Totday I went for a test drive in a 2010 Volvo V50. The V50 was converted by All Green Vehicles (AGV) for a Dutch project “Rotterdam test electisch rijden“. I was surprised by the build quality. AGV did a very nice job in integrating the electric system into the Volvo.

Volvo V50 electric

The interior is almost unchanged, the gauges in the instrument cluster are replaced with AGV designed gauges. They look like OEM.

Volvo V50 gauges

Only two things didn’t work, the cruise control and the board computer. The clutchpedal has been removed.  Under the hood many thinks changed.

Volvo V50 UQM controller

From left to right, UQM DC DC converter, UQM SR218 controller. In front there is part of the batteries.

Volvo V50 trunk

The inner joint of the early model (A120D4004F) has a fixed ball-type CV joint and the new model (B120D4004F) has a Tripod Plunging Joint.

The fixed ball-type consists of an inner ball race, six balls, a cage to position the balls, and an outer housing. Tracks machined in the inner race and outer housing allow the joint to flex. The inner race and outer housing form a ball-and-socket arrangement. The six balls serve both as bearings between the races and the means of transferring torque from one to the other.

Tripod plunging joints consists of a central drive part or tripod. This has three trunnion fitted with spherical rollers on needle bearings and an outer housing (sometimes called a tulip because if its three-lobed, flower-like appearance). On some tripod joints, the outer housing is closed, meaning the roller tracks are totally enclosed within it. On others, the tulip is open and the roller tracks are machined out of the housing.

Old and new CV joint

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Fixed Ball-Type Joint

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Tripod Plunging Joint.

Due to the electric converison the original driveshaft can’t be used. It has a bracket that attaches to the original engine. So I had to find out which one would fit my Elise. A visit to a workshop where they had the PG Elektrus in for repair solved my problem.

PG Elektrus by Michael Fröhlich

The PG Elektrus is based on the Lotus Club Racer.

PG Elektrus

The drive shaft in the PG Elektrus still had the label with partnumber on it. It showed B120D4004F which is correct for an Elise CR. I now know why the drive shafton my car failed, it is designed to cope with 136 BHP and 160Nm (118lb ft) instead of the 200 BHP and 225Nm (165 lb ft) of the AC-150.

Driveshaft drawing A120D4004F

I 0rdered the drive shaft en found out that my car had an early model A120D4004F drive shaft. the new one B120D4004F has different CV joints.

Last night I hit a speed bump and broke the RH driveshaft, i was putting my foot down quite hard in second gear. The back wheels did spin a little.

I stranded 500m from my home

My wife was so nice to tow me home.

Towing

I asked the dealer which driveshaft would fit my Elise, they quoted the original driveshaft for an 2009 111R at €946,- with partnumber A120D0018F (#2).

Driveshaft drawing A120D0018F

Due to the electric converison the original driveshaft can’t be used. It has a bracket (#11) that is attaches to the original engine. So I had to find out which one would fit my Elise.

After the engine was pulled and the clutch assembly had been removed from the adapter plate the Pertinax isolation was visible.

Pertinax Isolation

The isolation aroud the boults where the cause of the charge error.

Fly wheel bolds

I made some Nylon isolators

New Nylon isolation

Lifting the engine

Lifting the engine

The body is removed and now the battery packs can be disconnected. Every pack has two wires attached which connect all 4 packs in series.in total there are 100 cells (3,7V) which results in a voltage of 375V. .

DC voltage of battery packs

After the wires and the fiber cables where removed I lifted the packs with a forklift. the motor is mounted on to the original Lotus (Toyota) gearbox. The motor is on the right side under the black round cover.

Battery packs removed

To replace te bad isolation the body shell and two battery packs need to be removed from the car.

Body shell removal

Recently the car wouldn’t start charging and Error Code 5 started showing up. It started intermittently and could be solved by unplugging and plugging the charge cable. Last week it wouldn’t charge at all. The cause of the problem is known, a kind of Pertinax (phenol formaldehyde) is used as isolator between the rotor and the flywheel, when Pertinax ages or gets damaged it gets hygroscopic. To replace te bad isolation the body shell and two battery packs need to be removed from the car.

chgresult_MOTOR_ISOLATION