Battery Vehicle Society

Oh hear my sorry tale of woe!

If you're doing any work on your EL's rear end (namely backplate and suspension) then it's worth investing in a torque wrench and some loctite.

My El's off the road again due to a suspension colapse. The first time this happened it wasn't my fault (shortly after I got her one side died) and I had it helicoiled by Alan at Panic Engineering (he's converted an Aixam to lithium) That side has been fine ever since....

But the right hand side has now broken twice. Once at speed (down to a poor helicoil) and the third time due to me not tightening the thing up enough from fear of stripping the soft aluminium.

So...

If you're going to work on the rear of your EL be VERY careful. Quite a few parts are soft aluminium and you'll destroy them if you become over enthusiastic with the spanner!

Ordered another rear backplate, which will hopefully arrive just after Christmas....

Nikki.

I see what you mean they really are an achilles heal !! Dreadful design.

Unfortunately the cost of manufacturing a better unit it to prohibitive, so looks like we are stuck with them.

However on my proposed swing arm suspension there will be no need for the 2 daft rubber bushes, which float it every other way, other than the right way.
On my proposal the swing arm itself will be mounted on a rubber bush with the backplate assembly bolted directly to the swing arm, in doing it this way spring washers can be used and will also allow the bolts to be torqued up to the correct limit. Hopefully vibration from the drive will be absorbed by the swing arm bushes and the rubber bushed shock absorbers.
Only in practice will I know if my theories work

I'll be interested to know how that goes, Dave. Are you replacing the back wheels all together? I wondered if a rear axle off a quad would work. They must be about the same width. Of course, you'd need to marry some suitable wheels up!

Nikki.