Saturday, January 17, 2009

Fit Left Drivetrain to Foot Shell

Time to get that left drivetrain fitting into the foot shell.



I marked areas on the foot shell that needed material removed in order for the NPC motor to fit, and then I made room with the Dremel drum sander. A pencil line demarcates the area that can be seen by the outside world. Do not cross.




Iterative fittings showed the battery box bumping into the bottom and top of the motor, so I filed the heck out of those areas.




Even with all that filing, the battery box still didn't want to fit correctly.



I slid a piece of paper around to figure out where the battery box was making contact with the motor. The bottom was clear, but the top still seemed to have an issue.



I determined that I needed to shim the motor mount about 1/32" from the drivetrain body. I took one of my shims used for mounting the motor to the motor mount, and used it to temporarily shim the motor mount from the drivetrain body. I put everything back on, and it all fit!




I ran to Lowe's as they were closing and picked up a small 1/32" steel sheet, and started cutting it to size.



Just about at that point in time, a minor disaster occurred. I had left the foot shell on the bench that I was using to cut the steel, and all the shaking while using the saw caused the foot shell to fall to the floor. Ouch!



Well, I should be able to glue that up tomorrow, but I wasn't able to do a final test fit, although I think it everything should still fit okay. The thin shim is in place, although it is hard to see.



I'll be pressed for time tomorrow, but hopefully I can finish the fitting and move forward.

No comments: