Just fishing

Fishing in this case refers to routing wires from the front of the vehicle to the back. Since the charger and the majority of the batteries are in the back of the car there needs to be a way to connect the components in the engine bay to the components in the rear.

To accomplish this I constructed a conduit made of PVC pipe. The conduit is fastened underneath the vehicle in the approximate position of the old exhaust system. Through the conduit multiple wires will be routed.

I've pulled through most of the smaller wiring. The next step is to pull through the "big wires".






The picture above is where the exhaust pipe ended in the back. I'll connect this to one other piece (seen from inside the vehicle below) in order to get the wires into the battery box.

Just spaghetti

Spaghetti:
1. pasta in the form of long strings
2. the electrical wiring in a car!



This past weekend I mounted most of the major electrical components and started wiring some of the high voltage components together. I'll post pictures and comments on that another time.

Tonight I started working on the low voltage (12V) wiring. One of the first things I did was re-attach the factory fuse box and make sure it was working.


I was very happy when the lights, wipers, and such worked properly :-)

Next was to create a new fuse box for the low voltage components I was adding. This required hooking the old fuse box to the new power supply. That part was easy. The harder part is "tapping" into the factory circuits. For instance some of the new equipment needs to turn on when the ignition is in the RUN position. Some need a signal from the START position. And some need a constant power supply regardless of the ignition position.

For the START position I decided to use the wire that went to the old starter. I had labeled the wire when I disconnected it. Additionally I have the factory manuals and the wiring diagrams.


So I went ahead and hooked up the volt meter to the starter wiring and put the ignition in the START position. The meter read zero volts. So I checked the connections and tried again. Still no voltage on the wiring. Finally I consulted the manual above. What it diagrammed and what I had forgotten is that clutch needed to be depressed to close the circuit. So I try again with the clutch down and bingo! The volt meter lights up.

Next I needed to find a wire that only turns on when the ignition is in the RUN position. I had about 50 wires that used to go to the engine and engine computer that I no longer needed. One of these should work. Initially I looked in the manual for the circuits turned on by RUN. Eventually I decided it was easier just to use the volt meter and check a few wires.

The good news is that there were several wires that fit the description. The bad news is that all the wires are signal wires and not large enough to supply the 40amps needed for the circuits. That means I'll have to go out tomorrow and get a relay for this set of circuits.

Here's a picture of the fuse box at this point. At the top of the picture you can see one of the mini fuse blocks that will distribute power to the low voltage components. (Don't worry Chris. I plan to neaten it up).


This is a diagram of the circuit blocks to be connected.

Just $0.35 vs $200.00

The title of this post refers to the cost difference between fixing vs replacing a part. A little background first.

While disassembling the car I had to detach the shifter cables from the transmission. These cables connect the "stick shift" inside the car to the transmission. The cables translate the motion of moving the shifter to actual gear shifting.

In the process of removing the cables from the attachment to the transmission I ended up snapping the plastic bushings that connect the cables to the transmission. Here is a picture of the snapped bushing.




There is another part to this bushing that is not shown. It is a hollow half sphere made of metal that sits in the center of the bushing and snaps onto the transmission shifter.

Here's the bushing attached to the transmission. You can see the bottom arrow points to where the bushing is still attached. The top arrow points to where the bushing has been removed (and the little ball it snaps onto).


The cable fits over the bushing. You can see the eyelet where the bushing would go through.



So when this happened it was no big deal. The cables were undamaged. The transmission shifter was undamaged. All I needed to do was go to the dealership and get the replacement bushings. How much could they cost? :-(

The answer to that question is $0. You know why? They don't sell them separately. You see, Saturn has decided that if these break you have to buy the entire set of cables. Then remove the old set and install the new set! And how much are these cables? Over $200 (and that's the cheaper aftermarket price).

So now I have a dilemma. Do I spend $200 for something that can't cost more than $0.50? And if I don't how do I fix this?

Well my first inclination was to check the internet groups that discuss the Saturn Vue. I can't be the first person this happened to. Sure enough I was not. Apparently these bushing break frequently under normal use. Unfortunately no one had a good answer for fixing them. The best solution I could find was to cut off the metal ends where the cables attach, drill a hole and tap it. Then I could insert a bolt to hold the cables in place. Not the solution I was looking for.

My second thought was to find another manufacturer, application, or device that used the same type of bushing. Then I could modify it to work for me. Again no luck. These bushings seem to be unique.

The next idea was to find another Saturn Vue in a salvage yard and "harvest" the parts I needed. And that was where I was headed until I decided to create my own bushing.

So I ended up buying stiff polypropylene tubing the same diameter of the bushing. I then cut off a piece the same length as the bushing.


Next I drilled several holes in the tubing to insert cotter pins. The plan was to trap the neck of the shifter (below the ball) between the cotter pins. Total cost...about $0.35.

Here's the result.


Running through the gears the shifter works fine. The ultimate test will be how it holds up. Luckily with an electric motor shifting is at a minimum. Only time will tell.

Just a quick post

Now that the racks are completed I've started laying out the components. Here is a picture from the top.


The grey box on the right is the low voltage fuse box. The small green box next to it is the Hairball (the brains of the controller). Under the two is a large grey box holding the high voltage fuses.

On the bottom right is a black box. This is the car's original fuse box. The big green box with the dinosaur on it is the Zilla. The Zilla is the high voltage part of the controller. The silver/blue boxt next to it is the DC converter for supplying power to the 12V circuits. Not shown is the vacuum pump (for the brakes), the water pump (cooling the controller), and the hot water heater (passenger compartment heat).

Just another update

When last we spoke or at least when last I spoke...actually when last I wrote...scratch that. When last I typed!

When last I typed I had just finished laying out the front battery racks. That was last weekend. This weekend I finished installing the racks.

Here are pictures of the top rack. It will hold four batteries.




Since my welding skills are non-existent the racks are bolted into place. First holes were drilled into the chassis and rivnuts fastened to the chassis. This basically makes the hole threaded in order to receive the bolt. The racks were then bolted into place with 3/8" grade 8 bolts. The cross members were secured with 1/4" bolts to the supporting members.

Since the chassis is not a flat and level in the engine bay some shimming of the racks was required in order to keep the racks level. One inch nuts and fender washers made great shims.


The lower rack was attached by 6" bolts through the frame. No rivnuts were needed since the bolts protruded through the chassis.


Per the last post I was planning on putting nine batteries in front. The two racks above hold seven total. The last two were going to sit in a rack between these two and close to the level of the lower rack. Unfortunately I'm about 3/4" of an inch short in space. I could put one more there and then one more in the back. But I think I'll put two more in the back since I have plenty of room there and use the extra space for the auxiliary 12V battery and other components.