A Major Milestone: Motor is mated to the transmission

March 4, 2007 by Rob.

The RAVolt reached a major milestone today! Alex and I were able to bolt all the spacers, mounting plates, and adapters together. I now have a single unit with the motor and transmission fit together.

I put together a short (1:50) Video so you can see how all the parts fit together since there is no single picture that captures the whole process. We had to disassemble the adapter so we could tighten the set screws and then add the spacers. It’s hard to explain, but easy to visualize in the video.

When I was starting out, this is the step that gave me the most anxiety. Once I had all the parts, it was really no big deal. The hardest thing was getting the holes drilled in the mounting plate: I drilled at least 4 unusable holes in the process. Overall, I’ve got workable 8 bolt holes holding the plate to the clutch.

Note: The spring pins once again proved invaluable. They made it a snap to get the alignment back. After they were tapped in with the hammer, the bolts just slid into place as if I’d used Astroglide(tm).

The combined motor & transmission are too big (>200#) to move easily so I’m trying to line up an engine hoist so I can lower it back into the RAV.

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