November 2019, the sailing season is over, the real work starts! First of course, the old diesel engine needs to be removed. I carefully disconnected all the electricity (made pictures of what was connected with what), the diesel pipes and at last the mechanical connections. Than lifted it up a little bit on a plank and shifted it forward into the cabin. Next the guy from the yard helped to lift it out.
And of course the electric motor was lifted in. The electric motor was prepared with supports that fitted the old motor supports exactly, so in fact it was an easy drop in replacement.
With a 2×3 beam (44mm x 75mm balk) the thing can be lifted in and out of the engine bay quit easily without hurting my back.
After that, the batteries were carried on board and connected to one large battery, they are not yet installed in all the different places (under bunks, behind the water tank, above the motor etc.), I will do that after the trial is done, and everything (motor capacity, controller etc) is OK, and I am confident that the project will be successful.
Next step: the thrust bearing. Because I do not know if the electric motor has a thrust bearing in it (to transfer the forces of the shaft to the boat), and most likely it doesn’t have it, because the motor was used for a hydraulic unit, a thrust bearing needs to be installed.
I mounted it on a steel plate that has the right slope (12 degrees up) so it is perfectly aligned with the shaft and the bottom, and glassed it over with 8 layers of 280 gram fiberglass cloth.
For the coupling of the shaft with the motor, the old flange was reused, but now with 3 holes instead of four. On the motor a new flange was mounted (bought it for EUR 5, second hand), this motor flange had to be machined on a lath to fit it to the flange on the propshaft. Thanks Peter for doing that!
The PWM controller and Arduino controller were mounted in a temporary way, and tested. The throttle was installed, and yes, everything seemed to work! Time to plan the wet trial!