[WIP] 2003 Dodge Dakota 4x4, Dual Leaf Motors

[Joshie225]

Hi everybody! I'm Josh! I live near Portland, Oregon USA and I do telecom electronics work for a living with cars as a long-term hobby. As there are no reasonably priced or sized electric trucks available in the United States I've decided to swap two Leaf motors into the "mid-sized" 2nd gen Dodge Dakota. I've been watching a lot of Damien Maguire's videos and bought a VCU kit from him.

Building blocks on hand:

• 2003 Dodge Dakota 4x4
  2017 Leaf "stack" and other components
  2021 Leaf 110kW stack and axles
  ZombieVerter VCU

Major components needed:

• Battery. There's a Chevrolet Bolt battery locally for a fair (?) price ($3300). Thoughts?
  Leaf Gen2 control board

As the Dakota is front steer, and a Leaf is rear steer I need to mount the front motor backwards to avoid having highly angled axles. Rather than change the motor phase conductors and resolver wiring, I am planning to use the Open Inverter Leaf Gen2 board to circumvent the reverse speed limit and increase the available power. Does anyone see a flaw in this part of the plan?

The ZombieVerter VCU will control the charger and DC-DC converter. The Dodge instruments appear to be CAN controlled so hopefully I can work out a speedometer and other gauges. This will be a lot to learn as CAN is not common in my industry and I have no direct experience.

Phase 1 of the build will culminate in an operational front-wheel-drive pickup with power brakes and power steering.
Later parts of the project include CHAdeMO charging and integrating the Leaf heater core and AC compressor into the Dodge HVAC system.
Phase 2 will remove the pickup box and rear axle to be replaced with a drop-side flatbed, De Dion rear suspension and a second Leaf motor.

The truck will be lowered a bit for handling and aerodynamic improvements made to increase range.

Cheers!
Josh

[robertwa]

I think the Bolt battery pack is a good choice, and at a good price. I recently picked up a Bolt pack for $3K and have the modules on my bench ready to be built into a pack. There isn't much info on people using them in conversions yet, but they are becoming more readily available. I'd look to see if it is a pack built after the recall that plagued the earlier cars.

[Bratitude]

As the Dakota is front steer, and a Leaf is rear steer I need to mount the front motor backwards to avoid having highly angled axles. Rather than change the motor phase conductors and resolver wiring, I am planning to use the Open Inverter Leaf Gen2 board to circumvent the reverse speed limit and increase the available power. Does anyone see a flaw in this part of the plan?

id keep the leaf motor in the original orientation, maybe just tilt it so it clears the steering rack.

also the zombieverter will control the replacement board over can, just select openio and thats it!

also the leaf stack ( even just motor/inverter) is quite tall, i see packaging and clearance being quite difficult for a de-dion axle in the rear.

[modellfan]

Oil pump might be a problem, when running backwards. I think nissan just throws the oil arround the housing. Not sure if it will work backwards. Also the gears and the bearing are propably designed for running more forward then backward

[Joshie225]

I think the Bolt battery pack is a good choice, and at a good price. I recently picked up a Bolt pack for $3K and have the modules on my bench ready to be built into a pack. There isn't much info on people using them in conversions yet, but they are becoming more readily available. I'd look to see if it is a pack built after the recall that plagued the earlier cars.

The Bolt sub-modules look relatively easy to work with as opposed to Tesla Model 3/Y assemblies. Do you happen to know how to tell a newer Bolt pack from the recalled ones? Part number or serial number break?

[Joshie225]

id keep the leaf motor in the original orientation, maybe just tilt it so it clears the steering rack.

also the zombieverter will control the replacement board over can, just select openio and thats it!

also the leaf stack ( even just motor/inverter) is quite tall, i see packaging and clearance being quite difficult for a de-dion axle in the rear.

I would have to tilt the motor quite a lot to clear the steering rack. Reversing it appears to solve the axle alignment problem. I'll hang the stack from the hoist, roll it into the Dodge engine/motor bay and take pictures.

Will the ZombieVerter control both inverters over CAN? Would they both be happy on the same CAN bus?

Yes, the Leaf stack is big. It's larger(?) than a 2.5l DOHC 4 cylinder. I won't need a rear PDU, but I might be able to take advantage of a second charger in certain circumstances. The PDU will come off the rear motor and if necessary the inverter will be relocated. I shopped for an EM61 motor to make inverter relocation easier, but thIS 2021 stack presented itself at a price I couldn't resist.

[Joshie225]

Oil pump might be a problem, when running backwards. I think nissan just throws the oil arround the housing. Not sure if it will work backwards. Also the gears and the bearing are propably designed for running more forward then backward

I have seen photos of a couple of Leaf gearboxes torn down and not seen an oil pump. I have seen one with open bearings and another with sealed (clean) bearings. Isak Söderlund of Resolve EV runs the motor in his Porsche 924 backwards, but I will take a second look at the gearbox teardown pictures to see if Nissan is channeling the splash onto gears or bearings. I'm not worried about reverse torque as these regen regularly. We know the thing will run backwards, the only question for me is how long?

[robertwa]

The Bolt sub-modules look relatively easy to work with as opposed to Tesla Model 3/Y assemblies. Do you happen to know how to tell a newer Bolt pack from the recalled ones? Part number or serial number break?

Lot's of info here:
https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/how-t ... led.39333/

If you know the VIN of the car it came from, it is a lot easier as there is a VIN look-up form on the Chevy site that will tell you what it has

[Joshie225]

Lot's of info here:
https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/how-t ... led.39333/

If you know the VIN of the car it came from, it is a lot easier as there is a VIN look-up form on the Chevy site that will tell you what it has

Thanks! The battery I see available locally is from a 2020 MY Bolt and has a part number newer than those in the recall.

[J0hannes]

look at the gearbox teardown pictures to see if Nissan is channeling the splash onto gears or bearings.

Nissan most definitely is doing the splash lubrication magic here.


This is a cut case, but you can see the cavity which collects and sprays oil onto the middle shaft and lubes the first gear pair of the reduction gear set. The other case half also has the cavity feature.

Looking at the image, when output gear rotates counter clockwise and throws the oil to the collection cavity, the middle shaft rotates clockwise and it throws the oil up and left. That's why you have that roof over the input shaft.

Yes, there is a probability that it will be somewhat ok when operated in reverse, but accept that you will have seriously degraded lubrication. Adding an external pump will not help much as the case is designed for oil circulation by gears and attempting to turn that flow is not really a sensible thing to do.

[Joshie225]

Nissan most definitely is doing the splash lubrication magic here.
<snip>

Yes, there is a probability that it will be somewhat ok when operated in reverse, but accept that you will have seriously degraded lubrication. Adding an external pump will not help much as the case is designed for oil circulation by gears and attempting to turn that flow is not really a sensible thing to do.

Thank you for the picture and analysis. The differential gear is bathed in oil and should hold/carry enough oil to protect itself and its mate. I do wonder about the first reduction gears, but the fill hole and lubricant level are pretty high and it appears that the large intermediate gear may also be bathed in oil. That gear spins pretty fast so it's hard to know what's going on dynamically, but it may end up slightly starved. Maybe if Isak tears down his gearbox, or pulls the magnetic drain plug, we can see what happens in the real world. Maybe I email to ask.

I finally got the front differential and axles out of the Dakota so I'm ready to hang the Leaf stack from the hoist and see if we can't fit the motor the way Nissan intended. Once it stops raining. This is a hobby after all and not a punishment.