Ok yep, I'll check the seals next time I'm at it. It is a riding mower; an old Murray that I paid...$150? for a while back. What's great is that I actually bought a whole replacement box (can't buy the sector gear individually...) and the replacement gear that meshes with the sector gear wasn't hardened and was turning in a steel bushing. What a shock, it lasted maybe a season before getting chewed up to all fuck. And the replacement sector gear is so sloppy in its pivots that the teeth only half engage anyway, so they wear out even faster. So here I am, using the original steering gear and re-making the original sector gear because they're better quality than the replacements. At least this time I had the new sector gear to use as a pattern. What'd you do for an electric conversion? That sounds like a fun project and I may be able to get my hands on an engine-less mower in otherwise good condition for a cheap price...
Boy howdy. It was backintheday. At the time the hot shit power source was Optima yellowtop lead-acids. I was working for a company that made electric cars back when an electric '92 Ford Taurus was hot shit. They'd made this thing and a couple others. I feel like the motor was an industrial beast; kinda feel like we just bought it out of Grainger. Nowadays? I'd prolly use lithium motorcycle batteries in series/parallel. But if you're going to do that, remember the mantra of the electric car mechanic: 1 HAND IN A POCKET AT ALL TIMES (keeps you from inviting an arc across your heart)
That's legit! I assume you know of the White Zombie? Looks like you can use a 3-phase motor and a VFD if you want (and can provide a DC-DC converter or other source of 300ish VDC).... (damn you, I have other things to do tonight!)
I do not! I mean, maybe I do - I think I've seen it before. But it sure wasn't running in the 10s back then.... I did know Ed Rannberg. Stayed at his house on a road trip once. Super nice guy. Let me ride an electric scooter around a giant plant where they built boilers to refry beans for Taco Bell. Got to see Kawashocki taken apart, which was pretty cool considering it was in a couple of my magazines as a kid. Back when men were men and electric vehicles were made out of lead.