The New Underhood

Here is the view under the hood.

Upper Left is the contactors. Blue box in front is the controller. The stove connector is for the external charger. In front of that is the panel so I can test or charge each of the 18 batteries in the pack. Several of the fuseholders for  connections from this panel to the individual batteries are visible kind of hanging off the battery terminals. You can also see the end of the motor below the batteries.

The little box in the center of the firewall marked DATEL is a 12v to 12v dc/dc. The power supply for the Trimetric gage needs to have the same negative as the pack, but the pack negative can't be connected to the chassis. I tried using 16v from the 2 most negative batteries, but the tiny drain all the time made these two batteries more discharged than the rest. I wouldn't have guessed that 16 or 30 milliamps would matter. It did!

I haven't figured out how to format these posts, so the detail photos are in separate posts to follow or is that precede? Anyway, they end up down below. :-)

Underhood details

The left side of the picture is the grill where the radiator used to be. This is where I relocated the horn. The vacuum pump for the brake booster is near the right side of the car in this area. On the right side of the picture is the new charger with the long threaded rod holding it down. 

As you can see, the quick opening battery cell caps had to be modified where the wires went over them.

Left side underhood details

A view of the driver's side. From left to right (Firewall to grill) The little 12v battery for lights and such. I call it the house battery. The DC/DC  that charges it is an Iota DLS55
Designed as a plug in battery maintainer for RV batteries, this switch mode charger works on DC.. Tucked under the fender is the throttle control that looks like a piece of PVC pipe with a spring on the end of it. It is connected to the throttle pedal with the cable that goes in front of the battery.

The relays to run the running, brake, and directional lights when towing the EV. One relay for the oogah horn. 

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Two contactors

 
Here we see two contactors. (Electrically powered switches.) Originally I had just one on the negative end of the pack. Adding a second one for the positive end seemed a good idea from a safety point of view but finding the space was difficult. You can just see it below the big wires going to the controller. It is reversed with the connections on the right in order to keep the positive cables away from the negative. More separation would be better.

The other black thing sharing the mount with the upper contactor is a fuse holder. There is a BIG fuse under it. The shunt for the ampmeter is attached to the firewall below the fuse. The wire from the negative end of the pack goes to the fuse which connects to the shunt which connects to the upper contactor which connects to the controller and the motor. The battery in this picture is the positive end of the pack. It connects to the lower contactor which connects to the controller on the right in this picture. The center connection on the controller is the positive to the motor. The charger is connected to the upper contactor and the battery terminal.

The new charger can run on 110 or 220v. I updated my meter with the two types of outlets. It looks better too.

Catching up

I got a new charger from http://www.evsource.com! I don't see it listed in their catalog any more. Not sure what that means. Anyway, this means that I can opportunity charge with more amps than my "boosted bad boy" would allow. Even use 220V if I can find it.

Unfortunately, the charger is about the same size as one of my batteries. Finding space for it was a challenge. It meant redavinating everything on the left side of the under-hood area.

The charger is the black finned thing near the firewall.  You will also notice that one of my red batteries has been replaced with a black Trojan. The pack is getting tired and one battery was "tireder" than the rest.  Anyway, the charger is in the space formerly occupied by the house battery and the dc/dc. The house battery is at the extreme right where the window washer was, the DC/DC is where the throttle control and red oogah horn used to be. The throttle control is just visible under the fender on the extreme right of the picture. The horn was mooved to the former radiator area and the window washer needs to have a new bracket made for installation.

Electric car won't start!

I headed out to a fire department meeting last night and the car wouldn't start. Lights on the dashboard worked, but the contactors wouldn't engage to fire up the controller. After spending several hours today debugging, the problem turned out to be a loose nut on the busbar which held the "key on" wire connections. Glad I wasn't paying me by the hour.

October car shows

Sparky went to 2 local car shows Oct 3 and 4. See pictures of the cars I found interesting, see the Oct8CarShows album at http://stormc.smugmug.com/
Anyway, I created 5 mini posters which were glued to the back of a sheet of acrylic for display on the hood as seen in this picture. Just for documentation, I will copy them here. Ideas for improvement are welcome, and you are free to use any or all for your purposes. They were created using Word. I could email them to you if that would help.

Why Drive an EV?

This vehicle goes 2 miles per KWH of electricity. Even with the high cost in Corrupticut that is still less than 8¢ per mile.

What is the real cost of gas?

Fuel charge? Military expense? Medical expense?

Environmental cost?

Does it make sense to buy gas from people who hate you?

Want energy independence? This is a true multifuel vehicle. With my solar panels I can drive on sunshine.

The fuel infrastructure is already in place.

Eliminate tune-ups, oil changes, and muffler hassles.

No emission tests.

How far would you drive if your exhaust came out of the steering wheel?

Storm Connors

stormc@iname.com

This next came pretty much from the EV Album

Sparky

1987 Suzuki Samurai

Owner Storm Connors Barkhamsted, CT

Motor Advanced DC Series Wound 9"

Drivetrain Stock 5 speed, dual range, 4 wheel drive

Controller DC Power Systems Raptor 600

Batteries 18 US Battery 8 Volt, Flooded Lead-Acid,

11 batteries below floor,

7 (+house 12v) under hood

System Voltage 144 Volts

Charger 2 military surplus 150v chargers in series.

On board charger is a bridge rectifier "bad boy" boosted by an 18v transformer in series

Heater Ceramic element replacing heater core.

DC Converter Iota 55amp batterycharger made for RV use running off 144VDC to charge house 12v battery.

Instrumentation Ammeter, Voltmeter,

Trimetric which displays amps, volts, amp hrs used since last charge, % charge remaining, and cumulative amp hours. (www.bogartengineering.com)

Top Speed 70 MPH (112 KPH)
Acceleration Not earth shaking, but adequate

Range 30-40 Miles

Gas mileage 500 Watt hr/Mile
Seating Capacity 2 adults

Curb Weight 3,320 Pounds (1,509 Kilograms)
Tires Titan Radial load range C ST205-75 R15

Extras After market hard top

Vacuum booster pump provides the brake assist.
Computer slot fans to ventilate the battery boxes.

Battery control panel

Driveshaft mounted parking brake

Diamond plate interior panels

OOgah horn

This is a pretty Spartan vehicle. Not much in the way of creature comforts.

A pitch for the NEEAA. The logo was at the top, but it doesn't seem to want to copy here :-(

Our active EV club generally meets at 2PM on the second Saturday of the month in Killingworth, CT. You’re invited to join us. See the web site or call 203-530-4942 for details.

Sparky is # 1059 of over 2000 EVs detailed at www.evalbum.com

To answer the inevitable question

$$$

How much does it cost to convert?

Much depends on your scrounging ability. Scrapped fork lift trucks can supply some parts. If you are buying new parts, the shopping list would include:

Motor $2,000

Controller $1,500

Batteries $1,500-$20k

Charger $30-$2,500

Battery Boxes $???

Motor/Trans adapter $600

Instrumentation $200 and up.

Misc wire, fuses, etc. $500

Parts are expensive because of the low volumes. Imagine building a Buick with parts purchased from the service department.

Electric Vehicles of America in Wolfeboro, NH

www.ev-america.com is the nearest supplier.

And finally,

Get a charge FAQ

How long does it take to charge?

This car has about 15KW of usable energy in the battery pack. That means that if the pack is low, about 15,000 watts needs to be returned. How long it will take depends on how much power you have available if your charger will handle it.

Ø A 240V 30A dryer outlet could do this in 2 hours.

Ø A standard 120V 15A outlet would require about 9 hours.

Ø A 190 watt (3’X4’) solar panel mounted on the car’s roof could charge it up with 79 hours of full sunshine.

Regeneration would use the motor as a generator to slow down thus saving the brakes as well as charging the battery. If I could do it, it would increase the range by about 10%.

Mounting a generator to the wheel or a windmill on the front won’t do anything positive. The energy to turn these things would ultimately come from the batteries which are causing the car to move. The charge they would return would be less than the drag they created. See “conservation of energy”.

Anyway, a lot of people found Sparky of interest. Trying to format on the blog is still frustrating! Importing a copy of a Word document is not a good idea! Way too much formatting info that has to be removed. The posters are better looking than they appear here.

Ebrake overview

This is a view looking up. The vehicle rear is at the bottom of the photo. The caliper mount is at the rear of the transfer case. The input and output to the front wheels is at the top. The cable tab is on the right. the cable sheath is actually looped around the battery box at the bottom of the picture as the brake handle is above the u-joint at the bottom of the picture.

E Brake installation

The Ebrake on the Suzuki left a lot to be desired especially since there is no engine compression to keep it from rolling.

Using a rock was advised as a chock when parked on an incline especially if you were trying to keep her from rolling backwards.

Since the Suzuki is so popular among rock-crawlers and off-roaders there is lots of after market stuff available. Spidertrax created a kit to replace the Ebrake. One reason is many off-roaders replace the rear drum brakes with disks and lose the Ebrake. A quick search showed that Lowrange Off Road had the best price for the Spidertrax kit. I also purchased a set of interior panels from them at the same time.

The Spidertrax kit is an aluminum disk and caliper that mounts on the rear output of the transfer case. They also supply heavy duty mounts for the transfer case. The bonded rubber mounts are replaced with thru bolts and polyurethane bushings. The installation is simple.

Remove the forward end of the driveshaft from the transfer case output.Attach the mounting plate for the caliper to the back end of the transfer case. (Why are there 4 convenient tapped holes in the transfer case?) Install the aluminum disk between the transfer case and the driveshaft using the new longer bolts provided. Hook the existing Ebrake cable to the caliper. All done!

The installation is simple, but didn't prove to be easy.

The hassles. The nuts on the transfer case mounts really didn't want to be separated after 20 years. The convenient holes on the back of the transfer case really didn't want bolts threaded into them. Tip. If you can figure out how to get the output flange off thetransfer case life would be much easier. Run a tap through the holes. Tighten the bolts with a socket. I couldn't get the nut that holds the flange on loose even after I unpeened the locknut. Neither an impact wrench on 130# pressure nor a 2 foot breaker bar would turn it.

I filed a notch in a short bolt to use as a sort of tap to clean the threads. I ended up having to cut a 1/4 inch off two of the mounting bolts and putting a nut on the third as a spacer and tightening each of them with an open end wrench. :-(



Now to hook up the cable. You are to drill two holes in the frame and bolt the cable tab to the outside of the frame. Unfortunately, two battery boxes prevented me from doing that. One is outside the frame completely blocking the frame and the other is inside the frame in the way of the cable route. Serendiptiously, there was a leftover mount on the crossmember that I could attach the tab to. I reinforced the attachment with a piece of steel hooked around a body mount and bolted to the tab.

Of course, now the tab was closer to the caliper than designed so the cable was too long. I shortened it by looping the cable and fastening it with a couple small cable clamps.

Looking at the picture, the tab that ends the cable sheath is at the bottom. The loop to shorten the cable is near the middle and the connection to the caliper is near the top. The clip at the end of the cable is what was on it originally. The bolt with locknut is the adjuster for the caliper/rotor clearance. Somehow the photo got rotated in uploading. The "wall" on the left is a battery box running across the vehicle perpendicular to the frame.