1972 Plymouth Satellite Tesla LDU Swap

[MrMoparMan]

I am currently underway with my Tesla Swap. Thanks for all of the knowledge passed along so far, I hope I can add to it eventually.

Large Sport Drive Unit and subclip with 100kWh Tesla Battery Pack.

[Bentto]

The pictures are not showing for me (preferably upload them to the forum, that way they will remain visible and not run the risk of some hosting provider to change its policies in the future).

I checked some of the pics of facebook and this looks like an awesome build! Going to look into it tonight more thoroughly.

[MrMoparMan]

Thanks for the input, I think I fixed the pictures.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Damn that fits really nicely

[57 Chevy]

What wheels are you going to fit? The choices are somewhat limited by the metric lug pattern but it does appear acceptable to modify Chevy pattern to metric by shifting the conical faces by 0.3mm. Also it looks like there isn't much clearance to the bodywork at the back, will you have to run offset rims to compensate?

[xp677]

Lovely welds. Quality of work looks great. I look forward to seeing more!

[MrMoparMan]

Damn that fits really nicely

Yeah it does, better than I hoped.

What wheels are you going to fit? The choices are somewhat limited by the metric lug pattern but it does appear acceptable to modify Chevy pattern to metric by shifting the conical faces by 0.3mm. Also it looks like there isn't much clearance to the bodywork at the back, will you have to run offset rims to compensate?

Yes they are limited...I am initially going to try some off the shelf 120.65 wheels that are 20x10 and 8.45 back space +75mm offset. Those measurements will fit great assuming I can make the bolt pattern work out. Plan B will be to custom order wheels.

Lovely welds. Quality of work looks great. I look forward to seeing more!

Thanks, I'll try to keep the updates coming.

[57 Chevy]

Yes they are limited...I am initially going to try some off the shelf 120.65 wheels that are 20x10 and 8.45 back space +75mm offset. Those measurements will fit great assuming I can make the bolt pattern work out. Plan B will be to custom order wheels.

The hubs can't be easily redrilled to another pattern so I'm making a tool which will pilot over the stud and cuts the Chevy lugnut seat to the metric PCD, kind of like a valve seat cutter. There are 'wobble nuts" available which fix this issue but I cant find them in 14mm. Also make sure you can actually get the wheels on and off the car. On my project it is a big problem as the suspension even on standard cars doesn't drop enough to get much more than stock width tires out of the wheelwells.

What are you doing for springs/struts? The Tesla rear air struts are massive, I'm looking at putting front struts in the back as they are considerably shorter. Large Audi suspension is quite similar to Tesla but has low profile airbags, I'd guess they pinched some German engineers to design this setup.

[MrMoparMan]

The hubs can't be easily redrilled to another pattern so I'm making a tool which will pilot over the stud and cuts the Chevy lugnut seat to the metric PCD, kind of like a valve seat cutter. There are 'wobble nuts" available which fix this issue but I cant find them in 14mm. Also make sure you can actually get the wheels on and off the car. On my project it is a big problem as the suspension even on standard cars doesn't drop enough to get much more than stock width tires out of the wheelwells.

What are you doing for springs/struts? The Tesla rear air struts are massive, I'm looking at putting front struts in the back as they are considerably shorter. Large Audi suspension is quite similar to Tesla but has low profile airbags, I'd guess they pinched some German engineers to design this setup.

I have been thinking of making a similar tool, could be as simple as grooving a lugnut that would cut it's way in. I will try to mount them as is first, I know others have had luck doing so. I have thought about how the wheels will fit into place with suspension droop and should have enough room with the large inner diameter wheel.

As far as suspension goes, I will be building a pushrod/cantilever setup in the trunk. Here is a rough idea of pushrod location, it will attach to a bellrank in the trunk with horizontal coilover shocks.

IMG_20200220_181723.jpg (21.09 KiB) Viewed 4647 times

[MrMoparMan]

Making progress, I have a working rear suspension now! Using the Model S subclip left no room for springs so I made a Pushrod Setup.

[Bentto]

Very impressive work, especially on the pushrod suspension, very cool!

Headlight look pretty sweet as well, how is the build quality of those units?

[MrMoparMan]

One year since last update, and it drives!

Full Tesla 100kWh battery pack assembled into three separate boxes. I have a battery fault in the Orion BMS and feels like it is in limp mode. I am looking for two replacement 100kWh modules if anyone has any leads, please let me know!

PXL_20210506_073251187.jpg (15.58 KiB) Viewed 4234 times

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I was just wondering how your build was going. Looks amazing!

[Robthetramplingman]

Really nice, my compliments, really clean and good craftmanship!