Yugo Greg II, Revenge of the Motor · 22 November 05
Bad news.
Greg’s Yugo EV is in need of a motor transplant.
For those just joining us you can take a look at the first post where we cover Greg’s Yugo EV.
Greg did a great job building the EV within limited means, scrounging EBay and doing a bunch of his own fabrication and construction.
Total cost for EV parts, under $800.
He had put over 1300 miles on the car with no problems when the motor started acting up.
Got an email from Greg a couple weeks back:
I guess that a fork lift motor might not be the thing for short 5 miles trips. Today when I went to go home for lunch, I only got about 1 mile and the car didn’t sound right. I turned around and went back to the shop. Motor smelled hot but wasn’t. Wires were fine.
Came back after lunch and looked it over. I am going to pull the motor this weekend and check out the brushes, etc.
Here’s a photo of the motor being pulled. Greg took it apart and put in a new brush and spring. It runs, but not as good as before. He’s trying to locate a beefier, 10HP motor, hopefully without paying an arm and a leg for it.
I sent him a few questions and suggested he ask the guys on the EVList. Might be that this one is still salvageable and able to function for his short commute. Anyone that knows of some good used motor sources or tips on reviving this one be sure to leave a comment.
A view of the motor installed in the Yugo.
Meanwhile Greg found an on-board computer for the Club car battery charger.
One other update, which I’m a little late in posting (he sent it to me over a month ago).
I installed a PVC vacuum tank last week and pulled a vacuum with my AC pump (an old converted fridge compressor). I reversed the needle to the other side of the stop pin, on a pressure gauge, to see if it would register vac but it is too strong and the needle only moves 1/8” from zero to full vac. I ran the car to see how many stops I could make before the assist was used up. I was surprised that it made about 8 before the vac was gone. The booster on a Yugo is very small but works quite well.
I am converting a small 12V emergency air compressor into a vac pump by modifing the cylinder head. But then the best idea I had today was “Why go to the trouble of making a vac pump when you already have a small compressor that works fine.”
Answer…..get this…..PUT THE COMPRESSOR INSIDE THE TANK and let it blow the air out!!!!
Granted the tank would have to be big enough to let the compressor go in, but the one I have is only 4” tall…..the PVC pipe I used is 4” ID.
For now I want to test the pump’s ability to create enough vac while driving and test the reliability of the small pump to run that long, although a tire is not pumped up in seconds by these small pumps.
I didn’t figure the cubic inches inside my tank but I did enclose a pic of it.
Good luck with the motor, Greg!
