Completed 1976 X1/9 EV Conversion (Ask Me Anything!)

E

exthemius

Low Mileage
Long time lurker (which has been invaluable in my long Fiat restomod), first time poster. I just wanted to thank everyone here indirectly, as this forum is a treasure-trove of information for us like minded people. And, as you have all shared your projects, struggles and successes, I feel like I should do the same. During Covid, I purchased a barley running 1976, with the eventual plan to turn it completely into an EV. After years of trial and error (mostly errors), and having to rebuild/redesign the engine mount and motor to transmission adapter three times, I’d like to present the final product (and to answer any questions other people in my situation might have).

Current Specifications:
  • 96V operational voltage
  • 650 amp / 62.4 kW peak power
  • 160 Ah battery capacity (two 48V LG Chem-based lithium packs in series)
  • Level 1 charging only @ 10 amps
  • Water-cooled controller (Curtis 1238-7601)
  • Air-cooled, brushless, 3-phase AC motor (HPEVS AC-50), producing 71 hp and 120 ft lb torque
  • Clutchless, direct drive in 4th gear
  • Normal, unrestricted license plates and 100% smog exemption certificate

Before Photos:
IMG_2773.jpeg

IMG_2771.jpeg


After Photos:
IMG_2775.jpeg

IMG_2776.jpeg

IMG_2792.jpeg

IMG_2791.jpeg

IMG_2790.jpeg

IMG_2789.jpeg
 
Very nice! I have always wondered if the entire rear of a tesla would fit... Looks great.
 
Very cool. Nice work. Any more pictures of the assembly and engine install?
 
Could you please provide details of the batteries? Model number, packaging, specs etc or where to find that stuff on the internet.
 
Nice work! I'm very glad to see another X1/9e. Congratulations for this conversion!
Weight is most interesting, because my battery pack has nearly 50% more capacity ...and I still have to weight my car.
What's the little electric component in the engine comparement, right in the middle?
And the little blue "fan" in front of the controller?
How do you cool the batteries?
Don't you have a 12 battery anymore? It's a requirement in Europe.
4th gear is enough for hills? Our crazy requirement is that the car should be able to start from zero 5 times on a 12% slope within five minutes.
Something simple: Where is the windscreen wash tank and what's the thing on the place where it should be (in a 1500)?
 
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X19e said:
Nice work! I'm very glad to see another X1/9e. Congratulations for this conversion!
Weight is most interesting, because my battery pack has nearly 50% more capacity ...and I still have to weight my car.
What's the little electric component in the engine comparement, right in the middle?
And the little blue "fan" in front of the controller?
Don't you have a 12 battery anymore? It's a requirement in Europe.
4th gear is enough for hills? Our crazy requirement is that the car should be able to start from zero 5 times on a 12% slope within five minutes.
Something simple: Where is the windscreen wash tank and what's the thing on the place where it should be (in a 1500)?
Click to expand...
On early USA cars, the windshield washer reservoir was a (vinyl?) bag located in the left hand side headlight cavity. If you look closely in the frunk pic along the chassis rail structure you'll see a wire bundle and a clear vinyl tube that carries the washer fluid from the bag in the left front headlight cavity.
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
On early USA cars, the windshield washer reservoir was a (vinyl?) bag located in the left hand side headlight cavity. If you look closely in the frunk pic along the chassis rail structure you'll see a wire bundle and a clear vinyl tube that carries the washer fluid from the bag in the left front headlight cavity.
Click to expand...
Wow, thank's a lot for the information. Now I can order this bag on ebay for a few bugs and get rid of the big reservoir.
1714054477540.png
 
Definitely going to follow this as I want to power my Dallara replica with a Tesla transplant. This is AWESOME!
 
kmead said:
Very cool. Nice work. Any more pictures of the assembly and engine install?
Click to expand...
Sure:

Motor adapter plate attached to motor, with transmission coupler attached:
IMG_2604.jpeg


The two connected:
IMG_2605.jpeg


Off the bench:
IMG_2712.jpeg


I used all three original engine mounts (this time around, which is why it was successful), modifying the mounting points for the the side and top ones.

Side engine mount:
IMG_2715.jpeg


Top engine mount:
IMG_2733.jpeg
 
X19e said:
Nice work! I'm very glad to see another X1/9e. Congratulations for this conversion!
Weight is most interesting, because my battery pack has nearly 50% more capacity ...and I still have to weight my car.
What's the little electric component in the engine comparement, right in the middle?
And the little blue "fan" in front of the controller?
How do you cool the batteries?
Don't you have a 12 battery anymore? It's a requirement in Europe.
4th gear is enough for hills? Our crazy requirement is that the car should be able to start from zero 5 times on a 12% slope within five minutes.
Something simple: Where is the windscreen wash tank and what's the thing on the place where it should be (in a 1500)?
Click to expand...
The electric component in the middle is the throttle — the OEM cable from the pedal is attached.

The little blue fan sits on top of a small radiator, and is used to cool the engine controller.

My batteries don’t really need to be cooled, I live in a VERY hot environment (115+ F days in the summer) and never had any issues with them overheating or having issues.

I do have a 12V. Up front (you can’t see it in the photos) there is a 48V to 12V converter and that converter is attached to a very small 12V motorcycle battery (since we really don’t need much on the 12V side of things anymore). Of note, all of the lights (including headlights) have been converted over to LED’s, so there’s very little draw.

4th gear is fine for the hills in my area — I should clarify that I can still change gears, but that just leave it in 4th because it has plenty of torque for me to take off just as fast as any of the cars around me.
 
exthemius said:
My batteries don’t really need to be cooled, I live in a VERY hot environment (115+ F days in the summer) and never had any issues with them overheating or having issues.
Click to expand...
That's a surprise! Is the BMS included in the LG Chem itself?
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
Weight?
Weight distribution?
Cost?
Click to expand...
Not sure what the weight is, but the motor is 115 lbs and each battery weighs in at 48lbs.

The only thing different regarding weight distribution would the fact that there’s a 48lb battery in the frunk and a 48lb battery in the trunk.

Cost: WAY TOO MUCH. But for transparency’s sake:
  1. Car: $1,500
  2. Motor Kit: $4,450 (includes motor, controller, wire harness, contactor, dash gauge). The current version of this kit is ~$6,000 now (HPEVS AC-50 Kit)
  3. Batteries: $4,200 (two 48V sealed battery units with embedded BMS, and two 120v level 1 chargers). The company doesn’t sell the 160Ah ones anymore, but here the closest ones that they do sell (Batteries)
  4. Other stuff: who knows…the were a lot of ongoing costs over the past few years doing the project
 
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