[DRIVING] leaf powered 1983 Subaru BRAT (dual outlander WIP)

[Bratitude]

[Bratitude]

Keying clutch sandwich

[Bratitude]

35pin amp seal connector came in, made up a little mounting bracket that holds it to the leaf board. It lines up with the outside printed bracket.

With the ampseal I can utilize all the connections to the v3 board and maintain water proofing. Plus if for what ever reason I swap back to the original leaf brain if needed.

near finalizing the switch panel/stereo

[Bratitude]

Now I’m back in full swing, things are coming together quick!

ampseal connector wired in to adapter board, mounts to the 3D printed file made for the Prius inverter. Few tweaks to make in the design, befor the fibreglass abs print.

adapter plate is done. Came out great!
Need to pick up the coupler bearing still.
then coupler gets mounted and locked in with A snap ring.

I picked up a used rotex off eBay for 40$. But it’s aluminum and a Gs28/38 ...so no dice there.

Either will find a steel gs38 then pressfit/weld the 4mt clutch center. Or get some steel plate laser cut.
With the plate method I’ll get a few made and can have a coupler for the modern awd subi tranys as well. Which will be almost a direct swap, other than a few minor mounting brackets.

[Bratitude]

motors mounts are done. Motors in!

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Picked up a second oem bms harness.
split/modded the loom to get the current sensor and power/communication set up.

next is getting the Gen2 bms to wake up and then start reading PIDs

[Bratitude]

1 half of the coupler back from the machine shop

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Full drive train assembled.

Throttle pedal mounted, heater core hole needed to be patched up. I’ll have to tackle re routing the heater core ports later.

inverter, charger and battery harness all ready. But more work to mount the battery trays.

[Bratitude]

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brackets to mount the tesla dcdc converter to the side of the motor. trying to keep weight low, and central.
not really happy with the multi piece idea currently.
I found I could change the orientation of the coolent pipes with applying blow torch to them for a few seconds. Then with some leverage, they’ll spin.

[Bratitude]

cabin battery pack is merged thanks to some very long pieces of 1/4in threaded rod.
almost done the rear/underneath box for last battery module.

finishing off a printable shrouded for the power input on the inverter.

[Bratitude]

coolent routing + charger mounts welded In place.

Space is tight! Seat and trim clears with in mm!

[janosch]

cabin battery pack is merged thanks to some very long pieces of 1/4in threaded rod.
almost done the rear/underneath box for last battery module.

finishing off a printable shrouded for the power input on the inverter.

87043D0F-AE04-4952-8220-9ADA30C8F2AD.jpeg

That 3D Printed terminal guard looks nice, are you happy to share the STL file for it?

[Bratitude]

cabin battery pack is merged thanks to some very long pieces of 1/4in threaded rod.
almost done the rear/underneath box for last battery module.

finishing off a printable shrouded for the power input on the inverter.

87043D0F-AE04-4952-8220-9ADA30C8F2AD.jpeg

That 3D Printed terminal guard looks nice, are you happy to share the STL file for it?

Cheers, I’ll post it once I have a finished design.

[janosch]

Much appreciated.

[Bratitude]

Life has been busy, but got first full fitment of batteries in. The T section of the Gen2 Chevy volt battery tray was cut off and I welded up a frame which bolts up underneath the bed of the brat.

Had to increase the rear subframe/torsion tube to a 4in lift. As in the middle of the crossmember is the torsion bar adjuster. I picked up a very rusty parts car, which came with 2 rear suspension clips. so later down the line I’ll remake the entire cross member so the torsion adjuster is out of the way, with out significant lift blocks. (Which will get linkd)

A few more brackets to make and the battery will be fully supported. Temporary ratchet strap loopd across to reduce cantilever forces...

New crossmember gives me the added bonus of increasing the trailing arms by 3-4in. just like vw baja bugs!

the other section of the battery tray was modified to bolt in to a series of points behind the the seats in the cab.

there was just enough space to make one long batter module fit here.

So that opens up space for another 3.1 kw module in the rear hanging tray. so on the hunt for a second pack

[Bratitude]

Little update:

The garage is currently full as a mini has blown its head gasket, and some parts have been on back order. Resulting in not much work in terms of wiring being done one the brat. But it’s very very close to driving.


So focus has shifted for now:
-long travel suspension. And restorations.

-picked up some Prius inverters, Ford Siemens, and Hyundai hsg motors for cheap. Various projects here. looking at doing a hybrid assist with the hsg..

-getting things set up to potentially start offering leaf motor adapter plates along side the couplers I have available.

-trying to hunt down a cheap leaf gearbox to start designing some 930 stub flanges.


And now have my eyes pealed for a 2019 + Subaru crosstrek hybrid trany, as they are quite similar to the gh450h gearbox’s.

[Bratitude]

Chevy volt gen1ibooster bolted right in, after drilling 2 holes and rearranging the booster assembly. Tight fit!

After some digging it looks like both gen1 and 2 ibooster use the same main connector, “1928405762 26-WAY BOSCH CONNECTOR” but different pressures transducer connectors.

[Isaac96]

Pressure transducer being the pedal sensor?
Let me know if you find a good source for those connectors - EVCreate has them sometimes (right now for 99 euros).

[Bratitude]

Pressure transducer being the pedal sensor?
Let me know if you find a good source for those connectors - EVCreate has them sometimes (right now for 99 euros).

yeah the pedal sensor connectors looks like they are different, based on info from lars and others around the web.

found a source for the 26 way connector: https://store.chiefenterprises.com/1928 ... -Connector

Then found this thread from diyelectriccar, looks like some folks have had success ordering from them:

https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/ ... st-1034057

the volt ibooster version has only two bolts, and uses what seems to be 9/16-16 iff brake line threads

[Bratitude]

finishing up the modifications to the rear torsion spring crossmember. The new brackets provide a additional mount point for the battery tray. And moves the crossmember 2in towards the front of the car, and 2in down. Resulting in the rear battery weight loaded onto the suspension, rather than threw the chassis.

The crossmember relocation also accommodates the longer/wider trailing arms.

[Bratitude]

after a long hunt for a reasonably priced chademo port, i found one for 95$ cad from a yard on the vancouver island.

these seem to have gone up in price in recent years, being that the leafs charge port assembly is right in front above the bumper.... any fender benders/collisions usually ruin the assembly. So they are in high demand and prices have gone up. Seems most yards do not want to sell the ports individually, so its been a pain finding one whom sell the chademo port for a sane price.

lucky my 1983 brat was a rare year, where they had a special hidden motorized 3rd headlight in the front grill



cant think of anywhere else better to retrofit the chademo port!

sadly when getting the chademo port, i was unable to get the rest of the HV wiring for it, as the labor involved in removal wasn't worth it for the yard(for the price) I’d rather not cut up and splice the chademo assembly I have. so if any one has the HV cables from the power tower to the chardemo connectors let me know, im on the hunt for one.

[vwbrady]

dang, i have a chademo port sitting in my garage i have no plans to use.

Also, sick third headlight! didn't know the Brats had those.

[Bratitude]

dang, i have a chademo port sitting in my garage i have no plans to use.

Also, sick third headlight! didn't know the Brats had those.

Dang! you on the CCS train then?
Yup Subaru was quite weird back in the day!

[vwbrady]

Dang! you on the CCS train then?
Yup Subaru was quite weird back in the day!

i actually do not plan to have any form of fast charging in my current project. it's a total proof of concept and one of those "low and slow" VWs that is not practical in any way. haha

in the future, yes it will be CCS for sure. I've been helping Damien with CAN logs and other info from my i3 to get that going and already have an i3 Chg controller on-hand.

[Bratitude]

spent on time on the lathe and whipped up some brackets for mounting the ibooster.

instead of using the volt’s master cylinder that came on the ibooster, I made an adapter for a Subaru one.
This keep the hydraulic ratios properly matched, and no custom brakelines!

That fancy machined aluminum look

Everything on the ibooster was metric m8x1.25 threads.

The pushrod from the brake pedal is m10x1.5 thread. Just used a coupling nut and threaded shaft to the brats original clevis.

I had to existent the internal pushrod(the one that pushes the master cylinder) in order to get the proper pedal-to-master cylinder engagement. I just used a 60mm m6x1.0 socket head cap screw.