electric driven car

Alan wrote:

Hi, I did a similar thing a few years ago for my son. I converted a factory made plastic ride on pedal tractor to electric using a wiper motor. Originally I used a Volvo motor with a sprocket fitted to the output shaft to replace the pedals. There were a lot of problems with the chain coming off, due to the body flexing on uneven ground. Eventually I replaced the motor with one from a Japanese car (Datsun I think) and converted it to use direct drive. I found the Japanese car motors to be easiest to convert and the most reliable. After taking the pinion gear/ output shaft from the motor, I hacksawed through the plastic moulding at the rear to allow the splined shaft to be drifted out. I then replaced the shaft with a few feet of bright bar. Welding a 2" dia washer onto the shaft in the middle provides something to bolt the pinion to (I used 3 x 3mm nuts and bolts I think). The wheels were fastened to the drive shafts using U shaped flat bar that engaged with slots in the wheels. The axle ran in the original plastic axle bearings, with the motor floating inside the body of the tractor (restrained with a large cable tie). Make sure you use a deep cycle battery as ordinary lead acid batteries don't like being 'flattened' on a regular basis. The tractor gave 4 or 5 years reliable usage. My son (aged around 6 - 10 then) would often give his friend a ride in the trailer, and the thing would usually go a couple of days between charging. The usual failure I had was the bronze bush in the motor housing would wear away until the pinion would move away from the worm.

Hope this helps. Jon.

Be very aware of the hazards associated with Plante batteries...

1. If there is any danger of a tip-over or acid spillage.

1. If there is any danger of shorting out the battery (such as when a tip-over occurs)

You might find this article on batteries useful at some point in your project:

Regards,

Thanks for your helpfull comments everyone

Alan