[FIRST DRIVE] Upcycling a Suzuki Samurai

[hugow93]

Hello all!

My name’s Hugh and I’ve been scheming a DIY conversion for the last few years.
I discovered Damien’s channel though boards.ie (of all places) and have been steadily subscribing, liking and sharing since.

Just before Christmas I bought a 1994 Suzuki Samurai unseen on Ebay, picked it up near Portsmouth on the way back from a London work trip (note: not really on the way), and then cannonballed it to Holyhead for the ferry.

It took me seven hours and as I entered Wales, I realised the soft top had a leak. I missed the ferry, and she was duly christened Holly after the lengthy stay over.

Here she is in all her glory. I’ve been gradually repairing rusty parts of the body since the weather improved.

I’ve signed up for a beginner course with Damien and Kevin, and since it’s been moved until August thought I’d set up this thread to take some project suggestions from the experts here. I’d like to have most of the parts together so I can crack on after the course. I’ve a master’s in mech engineering, some DIY experience, and safe to say the electronics is a learning process.

Here are some of the design considerations:

- Top speed: Probably for the best she doesn’t top 100km/h
- Acceleration: Nippy, not thrilling
- Range: Would really like to be able to get to the west of Ireland (I live in Meath) without having to do too many stops, so ~150km would be sweet (but probably ambitious).

I’m very much coming at it from the environmental/sustainability/circular economy side of things, so I want to make the entire thing out of upcycled parts if I can.

Current thoughts:

- Prius Gen 2 inverter/converter/charger with Johu board (the potential to reduce cost here is amazing, seriously good work!)
- Existing Suzuki 5 speed transmission and 4WD transfer box (would have loved to go full Bexus on it, but transfer tunnel not big enough for the GS450h monster ☹)
- An AC motor. Still doing a lot of thinking here and haven’t come up with a best option yet. Suggestions appreciated!
- I have ~7kwh worth of miserable lead acids for test purposes but will look to follow Damien’s lead and scavenge hybrid batteries as cost effectively as possible.

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated!

Cheers,

Hugh

[Kevin Sharpe]

Looks like a great project

Please post photo's direct to the forum not via a third party site. We're trying to ensure the forum remains readable when third party sites stop hosting.

Here she is in all her glory. I’ve been gradually repairing rusty parts of the body since the weather improved.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjQCZQVU3MTsgasH0KeHxbZUA_ZYBw

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjQCZQVU3MTsgasC7kd_rDOZwAGLyQ

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjQCZQVU3MTsga4FYoa0ITDoPGMStw

[hugow93]

Thanks Kevin, will fix that now!

[markc5442]

Hi hugow93,

I also intend to convert a Suzuki Samurai to EV.
I'm awaiting the arrival of a Outlander PHEV Rear Controller/Inverter to see if I can use it to control a rear motor from the same vehicle. I also intend to retain the gear and transfer boxes but lose the clutch. I've read somewhere that a Samurai clutch plate might fit the motor splines which makes for a relatively straightforward motor/gearbox coupler.

My performance calculations suggest that the PHEV motor will out perform the ICE engine adequately.
I need to get myself up to speed on how the make torque requests to the controller

All the best with your project.
I'll add mine when I know it's definitely going to be a goer

Mark

[arber333]

I am sure outlander motor would be a great choice. It is a 10pole motor so this means lots of torque at lower end of RPM. Nice car. I am sure you can get 30kwh in it if you work hard to fit some up front.

[Cookie6000]

Great project!
I looked orginally at doing a small 4x4 like this or a Rav4 before settling on the Audi. I'll do a Quattro as my 4x4 next...
As markc5442 said, the Samurai clutch splines (same as Fiat Multipla 1.6l to build my coupler) are a very close fit for the Leaf motor. Bolt it right up to the gearbox and you're away. The clutch could remain in place too if you wanted to go that direction.
Good luck with the build!

[arber333]

Well, I think friction clutch is unnatural thing in EV. Better use BMS pin to disengage motor electricaly and shift through synchros. My wife is ok with that on Mazda... That said, you definitely need some sort of PAS.

[hugow93]

Hi hugow93,

I also intend to convert a Suzuki Samurai to EV.
I'm awaiting the arrival of a Outlander PHEV Rear Controller/Inverter to see if I can use it to control a rear motor from the same vehicle. I also intend to retain the gear and transfer boxes but lose the clutch. I've read somewhere that a Samurai clutch plate might fit the motor splines which makes for a relatively straightforward motor/gearbox coupler.

My performance calculations suggest that the PHEV motor will out perform the ICE engine adequately.
I need to get myself up to speed on how the make torque requests to the controller

All the best with your project.
I'll add mine when I know it's definitely going to be a goer

Mark

Hey Mark,

Nice to hear you're considering a Samurai too, have you got the vehicle?

I've absolutely no doubt that you could beat the performance of the ICE, if mine is anything to go by.
I would even go as far as to wager I could possibly extend the range of this thing too by converting it.
Only get something like 220 km to a tank and it's an absolute guzzler.

Outlander option sounds like a good move. If I'd been patient enough I would have gone for an all hybrid set up too.
I got a used Siemens 1pv5135 motor, Prius gen 2 inverter and controller board during lockdown and after attending the New Electric Ireland course a couple of weeks ago have started to bring it all together. Should hopefully get it spinning in manual mode tomorrow, and need to get a resolver plug for the motor to get that wired up.

I'll document as I go, but so far I can just say if you're still looking for a good donor vehicle watch out for rust.
Mine might need some chassis welding unfortunately.

[hugow93]

Well, I think friction clutch is unnatural thing in EV. Better use BMS pin to disengage motor electricaly and shift through synchros. My wife is ok with that on Mazda... That said, you definitely need some sort of PAS.

Too true. Working on the bare conversion for now just to get it rolling, but PAS would be a huge improvement. And I'd get to use one of the famous Zafira pumps

[hugow93]

Great project!
I looked orginally at doing a small 4x4 like this or a Rav4 before settling on the Audi. I'll do a Quattro as my 4x4 next...
As markc5442 said, the Samurai clutch splines (same as Fiat Multipla 1.6l to build my coupler) are a very close fit for the Leaf motor. Bolt it right up to the gearbox and you're away. The clutch could remain in place too if you wanted to go that direction.
Good luck with the build!

Thanks Fiachra! Been following your Audi 8e, great work there.
I bought a used Siemens 1pv5135 like Damien has in the LandYacht so will be using that to power the car.

Lots of work to do and still some part sourcing needed, but should hopefully get the inverter spinning the motor in manual mode this week.

[SciroccoEV]

This is the 15th anniversary of my converting a Suzuki 4x4, a Vitara.

With help, it was essentially done in a day, although it was a bit rough around the edges.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9RuXk ... sp=sharing

[Speedy]

Well, that looked like a whole heap of fun!

[Bratitude]

This is the 15th anniversary of my converting a Suzuki 4x4, a Vitara.

With help, it was essentially done in a day, although it was a bit rough around the edges.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9RuXk ... sp=sharing

ahh junkyard wars! the best!

[Cookie6000]

This is the 15th anniversary of my converting a Suzuki 4x4, a Vitara.

Aha! Class! That was regular viewing in our house

[DaveH]

Aha I used to love Scrapheap Challenge. It gave me the jitters though because I am such a procrastinator and always want to do things “correctly”.

[markc5442]

Hey Mark,

Nice to hear you're considering a Samurai too, have you got the vehicle?

I've absolutely no doubt that you could beat the performance of the ICE, if mine is anything to go by.
I would even go as far as to wager I could possibly extend the range of this thing too by converting it.
Only get something like 220 km to a tank and it's an absolute guzzler.

Outlander option sounds like a good move. If I'd been patient enough I would have gone for an all hybrid set up too.
I got a used Siemens 1pv5135 motor, Prius gen 2 inverter and controller board during lockdown and after attending the New Electric Ireland course a couple of weeks ago have started to bring it all together. Should hopefully get it spinning in manual mode tomorrow, and need to get a resolver plug for the motor to get that wired up.

I'll document as I go, but so far I can just say if you're still looking for a good donor vehicle watch out for rust.
Mine might need some chassis welding unfortunately.

Hi hugow93,

I've owned the donor vehicle (SJ413 LWB) for some years now - bought it from a scrapyard and had it running within 20 minutes of delivery. The chassis and running gear is in good condition except for the engine. The body is rotten. The purpose of the conversion is two-fold: the engine runs on 3 cylinders quite well, rarely on 4 - it always runs cold because my journeys are relatively short, off-road and stinks of unburned hydrocarbons and fuel; converting to EV brings the height of the powerplant to less than tyre height in the jounce condition which means that I can do something about the rotten body (hopefully, build a bespoke forward control). The differentials are both automatically locking so I get all 4 wheels driven in tough conditions - I haven't been able to get a replacement vehicle for a reasonable price and all the advantages.

So far I've done a lot of research to see if I think I can get the motor/inverter/battery ++ to work together and have purchased a rear motor and remcu - I just need to make the battery purchase to be able to make a start on the hardware and software.

All the best with yours.

Mark

[hugow93]

Finally been able to make some progress with this build.

I've done exactly nothing on it for almost a year, but after some staring time over the past few days I've started to hit milestones.

- I rebuilt the circuit of: Gen2 Prius inverter - OI VCU - 12v battery - 12v "HV" battery - lightbulb delta

This worked on a manual run once I increased the boost to >10,000

I then connected the phase wires to the terminals of the Siemens 1PV5135 motor and connected a 100v HV source.
The HV source was applied as demonstrated by Damian at the 19 minute mark of the FOC tuning video.

It took a little bit of figuring out and some help from Johu on the Prius Gen2 adaptor board development thread to get the motor to spin.

Turns out the Gen2 inverter kills off phase current below a certain PWM swing.
This means I'll likely have to program a higher boost setting.

To make the siemens spin I needed to:

1) short circuit the 60 watt bulb once precharge was complete. I couldn't get it to spin with any parameter combination when the bulb was in series.
2) Set fslpspnt to >=10 Hz
3) Set ampnom to >= 20%
4) Set boost to ~10,000

When testing I did manage to melt my light gauge phase wires, blow my lightbulb delta bulbs and get a desat error at the end.
So over the next few days I hope to get a better handle on the parameters that suit this motor best and to test it with a throttle pedal and encoder connected.

[hugow93]

At long last, got the first throttle controlled spin of the Siemens motor today.

I spent all weekend trying to get the encoder wired correctly.
Thanks Arber and Isaac for suggestions with that.
Turns out that the connector plug I have isn't giving a reliable contact, which was the cause for much of the head scratching.

Today I wired up a Prius throttle pedal and set the parameters.
Then I hooked up my 100V text pack to see if I could get the motor spinning under throttle command.
I got several DESAT errors before I found a combination of parameters that worked (I'm sure I'll have to tune again with motor loaded).

I set boost to 10,000, and had the motor spin up to 6000 RPM without issue.

Now that I've gotten this much working on the bench, I'm going to pull together the HVJB (doing precharge with a 60W bulb at the moment).

I have a complete Renault Zoe HVJB that I scavenged from a battery pack, has anybody used one of those for their conversion?

[jerrymic]

Wish I could add something useful to the thread. Just wanted to mention I have a Siemens 1PV5135 motor on the way and am very much looking forward to your future posts. Will soon order an OI board and potentially a Prius inverter.

In a separate note, I really like the idea of converting a Suzuki Samurai. There is a strong market for them here in southern California, so prices are high. I picked up an old corvair van to convert instead.

Best,
Jerry

[hugow93]

Wish I could add something useful to the thread. Just wanted to mention I have a Siemens 1PV5135 motor on the way and am very much looking forward to your future posts. Will soon order an OI board and potentially a Prius inverter.

In a separate note, I really like the idea of converting a Suzuki Samurai. There is a strong market for them here in southern California, so prices are high. I picked up an old corvair van to convert instead.

Best,
Jerry

Thanks Jerry, best of luck with your project! I'm in Ireland and I wish my Samurai was as rust free as a Southern California model might be. It's turned into both a restoration and a conversion project.

Here's the latest:

• Removed body from chassis earlier this summer to fix body rust.

• Welded some patches in the chassis body mounts.

• Coupled the Siemens to the 5 speed manual transmission. I'm nervous that this could be an obvious point of failure, given the rate that Damien chews through transmissions in his BMW.

• Designed and fabricated a motor mount and put the Siemens and transmission back in the chassis. Pretty happy with how that turned out. I was able to use the existing motor mounts and it fits well.

At the moment I'm playing a never ending game of tetris trying to fit the 12 Renault Zoe cells into the car.
I can get 3 where the old fuel tank was, 6 in the back if I ditch the seats, but I'm finding it hard to fit both the remaining block of 3 cells and the Prius Gen 2 inverter up front.

Task list at the moment:

1. Battery boxes

• Finish welding body and refit (waiting on new sills to arrive)

• Install cooling system

• First roll

• Figure out the Zoe BMS

• Figure out Prius Gen2 charging or install an outlander charger

• Power brakes

So, plenty of work to do yet

I also have a Gen2 Toyota Hilux Surf (4runner) that has a diesel leak and I would love to convert.
Any ideas on that from the community would be great. Currently watching the Beached Whale build with strong interest.

[nkiernan]

I also have a Gen2 Toyota Hilux Surf (4runner) that has a diesel leak and I would love to convert.
Any ideas on that from the community would be great. Currently watching the Beached Whale build with strong interest.

Past the point of no return now Looking good

That's the hilux in the background??? Would love to see that done also I was looking for an early gen crew cab hilux but they're pushing high figures now

[hugow93]

I also have a Gen2 Toyota Hilux Surf (4runner) that has a diesel leak and I would love to convert.
Any ideas on that from the community would be great. Currently watching the Beached Whale build with strong interest.

Past the point of no return now Looking good

That's the hilux in the background??? Would love to see that done also I was looking for an early gen crew cab hilux but they're pushing high figures now

Thanks Neil! Spent all weekend measuring it up again, and finally happy with battery box size and location. I know you had your boxes custom made, but I'm going to scour the net first to see if I can find some cheap steel cases that would work to save cost.

That's it alright, another picture below. Pie in the sky until I get the first car rolling, but unsure what else I would do with it!
If/when I get to it I'll be using your build as a template without a doubt. The one added difficulty is that the transfer case is part of the auto box so would have to get a transfer case from a manual.


The Surfs tend to be a fair bit cheaper than the pure Hilux, early models of the pickup can't be had cheap in any condition.

[hugow93]

From the depths of hell, the Samurai lives!
Yesterday I got it moving under EV power for the first time (see low def parent video of rusty car linked below).

It's been a long time since I wrote a post here.
Absence largely due to difficulty getting body panels to repair rust (still being held up as evidenced by rusty body), project not being where I live and spending much of this year on a ship.
Somehow the Samurai has survived my many attempts to abandon it.

The set up was with 180v of the 360v Zoe pack, and Siemens 1pv driven by Gen 2 prius inverter.

I didn't go any further or faster due to a combination of tuning bugs and a rare triumph of common sense:

• No cooling connected

• No brakes connected

• The motor motion was violently jerky and needs tuning

• The throttle was only reading 16% pressed, despite moving through the full range of programmed digs

I'll back date this build thread now with some photos and requests for help on various issues.

As it stands, POA is:

• Finish battery boxes (post to come)

• Fix HVJB bug (post to come)

• Set up basic cooling loop

• Set up brake vacuum pump

• Fix throttle bug

• Tune motor with full voltage pack connected

All of that before I go near the holy trinity of BMS:Charging:DC-DC


Video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_2Tfym ... sp=sharing

[nkiernan]

Great to see an update and big milestone to hit

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

You keep checking in on it, and it stubbornly keeps refusing to finish itself. The nerve.

Great to see followthrough. Keep at it!