openinverter forum

I have a Model S LDU I'm working to fit into an old VW Golf. Due to space considerations I want to flip the unit 180deg from how it would sit in a Tesla, thus reversing the forward and reverse directions of the unit.

Now I know that theoretical AC induction motors (all electric motors?) are symmetrical and that "reverse"/"forward" are arbitrary. In theory. My question is whether there is anything, maybe something about the rotor cage, or windings, or really anything at all, that might be asymmetrically optimized for running the motor in one direction over another.

On that note, have you guys in your conversions bothered to keep the same forward/reverse directions of the motor or nah?

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=210

It would seem to work very well in reverse, not sure if anyone's done a real comparison or benchmark.

As noted in that thread, a reverse oil pump will be needed, available from Zero EV. Someone else just switched the two oil hoses on the original pump, that apparently worked well too.

-Isaac

Thanks! The oil pump is definitely something I hadn't yet thought of. From the tear-down videos I've found it seems unlikely that there are any meaningful asymmetries though once I'm up and running I'll see about running some benchmarks in both directions just out of curiosity. On that note, the openinverter LDU replacement logic board just arrived today so it'll be a fun weekend!

One fellow converter made the mistake of spinning up the drive unit to very high revs in the wrong direction, i.e. the one where the oil pump doesn't pump. It apparently made noises after that, so beware.