Mazda MX-5e Tesla Powered
Discussion
Zunsport are building me a custom stainless-steel grille for the MX-5e in black, without their logo/badge. The current plan is to mount the number plate on this grille, so I don’t need the badge in the way.
We are ditching the chunky rubber mounts that come with the Tesla water pumps. They weigh 142g each. The plan is to use these rubber-lined stainless-steel p-clips instead, which weigh just 32g each. We might use two per pump, to lock the orientation. It all counts, when you want to end up with a lighter EV than the ICE car we started with!
I used a similar approach in my 450kg Fisher Fury R1 and they were 100% reliable, even in the super harsh environment that is a Yamama R1 engine doing clutchless upshifts at 11,000rpm
We managed to modify the MX-5 pedal box to fit the Tesla iBooster bolt pattern by removing the welded spacers and relocating them. This is going to save us a chunk of time and effort. The pedal box is rusty but it will be cleaned up, strengthened in a few places and then powder coated.
All old MX-5’s are rusty, even on the inside. Anyone that claims they have one that isn’t, just hasn’t stripped it down enough yet
We are ditching the chunky rubber mounts that come with the Tesla water pumps. They weigh 142g each. The plan is to use these rubber-lined stainless-steel p-clips instead, which weigh just 32g each. We might use two per pump, to lock the orientation. It all counts, when you want to end up with a lighter EV than the ICE car we started with!
I used a similar approach in my 450kg Fisher Fury R1 and they were 100% reliable, even in the super harsh environment that is a Yamama R1 engine doing clutchless upshifts at 11,000rpm
We managed to modify the MX-5 pedal box to fit the Tesla iBooster bolt pattern by removing the welded spacers and relocating them. This is going to save us a chunk of time and effort. The pedal box is rusty but it will be cleaned up, strengthened in a few places and then powder coated.
All old MX-5’s are rusty, even on the inside. Anyone that claims they have one that isn’t, just hasn’t stripped it down enough yet
Whilst the weather has been poor, we have been sorting out the cabin and interior stuff. We are fitting RGB ambient lighting in the MX-5e using addressable LEDs. The two existing cabin lights have been converted to use the same LEDs. We are adding footwell lighting and light tubes on the door cards too.
The final part of the jigsaw piece that is the brake pedal / pedal box arrived today. The Tesla iBooster clevis was too big and used a 10mm pivot hole. The MX-5 one used a 10mm mounting hole. Fortunately it is easy to buy one the right sized with an 8mm mounting hole and an 8mm pivot hole.
The radiator and fan are in. We used 3mm chipboard to create a template shroud / mounting plate and get everything located nicely. This forces the air through the radiator. It will be made from 1.5mm aluminium sheet once we are happy with everything.
The final part of the jigsaw piece that is the brake pedal / pedal box arrived today. The Tesla iBooster clevis was too big and used a 10mm pivot hole. The MX-5 one used a 10mm mounting hole. Fortunately it is easy to buy one the right sized with an 8mm mounting hole and an 8mm pivot hole.
The radiator and fan are in. We used 3mm chipboard to create a template shroud / mounting plate and get everything located nicely. This forces the air through the radiator. It will be made from 1.5mm aluminium sheet once we are happy with everything.
Finished undersealing the MX-5e. The restoration part of this project is the time consuming bit but, we want to do it right.
We have a new speedo from Speedhut. This is part of bigger project (documented on the OSSEV website) to drag the interior into the future and make it all intuitive and easy to drive.
The LSD diff has been shipped, to upgrade the internals.
We have designed our own custom front lights to go on the MX-5e and the PCB has been sent off to manufacturing. We wanted something along these lines (and this is the colour we are re-painting the EV):
Loads of progress today
Mated the fixed ratio reduction gearbox to the Nissan Leaf motor and removed the inverter, so that we could trial fit it in the transmission tunnel. The inverter will be remotely mounted. It all fits nicely, so we are rebuilding the front end with newly powder coated subframes and suspension parts. All new alignment bolts, ball joints, etc. We are using polybushes on the suspension and have got Meister R coil-overs goong on too.
Now we know that we have to remotely mount the inverter, we have bought this "kit" to do the job properly from Inductive Automotive. It's billet aluminium housings wioth proper seals and should keep all the HV wiring properly waterproof. I wouldn't know where to start trying to build this stuff myself, so I've just bought an 'off the shelf' solution.
The 1.6 diff on the car (6" crown wheel) will be shredded by 350Nm of torque from our Nissan Leaf motor, so we have bought a second hand 1.8 (7" crown wheel) diff (with matching drive shafts). It's a Super Fuji limited slip differential, which should make the car handle better and get the power down
It looks to be in really good condition. This is now being shipped to McNeill Manufacturing Engineering in Northern Ireland, to be upgraded. The aluminium casing is also being strengthened by G19 Engineering.It’s worth double checking that the Superfuji diff will cope with the torque as well. When I was into supercharging and turbocharging MX5s the Torsen diffs from the 2002 and earlier mk2s were considered the most reliable for big power. There’s a 3.6:1 version that would probably suit the car better than the 3.9:1 Fuji (although I don’t know if making the gearing longer makes as much difference in an EV conversion?
robcollingridge said:
Now we know that we have to remotely mount the inverter, we have bought this "kit" to do the job properly from Inductive Automotive. It's billet aluminium housings wioth proper seals and should keep all the HV wiring properly waterproof. I wouldn't know where to start trying to build this stuff myself, so I've just bought an 'off the shelf' solution.
This looks like a brilliant project.
Olibol said:
It’s worth double checking that the Superfuji diff will cope with the torque as well. When I was into supercharging and turbocharging MX5s the Torsen diffs from the 2002 and earlier mk2s were considered the most reliable for big power. There’s a 3.6:1 version that would probably suit the car better than the 3.9:1 Fuji (although I don’t know if making the gearing longer makes as much difference in an EV conversion?
It is a 3.6:1 Super Fuji. It is being upgraded to handle the power/torque by McNeill Engineering.Rob
The front end is back together. We have a freshly powder coated subframe and suspension arms, our new Meister R coil-overs, new polybushes all round, new ball joints and rod ends, new caliper bolts, refurbished and depowered steering rack, new discs and pad, refurbished and repainted calipers and refurbished uprights and brake dust shields. It is basically all new!
It is nice to get the MX-5e outside in the sunshine again and have a bit more room to work on it. We have a few jobs to do before we spin it around and raise it up inside the garage again, to remove the petrol tank and rebuild the rear end. The depowered steering feels super light, though it will weight up a bit with the motor and batteries on board. Whilst we have the car outside, it makes sense to strip the interior again and remove the dash. We are leaving the dash structural bar though as we are now rewiring the whole car from scratch. The reasons for this are to ensure it all works as planned an is reliable, plus we will also save a lot of weight as much of the exisitng loom is redundant.
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