Just clumsy

It's now been about 6 months and 2500 miles on the Vue since I converted it to all electric. The Vue has been running great without any problems until....

Last week when I went to charge the Vue the charger tripped the ground fault circuit interupt (GFCI) outlet. For those not familiar with GFCI they are the outlets you have in your bathroom and kitchen to prevent you from electrocuting yourself near water.

In simple terms the GFCI works by detecting the current in the hot leg of the circuit (going out) and the neutral leg of the circuit (returning). Under normal operation they are the same (or within a few milliamps). If for some reason there was a path for the electricity to flow other than the wires, say you standing in a puddle holding an electric appliance, the GFCI would detect this and shut off the circuit. That way the electricity wouldn't flow through you to ground.

When the charger on the Vue is working it sends electrical current through the wiring to the batteries. Under normal circumstances this circuit is isolated from the vehicle. You don't want someone touching the vehicle and creating a new path for electricity to flow through them to ground.

Unfortunately there are a couple of places where a connection between the wiring and vehicle frame can occur with normal use. One source is the batteries. As they charge they create an acid mist which covers the batteries. This coating can create a path between the batteries and the vehicle ground.

Another source is dirt/grime on the motor. Enough of it can create a path from the cables attached to the motor to vehicle ground.

So the purpose of the GFCI is safety during charging. If a ground fault is detected the outlet shuts off so no one can get a shock or worse, while the car charges.

Since my GFCI kept tripping I knew I had a ground fault somewhere. Now I had to track it down. After cleaning all of my batteries and putting additional insulation on some of the exposed metal battery racks I still was having the problem.

With the help of the Electric Vehicle Discussion List I assembled a sophisticated ground fault detection device. Basically it is an extension cord with one end cut off. One of the wires is connected to the vehicle chassis. The other serves as a test probe. The extension cord is plugged in and the "hot" end of the exposed cord is used to touch/probe suspected wires that may be causing the problem. If the GFCI trips than that circuit is causing the problem.

(Note to any readers. Please don't try this at home without appropriate precautions. I've been working on this high voltage electrical system for a year so was comfortable with the voltages and currents involved. I took multiple safety precautions including insulation/protection of all exposed wiring and wearing of insulated rubber gloves meant for high voltage work. And even though I am not an electrical engineer or electrician I stayed at a Holiday Inn the previous night :-0)

Using this method I eventually isolated the fault to a dirty motor. So after a little degreaser and scrubbing of the outside of the motor the ground fault was repaired.

Now for the clumsy part. During the mucking around required to access my high voltage wiring in the fuse box I put a little too much tension on a wire connection and....well the pictures below say it all. The top picture should be attached to the bottom one.



So prior to my efforts I had a vehicle that ran great, but I couldn't charge. Now I have a vehicle that I can charge, but can run.

Luckily for me the good people at CafeElectric who make what I broke also can repair what I broke. So off to the west coast it goes for repair, hopefully to return soon.

Just legal

Not to be confused with barely legal :-)

This week marked a milestone for the Electric Vue. I was finally able to get the safety inspection sticker required by the state.

Since putting the vehicle on the road I've been waiting for my local mechanic to get back to me on the inspection. He had no idea what needed to be done for an electric only vehicle and had to check with the state on the inspection requirements. It took a while for the state to get back to him. Finally they did and we went ahead and scheduled it for this week.

Since the vehicle is all electric there is no emmisions inspection. There is a safety inspection requirement. This consists of makings sure all the lights works, turn signals, brakes, tire wear, visual inspection, etc. All this worked fine so there was no trouble passing. Most of the time was spent with the mechanic talking about the conversion, electric vehicles, etc.

The Vue now has over 1500 miles on it and is still working fine. Below is a picture of the battery box in the rear of the vehicle (giant poodle optional component).

Just an update

It's been three months and over a thousand miles since the Vue has been up and running. No major news or problems.

One minor problem with the charger where it would not shut off automatically. I had to have the manufacturer ship out a new circuit board that I exchanged out with the broken one in the charger. Since then the charger has been working fine.

The only work I've had to to lately, other than watering the batteries, is finishing the back battery box. I ended up using carpet and padding to cover the box.

Here's a picture of the Vue in the parking lot at work today. Could not resist :-)

Just a quickie :-)

Last weekend I got a chance to replace the rotors and brake pads. Both were relatively easy and I did not run into any snags. Even without the extra weight the OEM front rotors are a known weak point for the Vue. With the new brakes and rotors the braking is definitely improved.

Today I decided to push the range limit while out doing errands. I went 35 miles using 80% of the battery charge. This means that "dead empty" is probably about 45 miles. As a practical point 35 miles is probably the max range I would want to go. And I would not want to do it on a regular basis as it shortens the battery life.

Just a springtime update

Driving the vehicle the last three days I can tell you that the rear spring and shock upgrade make a huge difference. I'm no longer getting "bounce" from the back end when going over bumps. The noise is much less from the back end and there is no longer creaking from the back end (although that may have as much to do with the lubrication I applied to the rear suspension as with the upgrade).

Here are pics of the car before conversion, after conversion with old springs and shocks, and after conversion with new springs and shocks.

Just springtime

I've been using the Saturn as my daily commuting car for the last month or so now. I've put on over 600 miles and the car seems to be holding up fine. Because it is the car I use most days I've been hesitating to do the rear spring and shock upgrade. I was not sure how long it would take and wanted to make sure I had plenty of time. So I waited for a weekend when I wasn't too busy.

Yesterday was that weekend. Removing and replacing the springs and shocks was relatively easy. It took about 3 hours to do one side and half that time to do the other side.



One thing I've come to realize is that 99% of the work is relatively straight forward and easy. Of course that other 1% is always that one odd sized, rusted, stripped bolt in the least accessible location possible. Sort of a metaphor for life :-)

Below is a picture of the new and old shocks. These appear to be the original factory shocks. I imagine that replacing them after 100K+ miles should result in a significant improvement.



The reason for replacing the springs is that even though the rear suspension is rated for the extra 1000lb+ of batteries the car is riding about 2-3" lower in the rear than prior to the conversion. The new springs were made by Coilsprings.com. Based on the factory spring data and the added weight they were able to fabricate springs to raise the rear back to the original height.

You can see in the pictures below that the new springs are longer and have a larger diameter wire gauge.


Here is a picture with the old spring removed. The old shock is hanging in the top middle of the picture. The lower control arm is the middle of the picture, behind the wheel.



Here' what it looks like after replacing the spring and shock.



I haven't had the opportunity to drive with the suspension upgrades yet. The rear is 3" higher and definitely looks better. Next up 20" wheels and spinners :-)

A final note. I've finally answered the age old question of whether cars are male or female. You know, "she's a beautiful car" vs "he gets me there and back". If you look closely at the picture above and the picture of the disassembled rear end you'll see an "unusual" looking part of the rear suspension.

I think the part is called a jounce bumper. It has something to do with preventing the spring from compressing too much on a big bump. Whatever it is called it answers the male/female question thing. Just scroll down to the picture below for the answer.

Just rotten eggs

A few days ago I was peacefully sleeping when I was awoken by an annoying, loud, high pitched alarm. After a couple minutes of searching I determined that the alarm was from the carbon monoxide detector in the house.

In addition to the alarm going off there was the odor of sulfur in the house. This odor was emanating from the garage where to my dismay the battery charger was still on.

Now normally the battery charger shuts off when the pack reaches a certain voltage. For some reason the timer did not shut off the charger. So all evening the batteries were venting hydrogen sulfide gas.

A quick email to the electric vehicle discussion list on hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide detectors gave me a few responses. Other people have had the same thing happen. Apparently the sensor in the carbon monoxide detector is fooled by hydrogen sulfide. So the alarm ended up being a false alarm.

I'll have to watch the charger a little closer to figure out was is going on. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Just the bells and whistles

I've been driving the Saturn for a few weeks now as my regular commuter car. I've put about 400 miles on it so far. Longest round trip without charging was 30 miles, although most of my trips are about 15 miles.

I still have things do such as covering the rear battery box and upgrading the rear springs. In the mean time I decided to do the essential upgrade that all vehicles need...replace the factory radio!

The one problem I noticed with the factory radio was that the electric motor and controller produce electrical noise. Specifically radio stations get static when accelerating. Since we live "out in the country" a lot of the radio stations are weak to begin with. This just exacerbates the problem.

I figured that a newer head unit may be less susceptible to the problem. I also wanted to get a radio that could connect to my Blackberry. That way I could use bluetooth to use the phone hands free. Just as important it would allow me to stream audio to the radio (Pandora, podcasts, mp3, etc). This allows the Blackberry to act as a second tuner, one not a prone to the electrical interference.

Installing the head unit was pretty simple... remove part of the dash, remove the old radio, modify the old radio mounting hardware to fit the new radio, rewire the old harness to match the new radio, route the microphone wire to hide it, and reinstall everything :-) The process actually was not that hard.

One problem was that the car has a US antenna connection and the radio has a European connection. A quick trip to the Best Buy to pick up an adapter solved that problem.

The second problem was that the wiring for the harness didn't match the wiring diagram in the factory manual. A little trial and error and I managed to figure out the wiring.

Here's a picture of it installed. The colors of the LED's fit in with the LED instruments on the dash.


First impression is that it does what I wanted it to do. The bluetooth streaming is a phenomenal feature. I can listen to download sports, music, and other podcasts as well as saved mp3 music. Pandora also works great. Since it streams from the internet it depends on cell phone coverage. I need to test if for my usual commute.

As for the radio the electrical interference is still there, though not nearly as bad. I'll need to look at the antenna wiring in the engine compartment to see if I can shield it somehow.

Just read the instructions

The new CV boot arrived on Friday just in time for a weekend repair. Replacing the CV boot required removing the right front axle.

So out comes the handy dandy factory service manual...volume chassis...section suspension....subsection front suspension..."Replacing CV Boot FWD Right Front".

One thing about the service manuals is that they tend to be repetitive. If you need to do work on the front end, whether its the CV boot, brakes, suspension, etc the steps are always pretty much the same. So each section in the front end section starts with the same set up steps...loosen lug nuts...jack up car...remove front tire..etc.

So I glance at the first few steps and the diagrams and see its the same as usual for front suspension work. Been there and done it so should be no problem. After about a half dozen steps I get to the part specific for the repair I am doing. Remove front axle from wheel knuckle.

Having removed the other end of the axle earlier in the conversion I expected that the axle should slide right out or maybe need a little bit of prying. I tug, and pull, and tug, and pry, and do it all again even harder. No luck. After about 20 minutes I give up and decide I'm missing something. This shouldn't be that hard.

So I call Chris and ask him if there are any special tricks or tools needed to remove the axle. And if not can I borrow a bigger pry bar. Chris says that usually once you remove the axle nut they slide out easily or can be hammered out.

"Axle nut", I say to Chris. "I don't think this axle has an axle nut. The other end definitely did not have an axle nut."

So after getting off the phone with Chris I go back to the shop manual. Section "Replacing CV Boot FWD Right Front"...loosen lug nuts...jack up car...remove front tire..etc. No axle nut. Lets look at the wheel. Hmm...there is a big nut holding the rotor on, but I'm not replacing the rotor. Let's look at the manual again.

Section "Replacing CV Boot FWD Right Front"...loosen axle nut and lug nuts...jack up car...remove front tire..etc.

OK. To be fair the instruction for loosening the axle nut was not in small print. The writers of the manual are a little bit more insidious than that. They made it the first line of the instructions! More importantly the section was otherwise identical to the sections not requiring the axle nut be loosened. So at first glance (and second glance) the instructions and diagrams look identical to the instructions not requiring the axle nut be loosened.

Of course once the axle nut was loosened the axle removal was so much easier :-)

Just a full circle

I stopped by the local auto parts store to get a replacement CV boot for the damaged one. They don't carry CV boots because at $30 bucks for a boot and $75 bucks for a new axle (including the boot) most people just replace the axle. I said ok, order me an axle. No problem. Until the phone call from them saying they can't get the axle for my car.

Next stop the internet. Do some searching and find an axle for the car. $70 bucks plus shipping. But it is an "off brand" aftermarket part. I do some research on the internet and find that this aftermarket one is a cheap version with lots of reports of unhappy buyers.

Since I can't find an OEM axle online I call a reputable US axle vendor. He doesn't carry the axle for my car since Saturn changes the spline configuration so frequently he can't keep up with them.

Next I call Saturn dealer. Figure I'm willing to pay a little more for the OEM axle. Well a little more is $400 more!

In the end I end up just ordering the CV boot from them ($35) like I originally wanted to do. Full circle :-)

Just two steps forward and one step backwards

As indicated in the prior post the next item of business is getting the speedometer hooked up to the vehicle speed sensor(VSS). I have two choices at hand for the VSS. I can use the OEM VSS that is part of the transmission. Or I can use the aftermarket VSS that came with the EVision.

Previously I had tried to use the OEM VSS. It's already mounted and ready to go. Unfortunately hooking it up to the speedometer gave no signal.

I had also tried the aftermarket VSS. The sensor is magnetic and generates an electrical signal when metal passes by (there are metal nuts under the black tape on the axle in the picture below).


This didn't work so I pulled the sensor and tested it using a drill with a couple metal nuts around the collar. This worked fine so I figured the sensor and nuts needed to be closer to each other. I went ahead and remounted the red sensor but couldn't find an acceptable position (either on the axle above or closer to the CV joint).

At this point I decided to go back to the OEM VSS. I had asked around on the Electric Vehicle Discussion List about the OEM VSS. Someone suggested that the newer VSS may need a pull up resistor in order to produce the necessary voltage for the speedometer.

So I went ahead and reconnected the OEM VSS with a resistor between the output wire and 12V power. Bingo! The speedometer started registering values.

Now to calibrate the speedometer. Luckily there are a couple of informational radar traps in the area. The speedometer requires a speed of 45mph to calibrate. So I buzzed by one of the radar signs and adjusted my speed till the sign said 45mph. Unfortunately it was a 25mph zone and I got a ticket....just kidding :-)

Once the sign said 45mph I pushed the calibration button on the speedometer. I now had a working and calibrated speedometer! Just to be sure I went by a couple more times at different speeds to check it.

Now the one step backwards part. In the process of fooling with the speed sensor I noticed a lot of grease on the chassis near the axle. This was definitely not there when I originally installed the VSS the prior week.

I tracked the source of the grease to one of the CV joints on the right front axle. Apparently there was a small hole in the boot protecting the joint. The grease was leaking out from the boot (actually flying out at 4000rpm). You can see the boot in the picture above (prior to it leaking).

Anyway I'll need to get a new boot to replace the damaged one. In the meantime to keep the EV on the road I have duct tape securing the hole and it seems to be working.

Just the numbers

The Vue is now on the road. Over the weekend I was able to fasten some of the front batteries down. This allowed me to put the front end and headlights back on. So now I can drive the car without looking like a scene from "Mad Max" :-)

I still have lots of items on the checklist...fastening the remaining batteries and getting the speedometer to work are high on my list now.

Speaking of the speedometer I was able to track down part of the problem why it wasn't working. There was a bad splice in the sender wire that was easy enough to repair. I went ahead and hooked up my pulse generator (you remember homemade pulse generator I was using for the tach). Anyway I hooked it up and sure enough the speedometer started working. Now I just needed to get it working off the vehicle speed sensor.

Today I took the car for a bit more of a spin (19.4miles). I wanted to get an idea of what my "mileage" (energy use) would be so I could figure out the range. Based on this drive the max range should be in the 45-55 mile. In general you want to keep the average use at about 50% of the max range in order to maximize battery longevity. This is still well above my daily 15 mile roundtrip commute.

For those interested in the numbers:
Total pack energy: 32.5 kW
Usable pack energy: 19.5kW
Usable to prolong battery life: 9.75kW

Total pack amp hours: C/20 225 Ah
Usable pack amp hours: C/1 135 Ah
Usable to prolong battery life: C/1 67.5 Ah

Trip distance: 19.4 miles
kW used: 7.04 kW
Ah used: 52 Ah
Mileage 360W/mile

The last number is the mileage ("MPG"). It is important because it is a measure of the efficiency of the vehicle. It is a function of vehicle weight, aerodynamics, rolling resistance, etc. A very light, aerodynamic vehcile has a watt/mile usage of about 200-250 W/mi. A light truck about 350 W/mi.

Prior to the conversion I was basing my range calculations on 350 W/mi. The fact that I'm in the ballpark before doing anything to improve that mileage (driving habits, alignment, etc) makes me very happy :-)

Just more checklist stuff

I can now take reattaching the hood off of the list.

I also attached the vehicle speed sensor to the right drive axle (the little red thingy). It is a small magnet that senses the change in magnetic field from the metal bits (nuts) secured to the axle.


With the hood attached I figured I could go a little bit further without drawing too much unwanted attention. Who needs a bumper anyway :-)

I ended up driving about 5 miles. Other than the speedometer not displaying the speed everything else works fine.

With the EVision gauge working I was able to get some quick and dirty readings for the "gas mileage". Based on the drive today I should be able to get 18-20 miles easily and only use 1/2 the battery capacity. This should actually improve as the batteries "break in" and I learn to drive the car more efficiently.

Just the checklist

Now that I have the battery pack hooked up and the car running I'm starting to get to my checklist of things I still need to do.

Checklist:

1. Get the speedometer working

2. Check the tachometer calibration

3. Secure the batteries

4. Secure the charger

5. Put the hood and bumper back on

6. Feed the cat...okay...not needed for the car to run; and since we don't have a cat I guess I can skip it :-)

One item I did get off my checklist was getting the EVision working. This is the gauge that tells me the battery pack voltage, how much current is being used, what my "gas mileage" is, etc. Luckily the only thing wrong was a loose wire. My bad.

While I'm on the topic of the EVision I want to give a ringing endorsement to Victor at MetricMind for puuting together this great device. Not only does it provide every possible parameter one needs for an electric vehicle, it has a great interface and display for accessing that data.

Now back to the checklist. I anticipate securing the front batteries next week which means I can put the front end and hood back together. Once that is done I can get the car out on the road more (can't take it too far with the hood off).

Just that little red thingy

One of the items on my "to do" list is to troubleshoot the vacuum pump. The pump is used to provide vacuum for the brake booster.

There are two problems with the pump...it takes forever to create a vacuum and it's loud. So I went over all the hoses and connections to see if there is a vacuum leak. All the connections look good.

I went back to the instructions for the vacuum to see if I missed anything. Still no luck. But while looking for the instructions I found this in the box:


Not knowing what this was (it was not on the instruction sheet) I decided to call the supplier of the vacuum to see it he knew what was going on. He didn't have anything new to add to what I already had done. Then the conversation got interesting.

Me: Also there is an extra part that came with the pump (see attached picture). No idea what it is. Do you know what it is?

Him: Muffler - it goes on the exhaust port of the pump - will muffle the noise some.

Me: Will try the muffler on the output port. Is that the little red thingy on the pump?

Him: I'm surprised turning the pump on didn't "eject" the little red thingy - that port should be open so it can pump out the air. That could possibly explain why it is taking so long to draw down the vacuum.

Me: OK. Taking out the "red thingy" and putting on the muffler makes a huge difference. Vacuum come up in a few seconds.

Well at least the vacuum works like it is supposed to. One less thing on the to do list.

Just the annoying stuff

A quick update. Took the car out for another quick run. This time to the end of the driveway and back. Nothing new to report from the ride.

In the meantime I've started to power up some of the auxiliary high voltage components. I hooked up the DC/DC converter and it works great. It provides a nice 13.8V power supply for charging the auxiliary battery and running the twelve volt accessories.

The heat for the car is also hooked up and works great. It basically is a small water heater that is powered by the main battery pack. The water is pumped through the OEM heater core. The only thing I needed to add was a small switch to turn the heater and pump on.

Next big thing to work on is the power steering. This one may be tricky. The power steering is electric and received input from the old engine computer. Supposedly if it does not receive info from the engine computer it should go into a default assist mode. I'll need to wait till the weekend to check it more thoroughly.

I also need to work on the vacuum pump. It works, but is slow and noisy. Exploring options.

Just the maiden voyage!

Yesterday I hooked up the remainder of the batteries. After plugging the controller into the battery pack I turned the key and....nothing happened. Nothing meaning explosions, sparks, and other nasty stuff.

What did happen is the green light on the controller went on. This was the signal that the controller liked what it was seeing and was ready to go. So I put the car in neutral and pressed on the gas pedal. The electric motor hummed and the tachometer started doing whatever a tachometer does.

So today with the weather warm it seemed like a perfect time for that first electric trip. I went ahead and double checked that nothing was loose and nothing was in the way. I pulled out of the garage and took a trip to the front door. After picking Nancy (my wife) up from the front of the house we took the trip back into the garage. Total mileage...less than 1/10 of a mile.

Here's the car out of the garage.





Some observations from the maiden voyage:
1. The rear, with all of the batteries, is riding low. I have upgraded springs on order to solve this problem.
2. The vacuum pump for the brakes has a leak that I need to track down.
3. The display for the Evision unit (battery monitor) is not working. The main board and other components are working fine since I can interface with it using the computer. Need to troubleshoot this.
4. The electric power steering was not kicking in. Another thing to troubleshoot.

Overall, given the complexity of the project, I was happy with the first run. Next thing to check is the charging circuit. I have the car plugged in and charging as I'm typing. Again nothing is happening...the good type of nothing that is!

Just the odds and ends

Now that the charger is ready to be connected I need to have something to plug it into. I was lucky enough to have a dedicated 20amp circuit already in my garage. All I needed to do was extend it to where I wanted it to be and change the outlet to a GFI outlet.

Extending the circuit was no big deal. Changing out the outlet was a little more challenging. Originally I started with a single gang box. Because the GFI is deeper than a regular outlet there was not enough room for the outlet and wiring. No big deal. Out to the hardware store for a double box. Next AM install the outlet. Still not enough room for the GFI and wiring. OK. Out to the hardware store for a double deep, double gang box. Yeah it fits. Oh...and it works too :-)



Next step is to hook up all the batteries. Remember all those cables I made a few weeks back? Well this is where they will reside soon.


Before hooking up the high voltage I'm starting to clean up some of the wiring. I'm making sure that all of the wires are protected from damage. This is what the low voltage wiring gets wrapped in.


For the high voltage wiring I'm using spa tubing to protect the wires. You can see the grey tubing around the wire up until the point it inserts into the Anderson connector.

Just plug it in

Somehow the electricity has to get from the outlet into the battery pack. This is accomplished with a charger/transformer that takes 110V AC from an electric outlet and converts it to DC current.



Most conversions try to use the old fuel door as the place for the hookup to the charger. Since that appears to be the general consensus I decided to do the same. And frankly it looks really cool this way :-)

Just plumbing

Now wait a minute. Plumbing? In an electric car? Let me explain...

Although electric motors are more efficient at energy conversion than gasoline engines they are not 100% efficient. Some of the energy is lost as heat within the controller.

The Zilla controller I am using is capable of drawing more than 300amps at 144+ volts. That's over 43,000 watts (think of lighting 4300 light bulbs at once). Now the controller is more efficient than a light bulb in terms of heat loss...but you get the point.

In order to keep the controller from overheating the Zilla is equipped with a liquid cooled heat sink. Coolant is constantly circulating through the controller to capture this heat. The coolant then flows through a small (book size) radiator to discard the heat before being pumped back through the Zilla.

Here is a picture of the pump (bronze, round thing at the bottom). The valve at the top is for adding coolant to the loop and purging air. You can see the green antifreeze in the tubing.


Here is the radiator.

Just accoutrements

Battery accoutrements like cables, battery boxes, and fans. Where to start....

OK. Let's start with the box. After finishing the box I caulked all the joints and painted it with an epoxy paint to protect the box from acidic fumes.

During the charging process hydrogen gas is produced by the batteries. This gas needs to be vented out of the box. Most conversions use a small fan to vent the gas.

Here is a picture of the fan. The fan is connected to a relay that is activated when the old fuel door (the future charger plug in port) is open.

At one end of the box I have connected tubing that draws fresh air from outside the car. The inlet is the white tubing in the picture below. The end of the tubing you can't see runs to the battery box.


Here's a picture of the outlet tubing. The outlet is directly behind the fan. The top picture is where it vents from the box and the bottom picture where it vents out of the vehicle.




This is an overall picture of the box. Along the left you can see the white inlet vent tubing. The bottom right corner is where the fan is located. The wires in the box connect to the auxiliary 12volt car battery. The holes in the box are for wires and air to pass between the compartments of the box.


Next step was to make cables to connect all of the batteries together. Here is the layout for the batteries in the rear.


The final layout of the batteries had several goals to meet. The most obvious is that the batteries had to fit in the box. Goal number two was to minimize the lengths of the cables connecting the batteries.

A third an not so obvious goal is to minimize the voltage potential between neighboring batteries. For instance you don't want battery one next to battery seventeen. This would represent a 102V (6 x 17) potential. If you accidentally dropped a wrench across the neighboring terminals that would be one huge short. Although one and seventeen appear next to each other there is a divider between the last three batteries and the remainder of the batteries.

With the layout in hand I laid out the batteries on the garage floor. Then I started to make cables to connect the batteries.

First step in making the connecting cables was taking 2/0 welding cable and laying it in a path from the negative terminal of one battery to the positive terminal of the next battery. Because of vent caps and carrying brackets on the top of each battery this path was usually not a straight line.

After cutting the cable to length each end was stripped of insulation. A protective cover was slipped over the cable. Nolox was coated over the bare wire. A connector was then slipped over the wire. Since positive and negative terminals are different sizes it was important to make sure that I was not putting two positive or negative connectors on the same wire. The connector was then oriented to face the correct direction and secured to the cable with two crimps.

Here is the final result. Don't worry...they are all labeled for which batteries the connect.


Last but not least I put a few batteries in the box.

Just pedaling

Pedaling...the process of installing a pedal :-)

In a typical car you press on the gas pedal to go. The pedal is connected to the computer controlling the engine. The computer then controls the fuel injection, air flow, and combustion.

Since I no longer have a gas engine I don't need a gas pedal. Now I need an "electricity pedal".

The Zilla controls the "flow" of electricity to the electric motor. There is an input on the Zilla for connecting to an accelerator pedal. One option for connecting to the pedal is to use the original pedal, hook up a cable to the pedal, and have the pedal control a variable resistor (potentiometer). A second option is to use an electronic accelerator pedal. The movement of the pedal is directly translated to an electrical signal that is sent to the controller.

I chose to go with option two. The advantages include longer reliability and simpler connections to the Zilla (no mechanical cable to hook up). The disadvantage is that a new mounting bracket needs to be fabricated for the pedal.

This is a picture of the new pedal installed.


On closer inspection you can see the new mounting bracket. Not pretty, but functional. The bracket is attached to the old mounting points of the old pedal.

Just the instrument cluster...a.k.a. the dash

Well the instrument cluster is finished (as I say crossing my fingers in hope). The last picture I posted of the instrument cluster showed lots of wires coming from the back. After tidying up the wires I found some nice connector harnesses to tie everything together.




After connecting the harness to power I reinstalled the cluster. So far everything that is hooked up seems to power up. This includes left and right turn signal, high beam indicator, speedometer, tachometer, and a couple indicator lights.



There is one more gauge in the picture above that you can't see. It draws its power from the high voltage pack so I can't test it yet. Next step....start testing the high voltage components.