to it but I'll decide which way to go tomorrow.
I'm not sure why but it looks like the car had two coolant circuits, however I didn't spend any time trying to figure out why or what went where. I caught as much as I could and have a 5 litre container full of Nissan Leaf coolant. The only issue is I think the two coolants were different, one seemed thicker than the other but they're now mixed. When I reassemble the motor etc I'll make sure to use the correct fluids but that could be several months from now,

Alibro said:

I'm not sure why but it looks like the car had two coolant circuits, however I didn't spend any time trying to figure out why or what went where. I caught as much as I could and have a 5 litre container full of Nissan Leaf coolant. The only issue is I think the two coolants were different, one seemed thicker than the other but they're now mixed. When I reassemble the motor etc I'll make sure to use the correct fluids but that could be several months from now,

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It might pay to get the service/maintenance manual for the Leaf Ali.

It seems strange having two different coolant circuits, maybe one is heating for the cabin? The other being for motor/inverter cooling?

Looks like your making good progress though.

I'd be tempted to keep the motor/transmission on the sub-frame for the time being, as it might help with measuring mounting points for the motor, when you move it to the FL1 sub-frame.

Nodge68 said:

It might pay to get the service/maintenance manual for the Leaf Ali.

It seems strange having two different coolant circuits, maybe one is heating for the cabin? The other being for motor/inverter cooling?

Looks like your making good progress though.

I'd be tempted to keep the motor/transmission on the sub-frame for the time being, as it might help with measuring mounting points for the motor, when you move it to the FL1 sub-frame.

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I was thinking the exact same about both things, I want to make sure I use the correct coolant for the motor and inverter but I'll worry about that later.
Now I have the drive shafts out of the transmission I'll see if I can lower the subframe, even if I just loosen the bolts I'll be able to see what all is moving and if it's possible.
On a different subject, last Sunday I took the solar panels off my shed as they were being shaded in the afternoons by a hedge. I then spent a couple of hours making a wedge shaped frame to mount them. It was all nicely screwed and glued so I could remount them on Monday. Of course you know what happened next, since then we have had rain every day.
This morning was dry so I got it mounted and connected hoping to see some charging action and yip, it's raining again.
Is there some kind of law that states it must rain immediately after putting up solar panels?
Oh well, back to the garage.

Alibro said:

I was thinking the exact same about both things, I want to make sure I use the correct coolant for the motor and inverter but I'll worry about that later.
Now I have the drive shafts out of the transmission I'll see if I can lower the subframe, even if I just loosen the bolts I'll be able to see what all is moving and if it's possible.

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That sounds like a plan to me.

Have you thought about cabin heating? It occurred to me the other evening, that you could use a FL1 FBH as a supplementary heat source for the heating when it's really cold out. The advantage of using the FBH, is you could actually use it to preheat the cabin before setting of on the journey, and it makes quite a good amount of heat, with very little diesel being burnt. Obviously the only drawback is it still needs fossil fuel, but it'll use a lot less than the engine would, about 1 litre per hour or so IIRC.

Alibro said:

On a different subject, last Sunday I took the solar panels off my shed as they were being shaded in the afternoons by a hedge. I then spent a couple of hours making a wedge shaped frame to mount them. It was all nicely screwed and glued so I could remount them on Monday. Of course you know what happened next, since then we have had rain every day.
This morning was dry so I got it mounted and connected hoping to see some charging action and yip, it's raining again.
Is there some kind of law that states it must rain immediately after putting up solar panels?

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That's just sods law at work Ali. It's dry and sunny here today, so I'm taking the opportunity to charge my solar accumulator, which was getting rather low.

Alibro said:

Oh well, back to the garage.

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Absolutely. Much like me with my FL2 engine rebuild.

Got a bit more done.



Of course while I was taking this photo I didn't realise the transmission oil was pouring out.

Ooops!!





It turned out I was being stupid about the connections going to the inverter and they were simple to disconnect. By removing a cover plate on the side of the inverter I was able to get to the bolts that held the three phase cables and remove them. After that the subframe came out fairly easily.

As for heating my F1 doesn't have FBH but if I replace it with one that does then I might go that way. I'd much rather use the battery if I can but sometimes you have to compromise.

I only came across this today but having watched the first video he put up I intend to spend some time reading what he has to say and watching more.
The Leaf he is using is the same as mine and in the first video he goes through each module and system in the Leaf explaining what they are and do. This is really interesting stuff.
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/re-using-complete-leaf-drive-system-w-vcm.151458/

Latest update video plus a couple I forgot to mention earlier.

Now, if I put my foot on this throttle... something should happen... ahh nothing happened.

You got there though. Well done

Great stuff, thanks for taking the extra time to record the details, much appreciated and educational!!

I would be concerned about the play in the drive splines though. Each time it takes up drive this will increase as the splines get deformed under load.

andyfreelandy said:

Great stuff, thanks for taking the extra time to record the details, much appreciated and educational!!

I would be concerned about the play in the drive splines though. Each time it takes up drive this will increase as the splines get deformed under load.

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I have a cunning plan.
Two clutch discs welded together slightly out of sync to take up the slack.

You're gonna need some real bad boy Scotchloks for those big orange wires!

Avocet1 said:

You're gonna need some real bad boy Scotchloks for those big orange wires!

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Nah, twist 'em together and wrap 'em in leccy tape.
What could go wrong?

GrumpyGel said:

Now, if I put my foot on this throttle... something should happen... ahh nothing happened.

You got there though. Well done

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Thanks mate, it wasn't a surprise TBH but still a bit disappointed. I had a few things to sort out which took a couple of days but with the magic of video it looked like only a few minutes.