Deconstructing a Ford Escape Hybrid Battery Pack for the motorcycle

October 13, 2014

A while back, I ended up at a salvage yard a few hours drive from my house. While I was there to get a transmission, I also ended up walking away with a Ford Escape Hybrid battery pack. The battery came out of a truck that had been rear-ended, and there was a bit of […]

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Electric Motorcycle DVD Now Streaming!

September 22, 2014

Recently, I’ve had some requests for a STREAMING version of BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE. Frankly, there’s some parts of the world where the mail service is so bad, I simply CAN’T mail a DVD, as it just won’t get there. Also, I’m starting to find some folks who don’t have televisions or DVD players, […]

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Electric Scooter Review: 2014 Flux Mopeds EM1 Electric Scooter

August 18, 2014

This weekend, I had a chance to take a Flux Mopeds EM1 electric scooter out for an extended test ride. This is the 2014 model, which features a few upgrades from their previous version, including a higher voltage battery pack, regenerative braking, and improved motor control. Overall, this is a very likable vehicle. The scooter […]

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Plywood Transmission Adapter Plate

August 13, 2014

I know what you are thinking, and NO it’s not the permanent or final version… I’ve always liked working with full-scale models, templates, and mock-ups. While CAD (cardboard aided design) is often my first go-to, plywood is even better when something structural is needed. I really wanted to start figuring out what I needed to […]

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SuperTruck: Bell-Housing

August 12, 2014

Yesterday, I got to tinker with the transmissions some more for my diesel-electric hybrid truck project. Not having actually DONE any transmission work before means that this is all pretty new to me. However, since I took the Mercedes transmission apart, it made working on the Chevy S-10’s T5 transmission that much easier. Only four […]

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SuperTruck: Mercedes Manual Transmission

August 7, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, I made a trip up to a salvage yard several hours drive away. The reason why is that I finally found a manual transmission that would match my diesel engine out of the 240D. My original concept for the “SuperTruck” hybrid was to mate up the old 4-cylinder diesel to […]

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Salvaging Lithium

August 5, 2014

  Today, I was trying to get some cleanup done in my garage. It’s pretty hard to work on a hybrid truck or electric car when the garage is packed pretty solid with junk (although cool junk), camping equipment, and yes, even dead electric car batteries. The Mitsubishi iMIEV batteries have been kicking around for […]

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Red Tape and Electric Cars

August 3, 2014

In the summer of 2008, I built an electric car. By now, the public is well aware of commercially-available electric cars, but at that time, there really was no such thing. I had originally built an electric bicycle from a kit, and that lead me to building an electric motorcycle. With the skills, experience, and […]

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iMIEV – Spinning the Motor & Wheels

July 22, 2014

Last week, I had made a date with my friend Tom G (who you might remember from the AC Dodge Neon project) to come out to my house and show me how to use a variable frequency drive. Tom has lots of experience working with AC motors and owns a few salvaged drives. I had […]

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Auto Parts Road Trip

July 21, 2014

This weekend, I found myself having a bit of fun building interesting Plug-in Vehicle projects. Recently, I’ve been chipping away on my diesel engine, updating the old glow plugs to new ones. At the heart of my DIY Hybrid Pickup project is a diesel engine, in this case one that I got from a 1976 […]

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