Synergy Drive Teardown video

I'll have to check out in more detail, when I find some time.

 

Nice. I hope they do a teardown on a GenIII trans in the future.

 

amazing. i'd like to see them put it back together. i could do it, and make some money on the leftover parts.

 

That's for the find.

 

I especially like your attempt at the 3 phase power supply. You were close. Good stuff. Thanks.

 

The simplistic nature of the Prius transmission amazes me. It is simple but complex to understand. A serious leap forward in efficiency (less metal, less moving parts, more efficient, less maintenance, more reliable, lighter). I am continually amazed at the engineering in the Prius.

 

So here's a question......can a bad bearing like the 1 in the vid be replaced?

 

My thoughts exactly. With all of the parts of the Synergy drive connected together on a table they are amazingly simple.

I would have thought that the disassembly from the transaxle would be much more difficult than shown in the video. After seeing this I would be much more tempted to try this myself, with assistance from a mechanic friend, if I ever have the need.

 

I was surprised at how short was the path of the coolant loop. I'd always imagined that it went through a bunch of pipes or something to cool the ATF and the motor windings.

Re the guys attempt to power it from the makeshift 3 phase AC supply. They had no chance with the end cap removed and the rotor supported on just one bearing like that. Even if they had the correct excitation (which would have required a very low frequency 3 phase AC voltage) it still wouldn't have spun like that. The magnets on the rotor produce huge transverse forces unless the rotor is very well centered and held firmly in place via the bearings at both ends. I've tried to run motors with one end open like this before (for demonstration purposes), and the rotor just deflects sideways and binds to the inner wall of the stator as soon as you apply excitation.

We saw precisely this thing happening later in the video when they connected the two stator (mg1 and mg2) together to try to run it as a "selsyn drive". MG2 was clearly binding due to it hanging on just the bearing at one end.

Still it was a fantastic video and very informative. A big thumbs up here.

 

Here is the latest breakthrough 8-speeds ZF transmission. It doesn't have two electric motors but has the following:

• 4x planetary gearsets
• 2x brakes
• 3x clutches
• 1x torque converter
• weights 91 kg

Gen III Prius transaxle (eCVT) with two MGs weights 88 kg (with ATF included).

 

I see what you mean the stator has to be centered and supported on each end so it can rotate feely. The minute there's excitation it will just whack over to the fields. Good one.