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I'm restoring a 1980 Comutacar, and I'm stuck on a problem: While the car can power itself forwards and backwards in my garage, it has very, very little torque. It can not make it up my driveway, which is about 2" of elevation over 15 feet. When testing the driveway climb, the motor pulls about 350A from the controller (with a 48V battery) The specs on the car are as follows: * Curtis 1209B-6402 controller, this is a remanufactured controller, and I've tested it with a string of lights, so it's good. * 4 12V deep cycle batteries. * The motor is the stock 6HP GE field coil motor. * Brakes are fine, I can turn the rear wheels with my hand * There's no voltage drop anywhere in the system, and all the wiring looks great (cool) when I run it for an hour and look at it with a FLIR camera. This is the build log for this project ( https://bbenchoff.github.io/pages/Citicar.html ) , which covers most of the troubleshooting so far. The setup for the car is 48V batteries into the contactors (which are wired up correctly), into the controller, and out to the motor. I've had a few people look at this, compare it to the controller manual, and no one can find anything wrong with the wiring. I took the motor into a shop to get inspected/diagnosed, and that came back fine. The motor, as much as I can tell, is fine. Running the car on jacks makes the wheels spin, quite fast, actually. About 80mph per my laser tach. In this state it draws ~40A with no load, peaking to about 100A at startup. For the driveway test, the controller is pulling ~350A and honestly I have no idea where it's going I've talked to a few people and there seems to be two theories for fixing this. * Somehow, the field coils in the motor aren't clocked right. The symptom of this is the car should have more torque in either the forward or reverse direction; I have not observed this. Also, there's no real way to adjust the 'phase' between the brushes and the field coils. I could swap it 180 degrees, but that would just be the same. * A competing theory is that something is wrong with the diff / transaxel. Here, I have nothing. I flushed the fluid in the diff and replaced it with new oil, so *that's* probably not it. Could it be the bearings? I don't know. The wheels spin freely, and I really can't find a good pic of how the diff is put together (the scan of the citicar manual I have is lacking in this regard). So that's the problem. Any ideas? Anyone have a diff/rear axel for sale?

There was a citicar shown very briefly in the CW TV show Naiomi. It is episode 12, broadcast on the CW on May 10. The show is available via streaming through the CW app. It is about 15 to 20 mins in (including commercials). There is an exterior shot of a diner and there is a citicar painted in bright colors sitting in front of it. Kriss Davis, Normal IL.

A new YouTube video on the Henney Kilowatt The Henney Kilowatt--Bloomington's Battery-powered 'Car of Tomorrow'" on YouTube https://youtu.be/7Ld3fqf748s Kriss Davis, Normal, IL

remember u can just use jumper cables and a 12v battery direct to the motor to test the motor and move it around the shop bob

They want $300. Good luck! Yikes. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mid-70s-CitiCar-Commutacar-Battery-Powered-Rebuilt-Motor-PWM-Controller-/194757542320?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

A puppet show

After digging into the 1980 CommutaCar we have found that many of the parts will need to be replaced so I am looking for recommendations for combinations for the batteries/charger/controller to get the thing going. The museum we are putting this together for is going to use it mainly for parades so it doesn't need to go fast. We are probably looking to do something simple. Anyone have suggestions? -- Justin Denney Wabash High School Math Department Chair/PLTW Program Coordinator (260) 494-2689

Recently our engineering class was asked by the local small town museum to diagnose and possibly get running a 1980 Commutacar that has been sitting in a barn for a couple decades. We have had it a couple days now and have been trying to figure out what all of the rusty parts are inside. I have a ton of pictures and my class would greatly appreciate anyone who would want to share their knowledge about reviving one of these guys. -- Justin Denney Wabash High School Math Department Chair/PLTW Program Coordinator (260) 494-2689

Cleaning house, left over parts off of a citicar (1975) all OEM. original radio works (speaker so-so) with knobs and faceplate, Motor cooling fan works & ductwork, front turn signal lights nice, relays, low speed resistor, fuse, original throttle switch assy, one headlight bucket, motor housing stator and end bell, speedometer motor unit, used master cylinder, one spider, mirror, windshield wash system squirt bulb bad, axillary battery tray, wood grain door trim, sill cover, original wiring. If you are interested in any PM me and we'll work a deal. Will scrap leftovers in a couple of weeks. See pictures for more on items.

Sometime in the next month or so, CB [Christopher Bonotto] and I are planning a little drive in the country to retrieve my Tropica/Xebra [yah! that one from the Nash Bridges TV series] in California. Our plans currently in the early stages, are to make several stops along the way. The only specific so far is to take in the EV Museum in Kingman, AZ. We would like to connect with some of you C-Car owners out in those western states we have not yet had a chance to meet at the few C-Car gatherings we have arranged in the past 12 years. Drop CB or me a line and we will see if we can work your location into our trip. In addition to looking for other Tropica EV owners, I would like to connect with anyone who owned, worked on, or remembers this car from the Nash Bridges TV series, Renaissance Car, Zebra, or Xebra Motors. Peter Crisitello 181 Villa Place Rahway, NJ 07065 -2831 Home: (732)574-0776 [no text] Crisitel@... T442163@...

i regret to say i have to sell my 75 c car. 90% original. 847 miles on odometer. 2 sets batteries (6v and 12v). manual, many extra parts.. 5

I killed my blower motor. I found a replacement that dropped in. It's a bilge fan for a boat 3" Dia. Seaflo brand. Shop around for about $30.

I finally got around to installing new shocks on my '81 last weekend. I had never changed shocks before and it turned out to be much easier than I thought. While it still doesn't exactly ride like a Cadillac, there is a noticeable improvement. Well, OK, it rides a little less like a go-cart and I couldn't get the front end to bounce off the road on the way to work this morning. Just part of the ambience….I guess. Anyway, the Monroe shock #94037 from NAPA is a perfect fit. If you use these shocks, you will need to modify the lower shock mount bushing slightly. There is a metal sleeve in the center of this lower bushing you will need to remove because the diameter is too small for the car shock mounting. I tried beating it out, didn't work, the glue holding it is impressive. I ended up taking a ?" drill bit to it. When you start drilling the sleeve, it heats up and it will spin right out on your bit. After you get the sleeve out, you will still need to ream out the hole with the same drill bit before it can be forced on the car mounting bolt. It probably would have been nice to have a shock with a sleeve that fits, but the original shocks didn't have them either and there weren't any wear problems, so I guess it's OK. Getting rid of twenty-five year old shocks is probably a good thing to put on the "to do" list. At $22 each, it was worth it.

Hi Everyone - I am looking at a 1981 Comuta-car and the seller notes that the series parallel contact relay needs to be replaced. Is this a hard part to find a substitute for (or an original)? I spoke to a few electrical engineers and they were wary that it would be a custom part that might be hard to locate, or that any substitute would not fit in the location. This would be my first EV purchase. Thank you in advance for your responses.

I have two original Citi-car shop manuals for sale. I am asking 25.00 apiece for them plus shipping if any one is interested.

Greetings group! Can anyone tell me where all the files went when we left the Yahoo group? I’m looking for parts data, especially the rear brake cylinders for a 76 Citicar. Thanks Shane

Hi All! I have a 76Citicar with 8 6v deep cycle GC2 Interstate batteries. Batteries are 2 years old with next to no use of them. I let the car and batteries sit for 8-10 months in heated/cooled garage. Then I drove citicar up and down the block twice and a few times on jack stands before putting batteries away for the second winter. So the batteries went a year without touching them I believe and then charged during the second winter and again in the spring before I put them in the car. Curtis 1204 Electronic controller. What would the experts think is the problem in the following: At rest batteries read 49.8V (I'd used the car a bit so batteries weren't at full charge) Batteries under load (driving) = drops steadily to 40.6 with acceleration and then levels out a little over 41V Batteries under load (car jacked up) = 44.0V Controller output under load (car jacked up) = 41.50V So the batteries drop a lot during load. Is this indicative of bad batteries or that I haven't cycled them enough to be at full capacity? Or is that drop normal? Is there something wrong with controller or is a 2.5 V drop normal? Any and all ideas would be appreciated!

Emergency power from the C-Car Since the C-CAR has a lot of batteries and provides a great plugin source of power for your home during a blackout, you might be interest in another group.io that I moderate: [email protected] | Home The group covers all topics on emergency power, solar, EV's, whole house batteries etc. . There was a lot of discussion after the recent power outages in various parts of teh county over recent months. Otherwise only about an email every few weeks maybe. Bob, WB4APR Author http://aprs.org/Energy-Choices.html

Commuta car lovers, I find I'm in need of a replacement hub for my rear wheel Dana axle i believe with the axle nut. I've been having a ball restoring one wheel at a time: Giving each part a dip in my electrolysis bucket then nice high-heat paint job. Pictures soon to follow. Unfortunately, rear hub unsalvageable. anyone willing to trade or sell me a hub? 1980 Commuta car w/ axle nut rear Finally warm enough to play outside with my toy David -- D Foy "GIZMO" Commuta Car 1980 Annapolis, MD

Hello Group...starting to look little warmer more daylight soon. Wondered what people in the know thought about using smaller lithium battery packs power car in place lead acid. Seen this video on youtube below at 1;59 .....looked like couple over-sized bike battery units in trunk? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1nkAzhfh74 Seemed to recall magic number being 48v100ah to get any real distance worth while. Have seen the Chevy Volt battery on ebay $450plus...48v 50-100ah. Seen few people using them on youtube and mentioned this group site. Ran accross these bike battery units on ebay and thought attractively priced Is purchasing two of these similar to a Volt Battery at half the price? New with chargers? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lithium-48V-58Ah-Ebike-Battery-1000W-Pack-High-Power-Charger-Ebike-Ion-Battery/293972316993 Whats your thoughts?