The Moskvitch E-pedal car

[Wurly]

Hi Guys
I thought you might like to see this.
I picked it up from a swapmeet at a hot rod event.
It's a Moskvitch pedal car. Pretty kool i think. In case you don't know (and most of you will not) i have recently become a grandad to little Charlie who is now 7months young and this his going to be his first car. So i think i have a couple years to fix it up.

I would like the car to be electric assist, but not sure how yet. I'm thinking a small geared hub driving the rear axle through a sprocket arrangement. I have a spare tongxin motor and a 36Vping lifepo4 5Ah battery which should be an easy style of 'plug and play' that his parents can deal with.
It needs to have a pedelec sensor and brake arrangement (discon the rear axle?). The controller will also have a throttle overide to limit power to the motor. I have sussed out a circuit that works very well on my wifes bike so i will make another for the pedal car.
Anyway...i'm getting way ahead of myself.

There is some panel beating to do first

A bad fender bender incident!!!

Bandy legged suspension nearly collapsing turns out to be spot welds seperating.

Hey you! with the funny nose...........

If you 'squint your eyes' it almost looks like Ford Falcon gasser............errrr ok maybe not. Still looks cool in front of my roadster

Fordski

Underneath shows the swing pedals and rear axle drive mechanism and wobbly steering.

It even has rear suspension..

Last photo for now. Two chassis rails shows the possibilty of adding crossmembers to hold the motor and battery etc

The big problem i think is the swing pedals. i would prefer to replace with a small kiddies bicycle crank and sproket but that needs clearance for leg movement or do i keep the swingpedals and figure out a better drive to the rear axle?
What do you think?
Over to the ES experts.please involve yourself. I want this to be a fun project.

Oh yes, if i have posted in the wrong section can the mods please move it to somewhere suitable. Thanks

 

[Rassy]

Looks like a fun project.

What if you removed the pedal capability, at least for starters, so it is just a pure electric with a throttle. That way he could probably use it at a younger age.

Of course, keep the pedal stuff etc. so it can be restored to original condition in the future.

Enjoy.

 

[Wurly]

His parents wouldn't want me to make only electric and tbh neither do i. We live in a hilly part of England. I had one when i was young and remember getting it to move required pushing it along with your feet like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. The idea is to make it easier but not take away all effort.
Not interested in restoring it either. It was dirt cheap.

 

[TylerDurden]

Nice.

You might consider putting a sprocket in the middle of the rear axle. The PAS sensor could read the sprocket rotation and a motor/chain could drive the sprocket.

I rekon the motor would need a freewheel or sprag, for unpowered operation.

 

[Lock]

How hard would it be to build a linear motor that provides power-assist to the levers connected to the pedals? Optical sensor could make/break energy to the motor coil in sync with pedal motion.

 

[Wurly]

Got to admit, i hadn't thought of using linear motors. Not sure how smooth the operation of would be. I am guessing that part of the rotation of the rear axle (controlled by human effort) is by pressing forward one swing arm while gradually allowing the other swing arm to return hence smoothing the pedalling operation. If a motor suddenly applies forward motion to one swing arm and then the other, wouldn't it result in a jerky movement that a small childs legs wouldn't be able to either keep up with or adapt to.......
Mother wouldn't be best pleased to find my contraption had put the little one in hospital!!
On that note....i also have to think very much about safety. Whatever i build will have to as safe as possible.

This has got me thinking about still using the swing pedals but somehow converting the partial clockwise/couterclockwise movement of the swing pedal shafts to drive a continuous rotation of a supplementary shaft upfront, with a chain and sprocket linking front pedals to the rear axle a pedelec sensor could be fitted to this shaft/sprocket to sense movement and 'switch in' the controller. A new straight rear axle with freewheel/sprocket and tongxin geared hub to drive rear axle. So in other words disconnect the drive rods to the rear axle and convert(somehow) swing pedal drive mechanism to rear axle via chain and sprockets. Hub can be also be linked to rear axle via chain and sprockets.
The tongxin motor has a nice low drag one way clutch so freewheeling or non electric assist use is ok.

So is it possible?
Is there a gearbox/rachet or set up that can convert backwards/forwards motion into a continuous rotational motion?

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Before doing something irreparable to that pedal car, have you checked its true value?

I have a very strong suspicion that you might well find it's worth quite a lot of money, as they were pretty rare and I'm pretty sure they are now highly collectable (rich Russians mainly).

Well worth getting it valued, as you may well kick yourself if you cut it up only to find it's worth a mint........................

 

[Wurly]

Yes i have Jeremy.
It's the very first thing i did. There was a recent sale on ebay. The car looked immaculate, but sold for less than £250. On the other hand there is another listed in Bulgaria for a speculative £1750 that i think is in worst condition.

True value? it's hard to tell. I could spend my time and restore it and make some money. But i wanted to make fun car for him.
I could also spend my time restoring my 1932 Ford Tudor sedan but the first thing i did was chop the roof 4" and drop in a chevy V8.

I think you also have a very valid point though, once i build the e-pedal car and my grandson hopefully has a lot of fun with it, there will be a time when he is grown out of it. Then..it might be worth time to restore it. I have been wrestling with this thought actually, but i don't want it to detract from my reasons why i bought it in the first place.

The highest valued steel pedal cars and most sought after are the Austin J40. If the photos below have uploaded ok you will see one already at £600.


View attachment 2

 

[Farfle]

You might take a look at replacing the rear axle with one from an adult cargo trike, they normally have some fairly stout axles with freewheel interface. a quick search for "schwinn meridian trike" turned up a few leads.

 

[Wurly]

Rather than cut and shut and modify this and that, i am going to replace the original parts with new to suit the project. It is very basic fabrication required to make a new axle with sprockets, a new swing pedal arrangement and associated fittings, (i can do this). I'll store the original brackets and fittings somewhere ready for a future restoration.

In the meantime i am going to straighened out the chassis and body work and figure out a method of making it electric assist without detriment to the structure of the original pedal car....mmmmmm!
So i still need a way of making a push pull, twin swing pedal, turn a rotary shaft.

Think of two rachet socket wrenches tightening a single bolt. Push the first one forward and pull the second one back. The forward motion tightens the bolts while the returning motion clicks on a rachet and does nothing. Now push the second one forward and it also tightens the bolt while the first one returns on the rachet. etc etc.
Is this making sense :wink:
Or maybe you (clever people on ES) know a better way