I also have an older DC powered conversion with a clutch. I've found that shifting with the clutch is much faster and much more forgiving. I've driven it 'clutchless' a couple of times as an exercise, but found it to be very slow to shift with the foot off the clutch. Matching motor speed with selected gear normally results in time wasted between gears waiting for the motor to wind down - traffic behind becomes very intolerant if you miss the split second between go and no-go. Tougher on hills because the vehicle may slow down to almost nothing before the motor winds down enough to shift clutchless. Then you are back to square one (first gear again). However, since AC motors have a much wider RPM operating range, frequent shifting isn't really necessary as with most DC motor conversions. One conversion I've seen with an AC motor was a clutchless Geo Metro (Solectria). The AC motor twisted off the transmission input shaft in that particular vehicle twice, requiring a transmission replacement both times. Might be a poorly matched transmission design, or it might be that the clutch provides a bit of overtorque protection. Based on what I've seen and operated for the last few years, I'd recommend retaining the clutch. If you have a clutch-type conversion of any type available to test drive in your area, try to drive it both ways to see what fits your driving style before you commit.
Tom Keenan > On Jan 29, 2017, at 4:59 PM, Jay Summet via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have an S-10 conversion with the clutch left out, and you certainly can > shift it without the clutch. But the shifts take several seconds as you wait > for the motor to sync up in speed, and the time I spend coasting, unless > planned well in advance to be going down a hill, etc, can cause cars to ride > up on me. > > If I were do another conversion, I would probably leave the clutch in, > despite the efficiency hit, just so that you can shift quickly. That way you > could start in 1st and shift to 2nd quickly, instead of using extra amps to > start up (slowly) in 2nd. > > I have a DC motor, so I find myself shifting between 2nd and 3rd gear around > 40 MPH. Perhaps with an AC motor that has a larger RPM range you could get > 0-50 which would be fine for all city driving, or even 0-60 MPH in one gear > and shifting wouldn't be much of an issue. > > Jay > >> On 01/29/2017 05:24 PM, Cruisin via EV wrote: >> It doesn't surprise me of the lack of support from HPEVS. maybe their door is >> locked >> Regarding the AC-31 which I have a lot of experience with, the motor already >> has a >> front bearing. The information you received from the seller of the motor is >> false. Do your >> conversion but leave out the flywheel and clutch assembly. If you want to >> shift, it can be done >> without a clutch as long as you are not using regeneration, else you will >> have to feather the >> accelerator during the shift. NO CLUTCH NEEDED. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
