[ausev] Siemens-Ford-Ballard AC motors?

[Ian Ward]

Marty,

I drive a Ranger that has one of these motors.  In fact, that is one of the
primary reasons I bought it - it's a very cool setup.  There are several
difficulties with using the Mavin motors in a conversion:

1) The output shaft is splined and hollow; meant to interface with a
planetary reduction/differential that passes half of the drive back through
the center of the motor to the opposing half-shaft.  This part isn't
available anymore, as far as I or anyone else that I have heard of can find.
This integrated drive was built by Ecostar for it's run in the Rangers and
then sold to Ballard, who sold this division to Siemens VDO, who is in the
process of selling it to Continental.  If you could find one of the
diff/reducers, the controller that was meant for it can be had, but only
works with all of the other components of the Ranger.  It talks on the bus
to all the other modules it expects to be there and if they are not, it
won't work.  I haven't heard of anyone trying to make that work.

2) Victor won't sell you a controller without a motor.  He has tired of
answering questions regarding these Mavin motors.  Search the EVDL archive
and you'll find plenty of discussion.

3) The controllers are very solid and hard to find a surplus or salvage unit
that *might* work with it.

4) If you are able to find a controller, the shaft isn't easily replaced.
There was a thread on the EVDL recently discussing someone that apparently
bought one of the Mavin motors to try that out.

Harold, the guy that sells these at Mavin, has referred me to several people
who he believes that can provide a working traction inverter, but none of
these people I talked to ever returned my messages.

Unfortunately, my advice is to keep looking.  I would have bought one of
these when they first popped up, but never could overcome the above hurdles.
Several other companies sell AC drives, but most don't like to talk to
individuals.  The lead times for AC kits from ElectroAuto are horrific
according to the traffic on the 914-ev mailing list.

I would be interested in hearing about whatever AC system you end up
settling on.

Cheers,
ian

-----Original Message-----
From: ausev-bounces at austinev.org [mailto:ausev-bounces at austinev.org] On
Behalf Of Marty Swartz
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 3:18 PM
To: ausev at austinev.org
Subject: [ausev] Siemens-Ford-Ballard AC motors?

Hello, all. Greetings from the far north - Pittsburgh, PA. I've been
lurking for quite a while: learning, planning, saving, trying to
muster the critical mass needed to dive in.

My current "stake in the sand" is to convert a small pickup using an
AC drive system. It's hilly around here, which makes regeneration
almost mandatory. I've browsed through Metric Mind's catalog, and
suffered severe sticker shock.

Right now on eBay Motors I see some Siemens-Ford-Ballard AC motors,
new in the box, purportedly as used in the OEM EV Ford Rangers, from
one "Electro Mavin" for what seems to be a modest $2,000 shipped.

Have any of you had direct experience with this motor or seller? If
all is as it appears, this looks like a good way to lower my project
cost appreciably, helping me buy the OTHER stuff from Victor. :)  Any
advice on- or off-line would be most appreciated.
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