1967 “voltswagon” split window bus

[Bratitude]

New year new project vehicle!

1967 vw split window bus


-originally a swing axle rear end currently being converted to a beetle irs with some custom removable brackets

Body work todo but I’m just doing the drive train

-zombieverter VCU

For testing a 16kwh gen 1 Chevy volt battery

Much like that brat, we will be doing no modification to the original chassis for fitting the electric drivetrain. Everything must be bolt on!

First off will be making a “universal” bolt in motor cradle. Adaptable to fit a variety of motors
first two drive trains to fit are:

-outlander hybrid rear drive unit
-Nissan leaf gen2 drive unit (em57)


From first measurements it’s very tight fit for the full leaf stack(gearbox, motor, inverter, pdm) without the pdm, the leaf motor/gearbox/inverter should fit great!

Drive shafts are pretty simple, the leaf-to-vw conversion stubs allow the original vw axles to bolt right up to the leaf gearbox

Once motor is mounted, a new oil feed system is needed, as the motor and gearbox will be running in reverse. looks like one of the fill/drain plugs could be used for an oil feed insert.

Outlander rear drive unit will be much simpler as it’s smaller and will be mounted in it original orientation.

[Cera]

!!

Yeeess! I'll be following this for sure

[Ctwidle]

Me to!
I wasn’t able to source inner cv joints for my original Outlander to 74 superbug (already has irs) blend so have connected the motor to the beetle gearbox with a diy adaptor plate. I am currently stripping a written off Outlander and will have a spare rear drive unit (with shafts) for my next project while I use everything else from the donor for the beetle. I’m not expecting a lot from a potentially tired old battery pack but this is a learning process.
Given that the Outlander motor is more than 50kg lighter than the original VW I even considered mounting the charger and DC/DC on top of the motor but currently plan on a support frame from the body. I think I will be able to fit the batteries behind the seat which means that I should be able to reuse nearly all of the Outlander wiring.
I have been considering Tom’s EVS-VCU as a more integrated package for a none programmer and I haven’t been following the ZombieVerter lately but maybe I should reread that thread. What BMS do you plan to use?
Chris

[Bratitude]

Me to!
I wasn’t able to source inner cv joints for my original Outlander to 74 superbug (already has irs) blend so have connected the motor to the beetle gearbox with a diy adaptor plate.

I think the outlander is such a good motor for old Volkswagens, beetles in particular.

I have a rear outlander motor adapter plate that will be out soon, so outlander to vw adapter kits will be available!

I have 2 versions of replacement drive shaft stubs for the rear outlander gearbox.

One has the beetle 33 spline on the outer end, so vw drive shaft flanges fit. 90mm cv are as big as will fit on the outlander gearbox, as there’s clearance issues.
The only issue is that 90mm flanges are no longer Available new.
The other design has a 90mm flange on the outer end. This version is quite costly to make, about double.



Maybe I could pull a bunch of 90mm flanges from old gearbox’s, and have enough for a batch run of the stubs. would keep the costs down.

[Bratitude]

long time no updates.

grafting on beetle ifs on is finished.

custom bolt on trailing arm brackets, and the original spring plate cut down and notched to allow the beetle arms to bolt on.

bus now sits on all for wheels!

modeling everything in cad, so here's putting the leaf drive stack in the rear so we can fab some brackets

trying to make this a bolt in afire with no cutting of the bus. its a challenge!

looking at rotating the drive stack 90 degrees, maybe the pdm will fit aswell..

[DaveH]

How will the driveline look? I've seen one other bus with a Leaf stack, and one of the drive shafts had to be really short with a pretty extreme offset from diff to hub.

[Bratitude]

How will the driveline look? I've seen one other bus with a Leaf stack, and one of the drive shafts had to be really short with a pretty extreme offset from diff to hub.

with my drive shaft adapters we ditch the jackshaft/ support bearing.

we are centering the diff in the frame horns, so equal axle lengths.
stock axles will bolt right up

[Bratitude]

rotated the full stack 90 degrees.

mount design is drilling down to something quite simple and elegant. will most likely cast the main parts out of aluminum, and use swaged tube and rod ends. full bolt on kit. bottom mount on the engine horns, and 2 side mounts triangulating to the torsion tube.

diff is centered and axles are in the same location as a stock bus.

sadly the top (or side depending how you look at the stack) will collide with the bottom of the engine bay roof in the split window. 2-3in. but that means it should clear a bay window just fine, no cutting!