openinverter forum

1984 VW Rabbit EV, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (so far...)

The Good

• it drives

The Bad

• it makes strange intermittent thud clunk noises (seems to be coming from the rear right quarter panel), I suspect rear beam bushings (I will be replacing those, but please do not recommend them red hard as a rock polyurethane all the cool kids are running them bushings)

The Ugly

• it appears the right CV axle outer boot has failed after only 40 years, and has a 1" gash in it and is flinging gator grease all over the behind the wheel componentry

other than that, she's perfect, well... except it needs interior, and new wheels, and tires, and...

Yes, avoid the red bushes if you want to keep your fillings!
There is nothing like the smell and distribution of hot grease after a good long drive!

so a little specs on the motor

power: 60 kW (80 hp)
torque: 207 Nm (153 lb-ft)
Maximum speed: 13,500 rpm
maximum operating voltage: 650V

just fartin' around with the Killer Whales to Pony Power Conversion in this table
(kW / 750 = hp)

so can we beat the output of the stock OEM 1.6L diesel engine?

kW	hp	comment
60	80
50	66
40	53	1.6L diesel
30	40
20	26
10	13

Lessons Learned from an Unseasoned Veteran EV Converter - LLFUVEVC

so a time will come when you can spin the wheels on your project, or better yet attempt that first drive, chances are you may hear some noises, drivetrain noises in particular, so before you take that acetylene torch to anything that spins, check the obvious, for interference, metal on metal contact, especially with the vehicle on it's all fours and under it's own weight and here's what I learned: Do Not Rule Out The Software!

Say what? What do you mean do not overlook the software settings you ask? Well there were two software settings in the Zombieverter that initially made my transaxle sound like a bag of nuts and bolts [both metric and standard] tumblin' down a spiral metal staircase so what were these settings?

no I aint sayin' there's anything wrong with these settings, all I am saying is that the default values may not agree with your configuration, so...

regenmax is the amount of regenative breaking you want to implement, this would make noise as you come to a stop or let your foot off the throttle pedal, what was recommended to me was just to set it to 0 to disable it first, see if the noise goes away, and then gradually tune it back in

revlim is the max RPM you want your motor to RPM to, you should log the Spot Value called "speed" first to ensure this is the problem, but if you don't know anything about anything you can find out the specs of your motor and cautiously bump it up to that value, and roll on the throttle to test, no need to go medieval on it.


hope these help

looks like somebody initially forgot to use a slide ruler below

Gregski wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 12:18 am so a little specs on the motor

power: 60 kW (80 hp)
torque: 207 Nm (153 lb-ft)
Maximum speed: 13,500 rpm
maximum operating voltage: 650V

Do you know the motor to wheel turns reduction ratio that you have.?

Woodfie wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 3:16 am Do you know the motor to wheel turns reduction ratio that you have.?

I believe there are two reduction ratios the first one aka the Motor Speed Reduction is 2.636

the total reduction is 8.6:1

Thanks for the link and position. So reduction to the wheels is shown as 8.6 : 1

How to fail charging at a Tesla station, first attempt!





one must use this dingleberry adaptor

I believe these are called Destination Chargers as opposed to their Super Chargers

Interesting, apart from the pilot/signal sort out,
I wonder if a T logo on the front and back of your Rabbit would help!!

A question on the ZombieVerter please, that you may be able to help with.

I would like to use a Prius C transmission in a similar way to what you have done. (Here it is also called, Aqua ) and maybe Yaris.

The OI wiki, describes the
" Prius gen3/ Auris /Yaris"
as being a sync serial option, so am hoping that it can be utilized.
However the pull down menu on the ZombieV web link, page 1 , displays
[Prius gen3]
as an option only.
I have had a clever comrade sniff the signal and determine that there are more HTM and MTH signals used, So am hoping that a program for this is available.
There are large numbers of these cars being scrapped Here and probably going into Al and Cu melting pots. What a waste... Thanks in advance if you can advise if any helpful place to find out more.

Woodfie wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 9:06 pm A question on the ZombieVerter please, that you may be able to help with.

I would like to use a Prius C transmission in a similar way to what you have done. (Here it is also called, Aqua ) and maybe Yaris.

The OI wiki, describes the
" Prius gen3/ Auris /Yaris"
as being a sync serial option, so am hoping that it can be utilized.
However the pull down menu on the ZombieV web link, page 1 , displays
[Prius gen3]
as an option only.
I have had a clever comrade sniff the signal and determine that there are more HTM and MTH signals used, So am hoping that a program for this is available.
There are large numbers of these cars being scrapped Here and probably going into Al and Cu melting pots. What a waste... Thanks in advance if you can advise if any helpful place to find out more.

no idea, but....

Share the HTM MTH logs and someone might be interested enough to give it a go and stick the option in to zombie.

so with the right outer CV axle rubber boot thingie leaking like a sieve, I thought it would be a perfect time for our first Mini Range Test - MRT

So first let's level set: I am now charging this tiny 7.6 Killer Whale hour battery pack to 327 volts (for those of you who communicate on the cellular level that is 327 divided by 80 cells, carry the one, times the circumference of the earth, and we get 4.0875 volts per cell) I consider this 90% charged, please set me straight if I am way off on my Gregstomit

So we went for a gentle drive, mostly residential, but some surface streets

Result: 12.5 Miles*

... * but we did NOT fully drain the battery we only took it down to 300 volts, which I guestimate is about 50%, again please correct me if I am way off, so the projected 25 mile range seems to be inline with the Golden Formula of 3.5 miles per kWh so 3.5 miles x 7.6 kWh = 26.6 miles

below udc [pronounced: battery pack voltage] shows at what point I stopped driving

Note: the drive did not take that long, I stopped to try charging at a Tesla station but it did not work, however I think the clock/timer kept on running

This is brilliant news! BMW superpower!!!

Ghia66 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 5:11 pm This is brilliant news! BMW superpower!!!

so whilst I await the new Zombie code to bump our top speed currently topping out at only 52 MPH do to some internal current or torque limit, I figured I would tune the Regen back in, which was disabled on purpose cause it was causing the Rabbit to shutter when coming to a stop.

now we are working with negative numbers here, (don't get me started on real numbers vs natural numbers cause I don't care, ha ha) FYI, I road tested after each and every change. the vehicle is registered and insured and street legal

0 - was disabled
-1 felt no regen
-2 felt no regen
-3 felt no regen but maybe heard the motor trying
-4 felt some regen and heard it come in
-5 felt more regen and definitely heard it
-6 felt good, sounded good
-7 felt perfect ... so I kept going
-8 at this point I was wondering what too much would feel like
-9 how can this be getting ever more better?
-10 stopped here for the day, couldn't be happier

Oh my gawd, I absolutely love single pedal driving, it takes my lazyness to a whole new level! and this certainly cut my manual breaking distance at least in half

This was a preliminary attempt at playing with regen, so I didn't even bother logging, I just used the seat of my pants Feel-O-Meter, I think if I ever decide to find the absolute sweet spot I will log some values, any and all comments and adviceses welecome.

this lil car is soooooooooo fun to drive now

image ripped off from the attached PDF

You know I had to do it !!!





attached is a basic current vs rpm graph, you can see the current go from negative ie being drawn to positive being shoved back in to the battery

Love the seat of the pants tuning!
Can’t wait until you smash the 53mph barrier!
That 11 video made me wet my nest!

I continue to be absolutely blown away and impressed by the Zombieverter VCU, the damn thing just works!

Yes, am seeing amazing stuff and potential.. Huge THANKS to ALL who have made this Possible.

Such clever stuff, if only I can get to grips with some of it as you have then . .YeHeah ....WOW...Etc

Rear Right Quarter Rattle Noise ... the search continues!

• we checked the torsion beam bushings
• we checked the rear shocks
• we checked the rear bumper mounts
• don't sound like wheel bearings or brakes, sounds much higher
• I poked a piece of metal wire in all the holes and tried to poke at it
• I used my iPhone camera as a borescope to try and see in the nooks and crannies, and noffin

here I am wrapping the charge port in a T shirt to see if it was the culprit

here I had the bright idea of using magnetism to see if whatever is rattling in these walls is metal and may stick to the walls and shut the he11 up (bonus points for whomever can identify the source of these super strong little magnets)

and as always with hatchbacks we thought it was the hatch so I lifted it up and drove around like this, you know for the extra stares

I am sooooo close to loosing my mind on this one !!! does anyone have any suggestions ???


FUN LEVEL: negative treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

You say you checked the rear shocks, but how?

I had a rattle from the rear of my Enyaq from new. Dealer fobbed it off, said it was a "characteristic" as it only appeared on rough ground.

40 thousand miles and 2.5 years later i happened across a thread saying early Enyaqs suffered from rattling rear shocks, so i took a punt and ordered a good used pair from a 2023 car off ebay, and swapped them over. Noise gone.

The original shocks look completely fine, they feel complately fine, theres no outward signs of issues.

Given the area your poking, thats probably right where the rear shock top mounts are?


And the magnets are probably from hard disks?

Aragorn wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 2:56 pm You say you checked the rear shocks, but how?

I had a rattle from the rear of my Enyaq from new. Dealer fobbed it off, said it was a "characteristic" as it only appeared on rough ground.

40 thousand miles and 2.5 years later i happened across a thread saying early Enyaqs suffered from rattling rear shocks, so i took a punt and ordered a good used pair from a 2023 car off ebay, and swapped them over. Noise gone.

The original shocks look completely fine, they feel complately fine, theres no outward signs of issues.

Given the area your poking, thats probably right where the rear shock top mounts are?


And the magnets are probably from hard disks?

Yip, defo from old 3.5" HDD
As for the rattle I had a similar issue with a shock absorber so agree it might be a cause however expanding foam might be your friend if you trace it to a body panel.

Captains Log: EV Date 196

0700 hours - Commencing Operation Code Name: Big Mamas House

Mission: take the squeaky rattly little Rabbit to an undisclosed location on it's Maiden Voyage
Distance: 13.0 miles
Temp: 70°F
Humidity: 59%
Wind: 5 MPH SSE
Visibility: 19 mi
Gear: flip flops and sunglasses

all together now...

We made it! fairly easily mind you, despite the average speed reported of 27 MPH every time I looked down on my satellite speedometer app on my iPhone I was going 40 MPH (I was only semi babying it) there was no freeway driving on this trip, as she still can't go above 52 MPH, but there was no need for it

Starting Voltage: 326 volts

Ending Voltage: 298 volts (50% maybe)


ending voltage