battery mounts

Step 17:  Make platforms to mount batteries.  I'm going simple with 3/4" plywood.  In the front the plywood is secured to the motor mount and a horizontal brace, in the rear bolted through the floor of the trunk.  The only protection the batteries will have will be provided by the car and hood or trunk lid.  My idea is to use polyester strapping to strap the batteries to the plywood.  It will be about 200 pounds of batteries for each location.

There will be 14 batteries in the front and 16 in the rear.

air conditioning

Step 16:  Achieve refrigeration.  This part needed to be worked out before putting a large battery in the way.  Route the A/C hoses tucked away, a large battery is going to go in here.  The A/C ports will be accessible with the battery in place, and the compressor serviceable from underneath.  The high side port, pictured (red), is tucked under the dryer.  The low side port is up against the firewall.  

The jumper cables are for running the compressor on 12V while filling and testing.  The traction motor draws roughly 600W idling at 12V.  The air conditioning system increases power draw by roughly 700W.  

The battery may look like this box.  So I want to work the kinks out of the air conditioning before being encumbered with it.

Evacuated and filled with R134a.  Ice-cold!



Well, it was ice-cold then the compressor made noises and seized up. I learned that a refrigerant compressor has to be mounted right-side-up.  There is an oil plug on the body which has to be within 90 degrees of up.  It probably ran for 30 minutes upside down - don't do that!  

New compressor installed.  Air conditioning complete.

Tools acquired: AC gauges and cheapy vacuum pump from Harbor Freight

trunk seal

Step 15:  Replace trunk seal.  Much of the electronics will be located in the trunk.  Replace the seal to keep them dry (hopefully).

The layout of components is depicted below.  In place of the 12 batteries pictured though I'll have 30 (3.2V each).

The big silver box in the top picture is an old PMC transistor controller from my first EV:  the rebuilt Jet Electra - which it pushed around for 4 1/2 years.  The switching frequency is only 4kHz so it's audible and makes AM radio interference that sounds like a Harley Davidson.  I inspected the insides and it still looks very clean though I may replace the electrolytic caps as cheap insurance in case they're dried out.

hood supports

Step 14:  Install pneumatic hood supports to facilitate the showing of under-the-hood.  This replaces the stick previously used.  I picked 30 pound strength supports and could have gone a little stronger.  These will work anyway, they securely hold it in the up position and it is very easy to open and close the hood.

ammeter

Step 13:  Install ammeter.  I decided to monitor battery current and motor current.  I used romex wire because it has the potential to be at high voltage.  Plus I had some laying around.

The meters fit where the old heater controls were. 

Through the firewall.

The shunt for the motor current hangs off the motor terminal.  A cable will go from the other end of the shunt, under the car, into the trunk to the motor controller.

The shunt for the battery current hangs off the battery stack contactor.

5mm x 20mm fuses inline. 

battery disconnect switch / fans / contactor

Step 10:  Install battery disconnect switch.  For this I'm using a huge breaker installed in the gas filler.  It can be manually tripped by a power-take-off cable from the driver's seat.  It is a standard with conversions to have a battery disconnect switch where the gas filler was for easy location by emergency crew.  Typically I think this is just a kill-switch to the main contactor triggered by the gas filler flap and doubles up with a feature to prevent driving off while connected to a charger which is also commonly through the gas filler.  It was a good spot for the breaker anyway.

Step 11:  Wire up motor fan and condenser fan to switches in the dash.  Something was wrong with the bearings in the condenser fan that came with the car, it didn't spin freely and it pulled excessive current.  So I replaced it with an after-market fan that works great and only draws 4 amps. The 3rd switch is wired into the throttle circuit and will be used to make the motor idle when stopped for the air conditioning compressor to function.

Step 12:  Install main contactor.  This is a high power relay that will connect the battery to the motor controller.  No picture for this but it sits in the engine bay and is wired to close with the key switch.  You may hear it click in the video. 

throttle

Step 9:  Rig throttle.  Original throttle linkage, there's a spring on the wiper arm and a spring on the foot pedal.