Help with Navitas 4kw Motor Installation in CC DS

[ACHiPo]

I'm in the home stretch of my Club Car DS upgrade and am ready to install the Navitas 4kw motor. I have a come-along and a floor jack, and various web straps. What's the recommended way to get that ~60 lb motor into place?

[fstop]

Originally Posted by ACHiPo

I'm in the home stretch of my Club Car DS upgrade and am ready to install the Navitas 4kw motor. I have a come-along and a floor jack, and various web straps. What's the recommended way to get that ~60 lb motor into place?

I put the 5kw motor (around 70lbs IIRC) into my Onward by myself, from below (lifted cart). Cart was not jacked up, but brakes locked and chocked.
Wasn't easy, but I used a "ramp" 1x8 to slide the motor from floor level forward, sliding it rearward and up on top of the axle (had a stop behind the axle so the motor wouldn't fall off the end). When the motor was more or less lined up, I tilted the ramp up at the front so it became a platform, then chocked the front so the board was parallel to the floor. The thickness of the 1x8 was almost exactly the right space above the axle to slide the motor over into the splines w/out much lifting etc...

I also had to remove the passenger side rear shock damper temporarily as I recall.

Worked for me, but the DS may be a different animal.

Good luck!

[ACHiPo]

Originally Posted by fstop

I put the 5kw motor (around 70lbs IIRC) into my Onward by myself, from below (lifted cart). Cart was not jacked up, but brakes locked and chocked.
Wasn't easy, but I used a "ramp" 1x8 to slide the motor from floor level forward, sliding it rearward and up on top of the axle (had a stop behind the axle so the motor wouldn't fall off the end). When the motor was more or less lined up, I tilted the ramp up at the front so it became a platform, then chocked the front so the board was parallel to the floor. The thickness of the 1x8 was almost exactly the right space above the axle to slide the motor over into the splines w/out much lifting etc...

I also had to remove the passenger side rear shock damper temporarily as I recall.

Worked for me, but the DS may be a different animal.

Good luck!

Thanks. I hadn’t thought of a ramp. Will noodle on that.

[ACHiPo]

I think I'm going to try using my battery lift tool hooked in the two eyelets of the Navitas motor and muscle it into place after lifting it most of the way on the floor jack. I have the cart up on jack stands so it's about 24" off the floor. There's enough room to get the motor on the jack in position and lifted, but the motor doesn't want to stay in position. I'm hoping the battery lift strap will be sufficient to guide it.

[ACHiPo]

I was over thinking it. I don't have a back seat. I pulled the access cover. This morning I hooked my battery strap to the two eyelets, and muscled the motor in from the top. The worst part was getting the eyelets through the opening (I measured the motor, but not the eyelets, so I had to twist the motor such that the eyelets were vertical rather than horizontal). Once the motor was through the access hole, it was pretty easy to lower it down and slip onto the shaft. I did coat the transmission shaft with some anti-sieze in addition to smearing a little grease in the motor shaft which made sliding the motor home a piece of cake.

One thing I found weird was the countersunk hole on the bottom of the motor was too small to get a socket into. I added a 1/4" spacer under the lock washer so I could tighten it adequately and would be able to get the bolt out in the future.

I didn't see anything in the instructions on how to deal with this, and there was no 4th bolt included in the kit.

[fstop]

Glad it worked out. IIRC, that bolt hole you mention didn't have a bolt in that position in my Onward from the factory. Not sure the stock motor even had a hole in that spot. I put a SS phillips head screw in there for good measure (that's a pretty big screw) so there was no issue with socket wall thickness.