1999 Ranger Pickup

Electric Conversion

excellent, existing, environmentally  essential, electrically energy efficient,  emissions excluded,  emotionally  exciting

 

This document contains the current level of the EPT2 design.    It contains varying levels of detail. 

Many areas are still sketchy.    As the design progressed the document has been updated to reflect the changes. It shows intentions up front and historical journal at the end.   This information is offered without warrantee.

 

 The conversion of an automobile drive train is not to be undertaken lightly.  Do not attempt to replicate this project unless you know what you are doing and are willing to accept full responsibility for the outcome.

 

Although this document can be viewed as a web page, it is best viewed as a PDF document.

 

Contents

 

1)      Design

 

2)      Preparation of Base vehicle.

 

3)      Overall component layout.

 

4)      Mechanical assembly

 

5)      Motor Assembly Installation

 

6)      Electrical Wiring

 

7)      Electrical assembly

 

8)      Diary

 

9)      Statistics

 

10)  Credits


1)    Design Overview

Text Box: Owner	Al Lococo
Location	Winter Haven, Fl)
Web/Email	 
Vehicle	99 Ford Ranger Extended Cab Pickup
Motor	Netgain Warp 9 inch
Drivetrain	Original 5 speed manual, Clutchless
Adapter/Coupler	Machinist, Wayne Alexander, EV-Blue
Controller	Curtis Controller 1231C-8601, 96-144VDC, 500 amps max, Throttle, 0 to 5 k/ohm input
Batteries	12- 12 Volt, Universal UB4D AGM, 120 lbs., 200 AH
System Voltage	144 Volts
Charger	Zivan NG3 charger
Air Conditioner	Belt driven “New” compressor
Heater	None
DC/DC Converter	Iota 30 amp, 12V Accessory battery
Instrumentation	Ammeter, Voltmeter
Top Speed	65 MPH, guess, 59 actual so far
Acceleration	0 to 40 mph,12 seconds, guess.
Range	50 Miles, guess, 41 actual so far (145.7 volts residual)
EV Miles	Start:	105,849  Miles
Current:	106,968 Miles
Total:	1119 Miles 
	As of 4/5/2008

Seating Capacity	2 adults
Conversion Time	2/14/2007 –1/2/2008 11 months (includes planning).
Conversion Cost	$20,000 including truck ($5,300)  and batteries ($3,339)
	
Curb Weight	4,540 Pounds including truck (3,100) and batteries (1,440)
Suspension/Tires	Rear coil over shocks/Standard 14 inch, P205/75R14
		

 

 

 

 

 

      

 


Requirements

 

This vehicle is configured for local driving.  Typically there will be one or two passengers with room for purchases, groceries, behind the front seat.  There are two jump seats in the back, which can hold two more passengers occasionally.   

 

The required range is 35 miles.  The vehicle will be used in Winter Haven Florida where the temperatures are moderate and the terrain is flat.  It should be capable of highway speeds (65 mph). The objective is to achieve the expected range with 40% SOC (state Of Charge) remaining.  The range of 35 miles is not expected at the maximum speed.  Normal driving will be at speeds below 45 mph, with occasional trips including short sprints of 5 or 10 miles at maximum speed.

 

The requirements are for a two-passenger vehicle with minimal cargo capacity (100 lbs.), 35-mile range, three to five year battery life, and carefree battery maintenance.  The intention is to have a car that you plug in and drive.  No need to worry about specific gravity, water levels, or how to get those low batteries back to the level of the others.

 

Design Rationale

 

The car is a conversion of a 1999 Ford Ranger Pickup Truck.  This base vehicle was chosen for ease of conversion, not because of a need for large payload utility vehicle.  The pickup truck has the ability to carry the weight of the battery pack without further modifications.  The extended cab was chosen to provide a secure area for the intended small payload.

 

Range

 

The battery pack design is based on the following rule of thumb; 20 pounds of lead battery will carry you 1 mile if the battery pack is one third of the vehicle weight.  Another rule of thumb to consider is that a vehicle consumes 4 times the power at 70 mph as it does at 35 mph.

Vehicle

my Ranger DC

ICE Wt

3440

GVWR

4760

Pack Volts

144

Unit #

12

Unit V

12

Unit Weight

120

Unit Type

UB-4D AGM

Pack Weight

1440

Saved Weight

509

Additional Weight

931

Payload

398

EV Wt

4371

Rule of Thumb Range

72

Expected Range

35

Curb/pack Ratio

3

 

 The objective is to assemble a vehicle that meets the GVWR of the Manufacturer. The initial vehicle starting weight is 3440 lbs. The completed vehicle weight is expected to be about 4370 lbs.  These tables show the details. 

 

Engine weight

350

Oil

37.5

Water

60

½ Tank Gas

61

Exhaust etc

100

Liner, Hitch, Spare

200

Total Removed

808.5

Less Kit Weight Added

300.00

Net Weight

508.50

 

The vehicle range, based on the rule of thumb, is unrealistically high.  It is also based on exhausting the batteries to 0% State Of Charge (SOC).  The expected range takes into account the need to meet the 35 mile range objective with a 40% SOC remaining.

 


Speed

 

The remaining major design consideration is based on the tried and true typical DC conversion.  To achieve highway speeds, a Netgain 9 inch series wound motor is used with a Curtis 500 Amp controller at 144V DC. 

Netgain Warp 9 Data at 144V input

Time On

Volts

Amps

RPM

HP

KW

5 min.

134

320

4200

48.8

36.8

1 hr.

138

185

5700

30.4

22.9

Continuous

139

170

6000

28.5

21.5

Peak Horsepower

100

 

This car is driven by a large electric motor rated between 28.5 HP continuous and 100 HP Peak) when the input voltage is 144 volts. The rating systems used for rating HP in gas engines and electric motors are different. Gas engines are rated at their peak HP; electric motors are rated at their continuous HP. The peak HP of an electric motor can be as much as 8 to 10 times its continuous rating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Curtis

1231C-8601

INPUT VOLTAGE

96 - 144V

MAX CURRENT

500 AMPS

2-MIN RATING

500 AMPS

5-MIN RATING

375 AMPS

1-HR RATING

225 AMPS

UNDER VOLTAGE

CUTS BACK @ 64VDC

VOLTAGE DROP

<0.30VDC @ 100 AMPS

SWITCHING FREQ.

1.5 - 15 kHz

WEIGHT

19 lbs

DIMENSIONS

13.3" L x 8.6" W x 3.7" H

 

A good deal of consideration was given to an AC system.  It was abandoned because of cost and availability.  These systems have been used to great advantage in production line vehicles, but have enjoyed limited acceptance among home conversion, garage mechanics.  A higher voltage DC system was also considered.  The typical Zillla controller requires a six-month lead-time to order.  This combined with the complexity of a water-cooled controller prompted a simpler less expensive Curtis system with a Netgain Warp 9 inch motor.

The Curtis controller is able to handle the voltage and current requirements of normal driving well.  Quick starts and hills will require 400 – 500 amps for a short period.  Cruising at 35 or 40 mph will require 150 to 200 amps for extended periods.  This is well within the capability of the controller and the motor.  The table and graph in the section on the charger show battery capacity in line with motor and controller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ratios

 

Type   

Model      

Code

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

5-Speed

M5OD R2

 M

3.72

2.254

1.50

1.00

0.79

Axle

 open 7.5 inch

86

3.73

3.73

3.73

3.73

3.73

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combined

 

13.88

8.39

5.60

3.73

2.95

 

 

 

 

 

MPH

 

RPM

Amps

 

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

4200

320

 

13

21

31

47

59

6000

170

 

18

29

45

67

83

People often ask about gear ratios and RPM.  It is a way of testing the design. 

 

This table takes all the above data into account, combined with transmission ratios, axel ratios, tire size and RPM.  Second and third gear should suffice for local driving.   With fourth gear being necessary to achieve highway speeds.  The use of first gear, although not essential, may increase range.

 

The green highlighting shows a likely sequence of events under normal acceleration to highway speed.

Batteries

 

Batteries were chosen consistent with the requirements of range, three to five year battery life, and carefree battery maintenance, without the need to worry about specific gravity and water levels.  Lead battery technology is mature and that maturity is realized in AGM batteries.  AGM is an acronym for Absorbed Glass Mat.  Also called sealed lead acid (SLA) by Universal.  They are maintenance free, have a low internal resistance, and for that reason can deliver high current for a short period of time.  Gel batteries are also maintenance free.  Gel is the older technology and for that reason was not chosen.

 

These batteries are often over looked because of their weight (120 lbs.).  The most common choice is 6 volt batteries at half the weight, half the size, but double the number, and opportunity for unequal charge level.

 

Charging: Universal Battery UB4D AGM

Cycle: Initial charging current less than 80A

Voltage 14.50 (174) – 14.9V (178.8V) Spec Sheet

Voltage 14.1 (169.2) – 14.4V (172.8V) Battery Label

 

 

 

 

Battery Management

 

The requirement to have a car that you plug in and drive, without need to worry about how to get those low batteries back to the level of the others.  This requires some sort of battery management system.  The Power Cheq Equalizer system was chosen for this purpose.  By keeping the number of batteries to a minimum, using 12V batteries, the problem is minimized and facilitates using Power Cheq Equalizers.  Eleven will be used to maintain equal levels during idle, discharge and charging.

 

 

 

Charging

 

The requirements of “plug and drive” and “battery life” led to the selection of the Zivan NG3 charger.  This is a three-stage charger that will take the batteries through the charge process unattended.   The model selected runs on 110V, so it can be installed or carried in the vehicle for opportunity charging.  A 230V version is available which will charge faster.  It was decided that this would be less usable for opportunity charging and was not selected. This charger has a temperature sensor which moderates charge if the batteries get hot.

 

Led

Phase

Description

Red

Phase1 (T1) Max 12 hr

Power is held at the maximum Im:10.2A until voltage rises to U1: 171.6V or 14.3V/cell or

T1 max is reached

Blinking Red

Phase2 (T2) Max 3 hr

Voltage is held constant at U1: 171.6V while the current fades from I1: 8.5A to

I5: 2.8A or

T2 max is reached

Yellow / Blinking Yellow

Phase3 (T3) Max 6 hr

Current pulses on and off at I2:  4.2A until the increase in V during 45 minutes is < 10mv  (dV/dt < 10mv/el) or T3 max is reached

Green

Stop

Charge Finished

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        This table contains a description of the charge stages.

Im

I1

I2

I5

U1:

 

83% Im

50% I1

66% I2

171.6V

 10.2 A

 8.5A

4.2A

2.8A

14.3V/Batt.

 

 

 

 

 

  These are the values for the points in the chart at the left.

 

Weekly restart is triggered if pack voltage falls below 155.4 or 12.95 volts. per battery.  The official charge is up to 172.8v or 14.4 per battery. Then the pulse mode pulses the pack up to 189.12 volts or 15.76 per battery. If this voltage is reached quickly the pulse mode will continue at lower voltages. Typically, between 163.4 and 172.6. (or 13.6 and 14.4 per battery)

 

The table and graph below show the SOC for the UB4D batteries being charged.  It is intended that the pack will be kept in the green range, with only occasional dips into the yellow or rarely in to the orange.

State of Charge

12 Volt Battery

144 Volt Pack

100% SOC

12.80 or greater

153.6

75% SOC

12.55

150.6

50% SOC

12.20

146.4

40% SOC

12.18

145.16

30% SOC

11.92

143.04

25% SOC

11.75

141

0% SOC

10.50

126

 

 

 

What follows is an explanation of terminology.

Battery charging takes place in 3 basic stages: Bulk, Absorption, and Float.

Bulk Charge - The first stage of 3-stage battery charging. Current is sent to batteries at the maximum safe rate they will accept until voltage rises to near (80-90%) full charge level. Voltages at this stage typically range from 10.5 volts to 15 volts. There is no "correct" voltage for bulk charging, but there may be limits on the maximum current that the battery and/or wiring can take.

Absorption Charge: The 2nd stage of 3-stage battery charging. Voltage remains constant and current gradually tapers off as internal resistance increases during charging. It is during this stage that the charger puts out maximum voltage. Voltages at this stage are typically around 14.2 to 15.5 volts.

Float Charge: The 3rd stage of 3-stage battery charging. After batteries reach full charge, charging voltage is reduced to a lower level (typically 12.8 to 13.2) to reduce gassing and prolong battery life. This is often referred to as a maintenance or trickle charge, since it's main purpose is to keep an already charged battery from discharging. PWM, or "pulse width modulation" accomplishes the same thing. In PWM, the controller or charger senses tiny voltage drops in the battery and sends very short charging cycles (pulses) to the battery. This may occur several hundred times per minute. It is called "pulse width" because the width of the pulses may vary from a few microseconds to several seconds. Note that for long term float service, such as backup power systems that are seldom discharged, the float voltage should be around 13.02 to 13.20 volts.

 

 

Text Box: W = Constant power phase in watts
I = constant current phase in amps
U = constant voltage phase in volts
a = stop phase and shut off when charge criteria met
o = continue this phase indefinitely

e.g. WUIa or IUIa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accessory Power

 

Low voltage (12V) accessory circuits such as lighting are powered from the original 12V battery.  This battery is kept charged by an Iota DLS-30, DC – DC converter.  It uses the output from the high voltage (144V) pack as input and produces 13.6V or 14.3 V output.

 

The interesting thing about this device is that it is designed for 120V AC input.  Because the first stage is a rectifier, it functions equally well on either AC or DC input. 

 

This device eliminates the need for an alternator.

 

 


Power Brakes

 

An essential function in any vehicle is breaking.  The original vehicle relies on vacuum from the ICE for power assist.  In this conversion we will use a 12V electric vacuum pump with an aluminum vacuum reservoir. 

 

              

 

Mechanical

 

The most difficult part of the conversion is the mating of the electric motor to the existing drive train.  This is a problem that has been solved many times before in other conversions, upon which this one is based.  Nevertheless, the problem is difficult because of the variety of vehicles being converted and alternative approaches.

 

This design uses a base vehicle with a 5 speed manual transmission.  The clutch and flywheel will be eliminated.   The transmission drive shaft will be mated directly to the motor shaft through an adapter plate and coupler.  The adapter plate and coupler were machined by Wayne Alexander of  EV-Blue.  These precision parts were custom made for this vehicle.

 

Wayne Alexander was chosen as the EV machinist for this project because of his experience, responsiveness and low cost.  There are many places to get this work done.  My experience was that these folks are overloaded with work.  In many cases they are doing fleet work.  I found it hard to get their attention.

 

The real test will come when the parts are installed and working.  At this point, it is clear that everything fits together well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instrumentation

 

The only instruments directly related to the electric conversion are the voltmeter and the ammeter. 

 

   The range of the voltmeter is 80 – 180 volts and the range of the ammeter is 0 – 500 amps. 

 

  Battery pack voltage will be used to help determine state of charge.  The fully ccharged voltage should be  about 154 volts.  When it gets to 144 volts, you’re running on empty.The trip odometer will also be a reminder of when it is time to recharge.

 

The ammeter will help the driver learn how to adjust driving habits to conserve on battery power and extend range.   Both instruments will be illuminated and mounted in a pod on the driver side winshield pillar.

 

It is a goal to make maximum use of the existing instrument panel.  The water temperature sensor and temperature gauge will be used to monitor motor temperature.  The oil pressure gauge, in combination with a vacuum switch, will be converted to a vacuum gauge.   The Battery Icon, currently the charge indicator, will be the run indicator, showing that the controller and throttle are enabled for driving.

 

Safty

 

An inertia switch will cut off power on impact.  The vehicle will remain within the original GVWR of the manufacturer, while maintaining similar loaded weight distribution.  Vacuum assisted power ABS braking will be retained functional.  A brake interlock will prevent throttle enable at startup unless the break is depressed.  The break will also diable the throttle wile driving.  Any failure in the conttroller or throttle will be overridden by the break.  Avacuum gauge on the dash will indicate the state of the breaking system vacuum.  An emergency cable operated breaker is accessable from the driver position.  Two lockout switches, for maintenance, will be located one at each 144 volt terminal.  The positive switch will be under the hood and the negative switc h will be in the rear battery rack.  Both the positive and negative 144 volt terminals will be fused.  There is a throttle (Main) contactor in the positive 144 volt line and a Key On (Bypass) contactor in the negative 144 volt line.

 

 

Climate Control

 

There will be no heater.  It is a goal to have Air Conditioning.  The most desireable solution is for an electric motor/compressor.  The Masterflux SIERRA 05-0982Y3 motor compressor is suitable for this application because it  operates on 100 to 150 volts DC with R134a air conditioning systems.  Unfortunately availability is a problem and the price is unknown.

 

A belt driven compressor is also a possibility, but more complex.  The car will start out without Air conditioning. Until this problem is resolved.

. 



2)    Preparation of Base vehicle.

 

For reference purposes the safety Tag for the vehicle is shown here.

a)      Measure the current ride height

Measured at top of  wheel opening on fender.

Front Ride = 31 inches

Rear Ride = 33 Inches

 

b)      Evacuate A/C refrigerant.

 

c)      Remove fluids

 

i)        Drain oil from Motor.

ii)       Drain Gas tank

iii)     Drain Coolant from radiator.

This, especially, includes draining coolant from the engine block via the block drain plugs.

 

d)      Remove the hood

 

e)      Remove the bed

i)        Six torx bolts

ii)       Wiring harness for tail lights

iii)       Gas cap

 

f)        Remove Battery

This battery will be used for the 12V accessory system.

 

g)      Remove exhaust system, Discard.

 

h)      Remove fuel system

i)        Gas Tank, Discard.

ii)       Fuel lines, Discard.

iii)     Canister, Discard.

 

i)        Fabricate and install Transmission cross member

A duplicate of the rear transmission cross member is being used as a starting point for the fabrication of a front transmission  cross member.  Sixteen inches will be cut out of the center of the cross member.  Hopefully this will fit on top of the front suspension mount on each side of the frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 


The hole at the top of the slot in the suspension mount will be used to bolt the new shortened cross member.  Once the cross member is in place, a pencil will be used to mark the cross member for drilling.  The cross member is bolted with Grade 8, one inch 7/16-14 bolts with fender washer on each side and lock washer on nut side.

 

j)        Remove the radiator

 

k)      Remove serpentine Belt Components

i)        Remove belt

Set the belt aside it is no longer needed.

 

ii)       Remove alternator

The alternator will not be used in the electric vehicle.  It will use a 30 amp DC –DC converter to charge the 12V Accessory battery.

 

iii)     Remove Power steering pump

The power steering will not be used initially.  The delivery line from the pump to steering gear box will be removed from the pump and connect back (on itself) to the return on the steering gear box.   In other words, the hose will connect the delivery to the return on the steering gear box.  Make sure the gear box is full of fluid.  The pump and the return hose can be set aside. 

 

The steering gear box will perform as manual steering without the load from the pump.  At some later time an electric pump may be added.

 

iv)     Remove A/C Compressor

This compressor will not be used for the A/C.  At a later time either a v-belt compressor will be driven by the electric motor or a high voltage (144V) electric motor/compressor will be used.

 

l)        Disconnect Wiring from motor

CAUTION: Do not start hacking away at the wiring harnesses!  Only cutoff engine wires that you are sure you will not use later. Label wires that you want to identify later, such as tachometer and temperature sensor wires. Do not cut off any ground wires.  Simply move them from the engine to the firewall or chassis.  If you lose a ground, something won’t work right.  All ground wires are important.  Don’t disturb wires that go to the transmission – one set of transmission wires is for the speed sensor for the speedometer and odometer and the other set is for the reverse switch that activates your backup lights.

 

We will most likely have to keep the computer so your speedometer and odometer still work.  In many new cars the speedometer, fuel gauges, tachometer, windshield wipers, lights, etc. are programmed in such a way that they will not function if you remove the IC engine or merely even tamper with the ECU

 

Make sure that all relevant hoses, cables, linkages, mounts and stabilizers, electrical connectors, and other components are properly disconnected at the simplest, most accessible points. If any of these components are dangling or protruding into the removal path of the engine assembly, they should be tied out of the way. Plastic cable ties work excellently for this. It is very important that this is done before any attempts are made to lift the engine assembly from its installed position.

 

i)        Remove and save temperature sending unit

ii)       Remove and save oil pressure sending unit

iii)     Remove the 12V line to the voltmeter on the dash

iv)     Remove and save the wire from the fuel gauge to the fuel gauge on the dash.

v)      Leave ABS break computer in place.

vi)     Leave the ECU in place so the speedometer/odometer works.

 

m)    Disconnect hoses from Motor

 

i)        Remove brake vacuum lines

The power brake vacuum will be provided by an electric vacuum pump and a vacuum reservoir.  The vacuum hose will be needed.

 

n)      Remove Motor

 

o)      Remove the clutch pedal

.

 


 

3)      Overall component layout.

 

Rear Battery Layout

 

The key components in this conversion are the traction batteries and the Motor and the motor controller.  The problem of interfacing the electric motor to the existing drive train, the problems of component placement, particularly the batteries, and weight distribution, are all important parts of a safe design.

 

The traction battery pack weighs 1440 pounds.  This load is split in two parts, one quarter in the engine compartment and three quarters in the pickup bed. Nine batteries will be located in the pickup bed .  One row of five and one row of four.  They will be located between front of the box and the rear axle.  The row of five will fit in front of the wheel well.  The row of four will be between the wheel wells, with rear end of the batteries just over the axle.  The entire pack will occupy about 41 inches at the front of the box.

 

Many conversions put the batteries under the bed.  From a cargo space and appearance point of view this is appealing.  The truck looks like a normal pickup truck.  Unfortunately the cargo space is an illusion.  The weight of the batteries consumes so much of the payload capacity of the vehicle that the value of the large cargo area is significantly reduced, but still, not useless.  The appearance is also important in persuading neophytes of the advantages of an electric vehicle.

 

The above also compromises the characteristics of the battery pack.  Batteries must be chosen that will fit in the available nooks under the bed. 

 

This design gives up the advantages of batteries under the bed for the following reasons.  The under bed approach is expensive.  It usually involves a tilt bed, expensive custom battery racks and shock absorbers need to be relocated to make space for batteries.

 

This design uses a 144V battery pack consisting of twelve, 12V AGM batteries.  The minus cable going to the controller is fused.  The batteries are high capacity batteries (200AH) for range.  Each battery is 20.5” long by 8.1” wide and weighs 120 lbs.  Batteries are chosen to reduce their numbers and thus simplify battery management (equalization).  If 6 volt batteries were used, we would need 24 batteries.  Their smaller size makes for easier placement, but complicates battery management.  The sheer number of 6V batteries exacerbates the likelihood of unequal charge in such a large umber (24) of batteries.  With only 12 batteries, battery management is accomplished with 11 Power Cheq Equalizers. 

 

The points favored in this design are range, battery life, and carefree battery maintenance.  The intention is to have a car that you plug in and drive.  No need to worry about specific gravity, water levels, or how to get those low batteries back to the level of the others.  Battery life is intended to be three to five years.  It is expected that the cost of more expensive 12V AGM batteries in a well managed system will be no more expensive than poorly managed, high maintenance, cheaper, flooded, 6V batteries.

 

It is often said that placing batteries under the bed lowers the center of gravity and superior to batteries in the bed.  This may be true, but if you modify the suspension and place a third of the batteries behind the rear axle, you may loose some of the benefit.  The truck is designed to carry the payload in the bed.  Using it for its’ intended purpose can’t be a big problem.  With this design the load is well placed forward of the rear axle.

 

Front battery Layout

 

The remaining three traction batteries will be placed under the hood.  They will be placed directly behind the grill along with the 12V accessory battery.  The twelve volt accessory battery will remain in its’ original location. 

The accessory battery is on the driver’s side.  This location is good because it is close to the twelve volt fuse box.  The idea is to keep the 12Volt components on the drivers side and the high voltage (144 volt) components on the passenger side.

 

The traction batteries under the hood will be installed vertically, three in a row, with the terminals at the top on the side facing the rear of the vehicle.  This a very compact installation of 360 pounds of lead in a space less than 26 inches wide, less than 22 inches high and about 9 inches deep.

 

Here is the actual battery placement under the hood.  The batteries turned out to be only 8.1 inches wide allowing three to fit between frame rails.  A superior solution to other alternatives considered. This layout gives easier access to the accessory battery, leaving it in its original factory location.

 

 

Motor Mount

 

The electric motor is attached to the adapter plate, which is bolted to the transmission bell housing. Typically a ring mount, around the motor, attached to the ICE mounts, supports the motor.  Ring mounts are available that require a fabricated attachment to the original mount points.

 

This design will take the unusual step of adding a removable front transmission cross member to support the transmission while the motor is being installed.  Torque is often a problem in these vehicles.  The ring mount holds the motor by friction only.  It is not uncommon for the motor and transmission to turn slightly under heavy acceleration.  Some times the ring mount breaks.  This design will anchor the transmission bell housing and adapter plate to the removable front transmission cross member on each side of the adapter plate.  A ring mount, bolted to the main front cross member,  will also be used.  I call it the belt and suspenders approach

 

In addition to motor and transmission support, we must deal with the drive train interface.  The key component here is the coupler.  This is a fabricated assembly that consists of two parts, the coupler and the spline from the clutch friction disc.  The clutch disc is cut down to about a 9-inch diameter by cutting off the friction surfaces.  The clutch disc with the spine at the center is bolted to the custom machined coupler.

 

The motor side of the coupler slides on the motor shaft with a key.  Both the shaft and the coupler have a keyway.  The key holds the coupler on the shaft in a fixed position.  Setscrews are used on each side of the coupler.  On the key side the setscrew holds the key in place.  On the opposite side the setscrew locks against the motor shaft.  The setscrews are installed with Loctite 271.  In addition a second setscrew is inserted behind the first on both sides.  This is also installed with Loctite.  Before the final assembly of the coupler to the motor shaft with Loctite, a trial fit of the motor to the transmission must be done.  This process starts by cutting the end of the transmission shaft.  It is cut off up to the spline, leaving the entire spline on the shaft.  The result is the leading end of the transmission shaft starts with the spline.  The coupler mates directly to this spline.

 

In addition, the clutch hydraulic line and slave cylinder need to be removed from the bell housing.

 

At this point the motor adapter plate and coupler assembly can be trial fit.  It is expected that the adapter plate will not reach the bell housing, there will be a 1/8 inch or so gap all the way around. . Use spacers in the gap and bolt the adapter plate to the bell housing.  Now measure the gap.  Use this measurement plus 1/16 of an inch as the amount to cut off the spline.

 

For example if the gap is 1/8 inch, cut 3/16 inch off the spline.  Now do one more trial fit.  You can observe the shaft through the side of the bell housing by removing a rubber pad from the side of the bell housing.

 

When you are sure everything is right, remove the setscrews on one side of the coupler and reinstall them with Loctite 271.  Do the same with the setscrews on the other side.

 

It is now time for final installation of the motor assembly.  Put the braces on the outside of the adapter plate down to the front transmission cross member as you install the last two bolts.  Fasten the ring mount assembly on the motor to the original motor mounts.

 

Under Hood Components

 

The under hood motor compartment is 32 inches from the front of the adapter plate to the radiator frame.  It is 26.5 inches between the frame rails at the radiator frame.  The frame rails are 2 5/8 inches wide so there is more room above the rails than there is between the rails.  The higher up you go the wider the motor compartment is.  At the top it is 55 inches wide and 31 inches from the radiator frame to the fire wall.

 

As has been mentioned before, the components are mounted on a table top like platform in upper area of the motor compartment behind the batteries and over the motor.  The low voltage (12V) components will be on the drivers’ side and the high voltage (144V) components will be on the passenger side.  The DC-DC converter is a little troublesome because it has 144V input and 12V output.  It will be placed on driver’s side near the center.

 

Although the table top looks like a single surface, it is actually two separate materials.  An aluminum frame supporting a transparent acrylic surface providing an insulating material so that components are electrically isolated from each other. 

 

Controller dimensions are 13.3" L x 8.6" W x 3.7" H.

Here is the final reality.  The frame is made from aluminum angle.  The surface is two pieces of transparent acrylic for thickness.  It is transparent so you can see through it to the motor below.  Some of the original objectives are achieved.  The biggest compromise is the location of the 12 volt relays.  They are on a blue card in front of the controller.  It just works out that this is where they fit.  The aluminum frame is 12 volt grounded.  Although the table was originally constructed with rivets, it was welded for the final assembly.


 

4)      Mechanical assembly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permanently mount the adapter plate to the motor using Grade 8, 3/8 - 16 plated hex head bolts, 2 inches long with solid 1 inch shank, with lock washer against fender washer.  Use  Loctite primer on the threads and Loctite 271 permanent thread lock.  Use 45 ft/lbs torque to tighten.  Note  the alignment in the picture.  The motor terminals should be at 10 and 2 o’clock as you look at the top of the plate.

 

 

5)      Motor Assembly Installation

a)      Motor mount

The motor mount straps around the motor and attaches to the existing motor mount on the frame.  An interface needs to be fabricated to mate the ring mount to the frame mount.

 

Also picture here are the Adaptor plate bolts used to attach it to the Transmission Bell Housing.  These are four grade 8 half inch 13 bolts 3.5 inches long and three 7/16ths inch 14, same length and grade  bolts in the place where the starter was.  Two of the original bolts are used to attach to the threaded holes in the bell Housing.  Bolts are installed with fender washers and lock washers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

6)      Electrical Wiring

a)      12V system

i)        Throttle

Below is an excerpt from the Curtis manual.  I don’t believe the 1231C-8601 has this option.  It is here for reference.  In the design of the EPT2, the interlock function is implemented in an interlock relay. See wring diagram.  Regardless of the condition of the throttle linkage and micro switch, turning the key off should turn off the controller.

 

High pedal disable (HPD) [OPTIONAL FEATURE]

By preventing the vehicle from being turned on with the throttle applied, HPD ensures the vehicle starts smoothly and safely. If the operator attempts to start the vehicle when the throttle is already applied, the controller (and the vehicle) will remain off. For the vehicle to start, the controller must receive an input to KSI before receiving a throttle input. In addition to providing routine smooth starts, HPD also protects against accidental sudden starts if problems in the throttle linkage (e.g., bent parts, broken return spring) give a throttle input signal to the controller even with the throttle released.  The 1209B/1221B/1221C/1231C controllers are available either with or without the HPD feature.

 

KSI

KSI (Key Switch Input) provides power to the controller’s logic circuitry via both the key switch and the throttle micro switch. KSI should be used to turn the controller on and off. Seat switch interlock

 

ii)       Interlocks

All of these interlocks are useful to some degree.  The interlocks are listed in priority order.

§         Throttle interlock

Implementation planned

§         Break interlock

Implementation planned.  The output of the  of the throttle “interlock relay” is drawn through a break pedal operated SPDT relay.  The drivers first instinct, if there is a problem with the throttle will be to apply the break.  Then the key switch.

§         Charger interlock

Not yet added to wiring diagram.  Charger has an appropriate set of terminals.

§         Motor over temperature interlock

Not yet added to wiring diagram.  Motor has an appropriate set of terminals.

§         Inertia switch interlock

§         Neutral start interlock


 

b)      144V system

 


 

i)        It has been said that the shunt should be placed on the negative side after the motor.  Since this will tell you what the motor is getting not what might be going in.  In the design of the EPT2, I want to know what the battery pack is putting out for the entire system load, not just part of it.  In this design all battery current will be drawn through the shunt.

c)      Main Contactor

Curtis recommends a Pre-charge resister values 750 ohms, 25watts.  In this case a, a 50 watt resister is being used.

 

 

7)      Electrical assembly

a)      12V system

i)        Power Brake Vacuum Pump

(1)   Using a vacuum reservoir will help to ensure the vacuum pump is not constantly cycling.

(2)   Putting an in-rush surge limiter in series with the power of the vacuum pump, will make the unit quieter.

(3)   Put a diode across (in parallel, cathode to +) any inductive device (pump in this case). This keeps the back emf spike 100's of volts from frying your contacts and not to mention and Micro Processor controls that may get glitches when the pulse goes through the wiring.

ii)       Throttle

Add external spring to throttle Pot Box.  The pot box provides a nominal 0–5kΩ output (controller output begins at ≈300 ohms, full output is ≈4400 ohms).

 

 

1.      The throttle micro switch is the start of the 12 volt relay system.  The wiring diagram shows the throttle interlock relay (labeled Interlock Relay).  The Brake Relay is the backup safety.  Points not shown in the diagram.  There is an inertia switch and a motor over temperature switch in series with the Key On source.  There is also a fourth 12 volt relay mounted on top of the Key On Bypass Contactor which illuminates the Battery Icon, on the instrument panel while the interlock relay is up.

 

2.      The other big difference is the A/C compressor is not a 144 volt motorized compressor.  The final implementation uses a belt driven compressor driven by the traction motor.

 

 

 

 

 



b)      144V system

 


i)        Instrument Pod

(1)   Wire Extension cable is six wire cable, with 12V illumination Red/White, 144V voltmeter Brown/Blue, Ammeter Yellow/Green, +/- pairs.

ii)       Battery

(1)   Terminal Torque 60 in./lbs.

iii)     Battery High Current Circuit

(1)        Pickup Bed Battery Box.

The 144V Ground will be fused at the minus terminal of battery # 12.  It will also have a manual lock out switch after the fuse.  All service operations should start by opening this lock out switch first.  This should be verified by checking voltage between the shunt and the positive terminal of battery # 1 under the hood.

 

The positive terminal of battery # 4, in the pickup bed, is connected directly to the negative terminal of battery #3, under the hood.  This cable must be treated with respect.  It carries 108 volts from the pickup bed to the battery rack under the hood.  It is un-fused and un-switched as are all jumpers in the 144V series string.  This one is especially dangerous because of its length and possible confusion about its’ purpose.  Neither end of this his cable should be removed unless batteries are being replaced.

(2)   Under the hood.

The positive 144V terminal will also be fused at the terminal of battery #1 then connected to the second lockout switch and then on to the circuit breaker on the table top.  All service operations should have this circuit breaker opened by pulling the red emergency knob on the drivers side of the passenger compartment, before the hood is opened.  At this point the second lockout switch  should be opened.  Now  the table top and the area under the hood is relatively safe.  Keep in mind  that both ends of the three batteries under the hood making 36V accessible to a careless mechanic.  At this point the ground connection on the 12V accessory battery can be removed as the third step in preparation for other service operations.

 

The other side of the circuit breaker is connected to the main contactor.  When the main contactor closes, the connection from the main contactor to the Controller B+ is activated.  There is also a connection from the Controller B+ the Motor A1.  This completes the 144V high current B+ circuit.

 

The 144V Ground cable from the Pickup Bed battery box is connected to the shunt and then the Bypass Contactor.  The other side of the Bypass Contactor is connected to the Controller B- post.  B- is then passed by the Controller from its’ M- to the Motor S1.  This completes the 144V high current ground circuit.

 

The DC-DC Converter operates on AC or DC.  It has a 120V input plug on it.  This will be retained.  An outlet will be mounted on the table Top powered by the output of the circuit breaker (144V B+) and the output of the Bypass Contactor (144V B-).

 

 



 

Power Cheq Wiring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

iv)     Circuit breaker

The Heinemann GJ1-B#-DU0250-01C Circuit Breaker requires very little pressure to trip. This provides a convenient method for installing a manual emergency disconnect without bringing high voltage cables into the passenger compartment. A simple pull cable or push lever may be used to remotely trip the breaker. 250 Amps continuous, 500 Amps for 22 seconds, 1000 Amps for 4 seconds, 10,000 Amps interrupt at 160 VDC. Measures 7.13"L X 1.44"W X 5.5"H and weighs 2 lbs.

v)      Contactor

 

 

vi)     Fuse

500 amp, 250 VDC Littlefuse Safety Fuse L25S-500

These safety fuses provide essential protection in the event of a short circuit in the high voltage system. In a vehicle with parallel battery stacks, there should also be a fuse between packs. Can be mounted directly to other high voltage connections, such as shunts or battery terminals. Measures 3.9"L X 1.5"D and weighs 9.2 oz.
Two distribution posts (CN2516 sold separately) may be used for the 500 and 800 Amp fuses, so that the fuse is easily replaceable.

 

vii)   Shunt


 

 

 

 

 

Deltec model MKB-500-50 Shunt, 500 Amp, 50 mv, for Ammeter item # IN2514 (Ammeter sold separately. Also used with the Link-10 meter (formerly the E-Meter)


Albright model SW-200B SPNO Contactor with Magnetic Blowouts, 120 VDC, 250 amps continuous, 360 amps max, 12 VDC coil.

These Curtis/Albright contactors use silver cadmium oxide contact material, which is able to withstand burning and is extremely resistant to welding. magnetic blowouts allow rupturing of high currents at high voltage. The SW200 will handle up to 120 VDC, 250 amps continuous, 360 amps intermittent, and rupture 1500 amps.

 

 

 



Charger Power Cord

Blue =Neutral

Brown = Hot

Yellow/Green stripe = Ground

  1. The Blue wire (bl = bottom left) goes into the hole in the bottom left (when the three pins are facing away from you).
  2. The Brown wire (br = bottom right) goes into the hole on the right, connected to the fuse (which should be fully clipped in).
  3. The green and yellow wire is the earth wire, and goes through the middle up to the hole in the top.

 

Domestic Plug Wiring

The live (brown) wire connects to the right-most live (L) terminal nearest to the fuse.
The neutral (blue) wire connects to the left-most neutral (N) terminal.
The earth (green and yellow) wire connects to the central, top-most earth (E) terminal.

This shows how the plug  should be wired: Brown for hot  (Small Pin), Blue for neutral (Large pin), and Yellow/green for ground (Round Pin).

 


 

 

 

 

 



8)      Diary

 

January 31, 2007          Considered Solectria Force in Newark, NY for $13,500.  Would have been a mistake.

 

February 6, 2007         Considered US Electricar Chevrolet S-10 in Texas, Sold for $8500, a bargain.  Was worried about shipping.

 

February 6, 2007         Test drove 2003 and 2004 Prius for $15,000 + in Wesley Chapel, expensive conversion to plug-in.

 

February 14, 2007       Purchase 1999 Ford Ranger Pickup truck extended cab and 5 speed manual as a base vehicle for conversion.

 

February 20, 2007       Start email dialog with Electro Automotive on DC package.

 

February 26, 2007       Electro Automotive recommends an AC conversion

 

March 4, 2007             Spoke with Ken Watkins in Lake Mary about doing the conversion for me.  He wants $6,000 plus parts to do the job.  It is a lot to add to and already expensive project.

 

March 13, 2007           Sent email to Elctro Automotive about Air Conditioning Kit price and availability. No response.  Decided to go with my own DC design using parts from various suppliers based on price and availability.

 

March 17, 2007           Met Mike Moore from Ampmobile in Crawfordville, FL.  Was considering letting Mike do the conversion in SC.  He quoted a figure of $10,000 - $12,000 to do the job.  Came back convinced I would do the job here in Winter Haven myself.  Mike was very knowledgeable and helpful.  I decided, in the end, he is just too far away for me to have much input to the process.

 

April 1, 2007                Ordered adapter plate and coupler

 

May 10, 2007              Placed order for major components from Electric Vehicles USA, Motor, Controller, Charger etc.

 

May 21, 2007              31 lbs   Electric Vehicles USA

 

May 22, 2007              DHL    15 lbs Elton Electric Vehicles USA charger

 

May 22, 2007              FedEx Freight   Motor arrived on big tractor trailer

 

May 23, 2007              Adapter plate and coupler arrive

 

June 7, 2007                FedEx  summit Vacuum Pump and reservoir arrive

 

June 8, 2007                PO       EV source        Power Cheq equalizers etc. arrive

 

June 9, 2007                EV parts Fuse, breaker, meters and emblems arrive

 

June 15, 2007              Cut duplicate cross member and remove pickup bed with Dave, Mike and Ben

 

June 16, 2007              Removed fuel tank

 

June 18, 2007              Disconnected Exhaust system from cross over pipe to tailpipe.  Remains to be untangled from chassis.  Received Curtis controller and parts from MCM including precharge resister.

 

June 19, 2007              Finished removing exhaust system, removed fuel lines and hood with Mikes’ help.

 

June 21, 2007              Removed radiator and shroud.  Found heat sink and asked for price.  Ordered wire, an  additional SW-200 contactor. Anderson connectors, and another 500 amp fuse from EV Source.   Still waiting for EV Parts to send SW-200 and shunt.

 

June 22, 2007              Removed serpentine belt and alternator.  Have compressor free.  Ordered copper buss bar.

 

June 23, 2007              Remove Compressor, and high and low pressure lines.  Removed fan with Dave’s help.

 

June 24, 2007              Removed pulley from Power steering pump with puller from Auto Zone. Removed Power Steering.

 

June 26, 2007              Worked on figuring out how the charger works.  Stage 2 ends with I5 and Stage 3 pulses at I2.  Made graph to show the curve.

 

June 28, 2007              Cut fitting off high pressure delivery line leaving nipple.  Attached return line to pressure line on power steering.  The rest of the EV Parts order finally arrived.  Forty eight inch copper buss bar arrived..  Had trouble with crossover pipe. 

 

Dave came over and got things moving.  He removed both exhaust manifolds , the oil filter, and the starter, but still couldn’t slide it all out until he jacked the car up.  Once removed as a unit, he cut the four bolts holding it all together.  He then

proceeded to remove the intake manifold, fuel injectors and everything else remaining in the way of engine removal.  Tomorrow the motor comes out.

 

The answer to charger weekly restart finally arrived from tech support. It checks once a week, if battery voltage is less than 12.95 volts at end of charge and restarts if it is lower.

 

June 29, 2007              Dave removed the motor in two hours with some help from Mike and me.  Later I finished fabricating the front transmission cross member.  Had to cut and shape the ends for flush fit.  Installed and it fits and functions well.  Will remove and have seams welded shut later.

 

June 30, 2007              Removed hydraulic line from clutch slave cylinder.  Removed slave cylinder assembly from transmission drive shaft.  Measured pilot shaft and spline and adjusted motor coupler assembly to fit.

 

July 1, 2007                 Cut pilot shaft off transmission drive shaft.  Disconnected clutch master cylinder push rod from pedal, removed clutch position switch and clutch pedal.

 

July 2, 2007                 Removed cross member and took it to the welder.

 

July 3, 2007                 Picked up cross member and painted it blue.  Cleaned and painted suspension struts and main front cross member.  Reinstalled the fabricated cross member to support transmission.

July 4, 2007                 Sort out wring harness.   Identified unlabeled connectors.

 

July 5, 2007                 Connected clutch fluid reservoir to steering gear box lines using a “T” connector.  Unraveled motor harness, removing fuel injector connectors, etc.  Removed high current starter cables from the battery harness.

 

July 6, 2007                 Ignition key test.  All functions working after trimming harness.  Washer, wiper, lights, blower and radio all working fine.

 

July 7, 2007                 Initial placement of PVC pipe.  Will be use as conduit for high current cables and other wiring.  Further refinements on wiring harness.  Taped up electrical connector attached to fuel line interlock and secured.  Removed exhaust Oxygen sensor from transmission leg of harness. Reinstalled cutch position switch with bolt through center to compress spring so it looks like clutch is pressed.  This enables the ignition key start function.  Heated up water temperature sensor to see if temperature gauge still works.  Key test shows start position on key switch and temperature gauge working.

 

July 8, 2007                 Install motor for trial fit.  Motor is in place with a few bolts.  Needs further alignment.  Photo of coupler inside transmission.  Shows degree of overlap between coupler and spline.  Marked spline with pencil so I can measure overlap after removal for Loctite application.  One hole missing from plate on right side.  Will drill after removal.

 

July 9, 2007                 Had trouble with starter bolts.  The original starter bolts go through, but the new bolts have trouble with slight misalignment.  After refining alignment of transmission and motor was able to get two of them in.  Missing one half inch bolt.  All bolts are too short to use washers.  Took measurements for remaining functions such batteries, parts table and compressor.  Did spin test in neutral.  No problems.

 

July 10, 2007               Removed motor.  Checked hole alignment using sheet metal bell housing cover from ICE. Drilled missing hole at the 3 o’clock position realigned hole at 9 o’clock position.  Inspected spline on transmission.  Overlap with spline on coupler is .96 inches based on pencil mark mad yesterday.  Removed setscrews and reinstalled with Loctite.

 

Reinstalled motor using same bolts.  Will replace with longer ones later.

 

July 11, 2007               Purchased Bolts and aluminum Stock.  Reorganized garage now that electric motor is off the floor.  Folded up engine hoist.

 

July 12, 2007               Motor mount arrived.

 

July 13, 2007               Heat sink arrived for use with controller.  Shown on bottom of controller (upside-down).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 19, 2007               Made the cable for the converter and connected to the 12 Volt accessory battery.  It works well and charges the battery.

 

July 20, 2007               Replaced the three inch bolts holding the motor to the transmission bell housing with 3.5 inch bolts with my Grandson Fio.  He learned all about mechanical advantage today.

 

July 21, 2007               Removed ICE motor mount on drivers side.  Was in the way of the ring mount.  Did trial fit of  ring mount.  Fits well.  Fabricated plywood extension of the foot as a pattern for the welder.  Will bolt into existing holes in front cross member.  Drilled hole in top of ring mount for over heating wires.

 

July 22, 2007               Fabricated a mount from 1 inch aluminum angle to attach the heat sink to the Curtis controller. Assembled the parts for a trial fit.  Need to fabricate two end pieces,  disassemble and apply heat sink compound and reassemble.

 

July 23, 2007               Drop off ring mount at welders for extension to front of foot.

 

July 23, 2007               Cut end pieces for Heat sink and riveted in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 25, 2007               Picked up ring mount.  Did trial fit.  No way to get bolt and nut to work.

July 26, 2007               Had welder tap 9/16ths hole for bolt.  Got 8 inch 9/16 NC Grade 8 bolt from hardware store.

 

July 27, 2007               Had to cut bolt one inch shorter to fit. Installed base to cross member.  Inserted bolt from under cross member up into threaded foot.

 

July 28, 2007               Worked with top of ring.  Added heat shrink to Thermocouple wires and inserted grommet  to protect wires passing through ring.

             

 

August 3, 2007             Made cardboard mockup of UB4D battery to help determine battery placement under hood.  Looks like two batteries vertically up against radiator frame works with one over and perpendicular to motor.  Assembled the throttle linkage with the pot box on an “L” bracket.  Tested accelerator pedal and linkage seems to work.

 

August 3, 2007             Pulled out one of the SW-200 contactors and tested it. Top two 12 volt coil contacts are common and bottom two are common.  Finished up the throttle linkage and mounted it on driver side hood hinge.  Mounted contactor on passenger side hood hinge.  Temporarily wired up with jumpers using the 12 volt battery.  Tested in reverse and backed halfway out of garage.  Tested in First gear and drove to lip at end of garage floor.  Wouldn’t go over bump.  My wife drove it in and I gave it a little push over the hump.  Runs dead quiet without any controller.  All you hear is the contactor.

 

August 10, 2007           Fabricated and installed straps from transmission to cross member. 

                                    Cut straps to length and marked cross member.

                                    Removed cross member.

                                    Drilled 7/16th holes in cross member.

                                    Reinstall cross member.

                                    Drill top hole in straps.

                                    Bolt straps to transmission.

                                    Mark holes on straps with pencil through cross member holes.

                                    Drill holes in straps and attach to cross member.

                 

                                   

August 14, 2007           Ordered second ring mount from EV Parts to use as base for third battery under hood.

 

August 16, 2007           Purchased angle iron for battery racks.

 

August 20, 2007           Second ring mount arrived from EV Parts.  Will be used as base for third battery.

 

August 22, 2007           My son Ed helped me reinstall pickup bed on frame.  We had some trouble and My wife and Daughter in law June helped us just in time.  Ed tightened everything up.

 

September 13, 2007     Ordered 12 - UB4D AGM batteries.  Price went up $45.00 since originally price last spring.

 

September 17, 2007     Batteries arrived today.  Driver put entire palette of 12 right in the garage using his hand truck.

 

 

September 20, 2007                 Brought plan and three 6’ pieces of angle to the welder to fabricate front battery rack.

 

September 24, 2007                 Soldered illumination wires in instrument pod for ammeter and voltmeter.

 

September 25, 2007                 Went to Tractor Supply Company in Lakeland to buy Ύ” x 4’ x 6’ stall mat for use as base for battery box.  My brother John came up with this idea.  This should reduce shock and vibration of batteries.  It will also isolate the batteries from the frame electrically.  This material will be used under batteries and in small strip between batteries.

 

September 26, 2007                 Soldered cable into Gauge pod.  Extension cable is six wire cable, with 12V illumination Red/White, 144V voltmeter Brown/Blue, Ammeter Yellow/Green, in +/- pairs.

Started to remove dash panel because half of the illumination bulbs are out.  Had trouble with last two fasteners at bottom of panel.

Ordered 36 Cable lugs for 2/0 cable in response to Wayne’s suggestion not to use copper buss bars to connect batteries.  He says battery movement will stress and damage terminals.

 

September 28, 2007                 Found that you need to remove metal plate behind knee panel to get at last two screws. Finished removing dash panel.  Replaced six illumination bulbs.

 

September 29, 2007                 Started to put instrument panel back together.  Removed red/blue wire from instrument panel dimmer knob.  Used tiny screw driver to pull wire and contact from plastic plug.  Soldered short jumper lead to back of contact and reinstalled in plug.  Put plugs back on head light switch and dimmer knob and finished install of upper dash panel.  Installed Pod on pillar.  Fished cable through and under dash.  Cut shield on cable and pulled out red wire.  Put spade type connecter on red wire and short jumper lead from dimmer switch.  Pod cable can be seen at upper left and yellow spade connecter at lower center.

Tested by grounding white wire and turning on headlights.  Pod lights and dims with instrument panel.

 

 

 

October 3, 2007          Welder called and said battery rack was ready for trial fit.  Sadly, it was a little too wide to drop all the way down between frame rails.  Rails apparently are thicker at center than at top or bottom edge.  Even tried sliding it up from the bottom.  It’s just slightly too big.  Tighter at rear closer to motor.  Also tried battery for fit.  Battery is slightly too big to drop all the way in at center.  Won’t go in at all at ends.  Back to the welder for some minor adjustments followed by another trial fit.  Better luck next time.

 

October 4, 2007          Welder removed Ό inch from both length and width.  Second trial fit and although batteries now fit with no problem, rack slides in between bulges in frame, but can’t slide it forward up against condenser.  Cut one inch square piece of wood stock to fit snug at tightest point between frame rails.  Ed, at Brown’s Repair, will shorten again one more time.

 

 

October 8, 2007          My wife gave me a surprise today.  While she was out shopping, she stopped at the welders and picked up the battery rack, brought home and dropped in place in the truck by her self.  She then called me out into the garage.  Finally it fits.  Like a glove.  Boy am I happy.  I rushed it back to the welder after taking some pictures.

 

 

October 15, 2007        Picked up Battery rack from welder.  Looks good.  We had a communication problem though.  I guess I didn’t make it clear that the crosspiece at the front by the Condenser should be flat stock.  He used angle.  There was also some confusion about back and front.

 

I decided to fix it myself.  I cut the welded cross piece off wit the air cutter.  It came off pretty clean.  I bolted a cross piece made from flat stock on the other side and it fits great.

 

 

October 16, 2007        Decided to use existing holes in frame to bolt rack down.  Enlarged holes to accept 7/16 grade 8 bolt.  Access hole in frame is nicely placed to access underside of top surface.  Did a trial fit with bolt on top using only tapped hole.

October 17, 2007        Bought Flat stock for battery hold down and battery gate at back of rack.  Also got 1.25” stainless steel bolts for battery connections.  The one inch bolts that came with the batteries are too short for the Power Cheq Equalizers.  I want them on a separate nut from the high current connectors.  Got 4” all thread bolts for the battery hold down. Also, got red paint for the battery rack.

 

 

Cut and drilled flat stock. Put the battery rack hold down bolts in place from bottom waiting for battery rack to be installed.  The hole was threaded so that the bolt can hang in place.  The nut end of the bolt has a slot cut in it so a screwdriver can be used to raise it up when it is time to put the washer and nut on.  Sorted out battery bolts into 12 packages, one per battery.

 

October 18, 2007        Drilled last two holes in flat stock.  Primed and put first coat of red on Battery rack.  Painted frame under Rack blue.

 

 

October 19, 2007        Installed Battery Rack.

 

 

October 21, 2007                    Put the compressor on top of two 2x4 and measured distance to underside of hood (11”).  Decided to set the table top about eight inches below underside of hood.  Used a short piece of Ό” tubing over drill bit to limit depth of plunge.  Held my breath and drilled the firewall.  Solid plastic duct right up against firewall.  Set the depth of plunge a Ό” deeper, held my breath and drilled again.  Have a hole that comes out inside duct.  Seems to be in the clear.  Did the same on the other side.  Hit much more solid material around steering column.  Mounted hinges on Aluminum angle.  Drilled holes to attach to fire wall.

 

 

October 22, 2007        Started cutting Acrylic for table top.

 

October 23, 2007        Considered alternative component layouts for table top.

 

 

October 24, 2007        Purchased Aluminum for table Top frame, assorted bolts, a 12V ground buss And some 2” conduit 90 and 45 degree angles.

 

October 25, 2007        Installed conduit at rear of truck.  Used the muffler path most of the way, then diverted up through the floor of the pickup bed.  Used a 90 and a 45 degree bend.  Shortened 90 degree piece because it came up inside body panel.  The shortened version came up close to the outside edge of the floor in front of the wheel well.

 

 

 

October 26, 2007        Finished Conduit at front under hood. Used a 90 and a 45 degree bend.  Shortened 90 degree piece because it brought the 45 degree piece up to high, hitting the table.  Marked the table top for hinge location.  Worked a bolt in from the passenger compartment by the accelerator pedal to hold the hinge rail.  That eliminates one self tapping screw.  Added second hole  on passenger side which will have two self tapping screws on the hinge rail. Trimmed the table Top down for a better fit.  Pulled the throttle linkage apart.  Trimmed the cable mount down for a better fit.  Also painted it blue for appearance.

 

 

 

October 27, 2007        Did  plunge cuts in the table top making a rectangular hole for the Controller heat sink.  Cut Aluminum angle for rear of table.  Made a few other frame pieces for the table top.

 

 

October 28, 2007        Installed the hinges on the table top.  Beefed up the top and bottom surfaces with flat stock.  Did a trial fit, bolting hinge rail to firewall.  Fit is not bad.  Range of motion is limited.  Passenger side leading edge hits A/C high pressure line.  Have to decide if I want more range or can I live with what I have.

 

 


October 30, 2007        Frame is almost finished.  The longest piece, the front leading edge is yet to be cut.  All pieces are riveted in place.  Surface is nice and rigid.  Also, very transparent as protective film is removed.

 

 

November 2, 2007       The last rivet went into the table top today.  Three significant design improvements include the addition of  a vertical support on the left side of the table,  removal of the hinge pins and the addition of a stop under the hinge rail to keep the table in position while lining up the hinges.  The right side of the table is supported by the accessory battery rack.  The table slides quickly into place and is well supported by the stop while the hinges are aligned.  Two nails are currently being used as hinge pins.  Required improvements include a hold down system so the table doesn’t bounce on the two forward support points.  Also, a retaining system for the hinge pins is required.  The next step is to drill holes for component mounting, starting with the controller.

 

 

 

November 3, 2007       Shortened the throttle cable so the assembly takes  up less space on the table.  Painted the knob on the emergency shut off cable red and the throttle assembly blue.  Started working on the controller mount.  Can’t get bolts with head on underside of table.  They are too close to  aluminum angle.  Picked up some Ό 20  thumb screws.  The flat head rests nicely up against the angle.

 

Cut the throttle cable at pedal.  What a nightmare.  Once cut, the cable would not fit in retaining clamp.  Re-cut the cable several time trying to get a cleaner cut.  Finally enlarged the hole in the retaining clamp and got it done.  Found some clear vinyl sleeves in the junk box that fit snugly over the nails I’m using for hinge pins.

 

November 5, 2007       Have been refining the component layout.  Have settled on the following layout.

 

The Throttle is on the far right.  To the left of that is the DC-DC Converter.  In the center is the 144 V Circuit breaker.  Behind the components are the Vacuum Pump on the left and the Vacuum Reservoir. 

 

To the left of these two components is the controller on the left. 

 

In front of the controller are the two high current contactors.  The main contactor is on the right and the Bypass Contactor on the left with the three low current relays in between.  Of the three, the break relay is on the right with the Interlock relay in the center and the KSI relay on the left. 

 

To the left of the Bypass Contactor is the shunt.  Not shown to the left of the Bypass Contactor and in front of  the shunt is the 144V  DC outlet supplying the power for the DC-DC Converter.

 

November 13, 2007     Have spent the last several days wiring the relay panel.  The brake, interlock relay and the KSI relay.  Diodes were installed on the coil of each relay.  The two contactors were also set up with diodes and the main contactor pre-charge resistor was installed.  The power connection for the DC – DC converter was setup.  The ground buss for  all the relays was also installed on this panel.  The connections to the throttle were set up, including TC and TD.  The Key-On and  Break Switch connections were also setup.

 

The two short white bundle and black wires go to the Main Throttle contactor coil.  The short red wire on the right supplies 144 V to the KSI relay common.  The short red wire on the left goes to the KSI contact on the controller.  The two short green and black wires on the left go to the Key On Bypass contactor.  

 

The long bundle on the right has the black Throttle common, the white throttle down, the green key on and the red Break switch.  The red and green go to an off board connector.

 

November 14, 2007     Cleaned up and reorganized garage.  Added a 144 V outlet to the left of the shunt and the bypass contactor for the DC-DC converter input.  Removed table top from under hood for drilling holes for components.  Asked Ed at Browns repair if he could weld the corners of the table top.  He said not without removing the acrylic.  He also told me he would do the whole A/C Compressor installation, hoses and charging.  Will bring the truck in the Monday after thanksgiving.

 

November 15, 2007     Have been mounting components on the Table Top and wiring them together.  Measured the current draw on the vacuum pump at 5 amps under load.

 

                                    The following pictures show the use of copper bar to mount circuit breaker to Main Contactor and shunt to Key On Bypass Contactor.

 

 

 

November 19, 2007     Have been working on the table Top on the bench.  Bench tests show proof of concept.  Key On brings up Key On Bypass Contactor and vacuum Pump and hopefully converter (Not tested yet, 144V).  At the same time the pre-charge resistor should charge up capacitors in Controller (Also, not tested yet, 144V).

 

Key start doses nothing unless the break is pressed.  If the break is pressed it brings up Interlock Relay which holds if the break is released.  The throttle then works bringing up the Main Throttle contactor and the KSI Relay.  If the break is pressed with the throttle down the Main Throrrle Contactor and the KSI relay drop as planned.

 

The only problem was that one diode was plugged in backwards on the main contactor, causing the throttle not to work.  This blew two diodes. One on the KSI Relay and the other on the Main Contactor.

 

Remounted the hinges on the table top to keep the aluminum frame above Chassis ground.  Used two layers of bicycle inner tube under the hinge insulation around the shank of the bolt going through the hinge. No longer have continuity between hinge and frame.

 

 

 

 

November 20, 2007     Worked on the connecter between the car and the table Top.  The purple connecter from one of the oxygen sensors was salvaged and used for this purpose.  The Key On and Key Start wires had been identified at the time of engine removal but the brake pedal position switch wire is yet to be located.

 

                                    Between fuse panel layout and wiring diagrams it had always seemed to be a simple problem.  It was fairly clear that fuse position 13 in the driver side passenger compartment fuse panel was a good possibility.  It turns out that it is hard to make use of this point because this supplies power to the switch.  This is not helpful if you want to know when the pedal is down.

 

                                    Looking at the switch mounted at the brake pedal itself is a more logical but still a mystery.  The Switch has five wires and the wiring diagram explains only two.  Both are the ones coming from the fuse panel at position 13 and the other position 9.  At position 13, the wire is Light Green with a red stripe and the one at position 9 is Brown.

                                   

                                    I removed the Brake Position Switch from the brake Pedal/Push Rod and then removed the harness from the switch.  While doing this, a black plastic bushing fell down.  This was my undoing.  I tested the switch to understand how it worked.  It has five contacts.  I could see a button operated by the brake push rod.  I could see that there are two sets of contacts, one NO, C pair and one NO, NC, C set.  There are two heavy gauge wires and three lighter wires.

 

                                    On reinstall, I was puzzled about what to do with the black plastic bushing.  I put it over the pivot pin and put everything back together.  Well, the brake lights no longer worked.  It was a late night, checking fuses, OBD II diagnostic codes and several disassembly and re-assembly rounds.  In the end it was the black plastic top hat shaped bushing.  It goes on the passenger side of the pivot pin with the bushing flange closest to the passenger side.

 

                                    I went to bed happy that the brake lights worked, but still had not found the brake wire.

 

November 21, 2007     The next morning started with some picture taking.

 

 

This picture shows the brake position switch center left and the five wires center right.  It looks like a Brown wire on the left and the Light Green with the Red stripe next to it.  Next wire moving to the right is a Red wire with a Violet stripe.  Next an un-striped Light Green and last Gray wire. 

 

I don’t like guessing games, so I did some more research.  I found a simplified wiring diagram on the Auto Zone web site that shows the brake switch supplied by a Light Green wire with a Red stripe and an un-striped Light Green wire coming out of it.  Further evidence is the fact that the two light green wires are of a heavier gauge than the others.  I tapped the un-striped Light Green with success.  I had to pull the wire bundle open and separate it from the switch to get the picture and access to the wire for the tap.

 

I used a diode to make sure no 12V signals from the table Top find their way into the brake control system.  A few tests showed that the wire was providing 12 Volts to the coil of the brake relay on the Table Top.

 

After testing, the wire was routed through the firewall with the wires from the instrument pod through the hole previously used by the Clutch Push Rod..  A harness was wrapped with these wires and the Key O and Key Start wires.  The third wire was now added to the Purple connecter to the table top, giving us Key On, Key Start and Brake Down in the connecter.

 

November 23, 2007     Continuing to finish up details under table in preparation for A/C compressor install and subsequent battery and table Top final installation.  Fabricated copper strap to mount temperature sensor on motor from copper pipe.  Connector has only one wire although sensor has two terminals.  Used distributor connector by filing nub off sensor so it would match key pattern on distributor connector which has two wires.  Tested Temperature gauge with this combination using heat gun.  Works well.

 

                                    Worked on routing wires and fabricating harness. 

 

November 24, 2007     Painted temperature sensor and mounting hardware blue.  Installed and soldered wires for temperature gauge, Temperature safety switch in motor.  These two wires will be wired in series with the Key On wire before it goes to the Table Top.  The Inertia Switch will be part of this series sequence when it arrives.  A severe impact or motor over heating will interrupt Key On.

 

A bundle was created including the A/C cable, the Motor Temperature Safety Switch and the motor temperature sensor.  These wires were included in a harness that terminates near the fuse box.  The wires for the A/C sensor in the high pressure line were included in a separate harness.

 

November 25, 2007     Continuing to finish up details related to connecting table top to car wiring in preparation for A/C compressor install.   There are still a few wires left hanging over the fender not planed for anything.  The big one is a very heavy stranded wire which was disconnected from the back of the alternator.  The original plan was to connect the converter directly to the battery.  After some research, it was decided to use this as the positive lead to the battery.  It goes through a fuse in the fuse panel

 

Also wired the green 4 pin connector used to connect the ammeter and voltmeter to the table top.  This was also salvaged from one of the oxygen sensors.

 

November 26, 2007     The Vacuum pressure switch arrived.  I am very happy that it has three contacts, C, NO, and NC.  I will use the NC to drive the oil pressure gauge.  The oil pressure sensor worked the same way.  The needle had only two positions, up (normal) and down (low) pressure.  The Gauge will now indicate normal vacuum (up) and loss of vacuum (down).

 

The switch is adjustable.  I found it to be reasonable without any changes.  I may fiddle with it later.

 

The problem with the switch is that it has a plastic hose connector.  The diameter is much smaller than the rest of the vacuum lines.  I had a brass Tee that came with the pump.  It has two nozzles to attach hoses.  I need one more to attach the switch.  A quick trip to Auto Zone and I had a reduction nozzle, to complete the Tee,  along with a small piece of hose and some clamps.  A quick test shows the pressure gauge drop just prior to the pump coming on and popping back up when the vacuum is restored.

 

There is some weight to the idea of having the needle down for normal vacuum and up for loss of vacuum.   I like it the other way.  The vacuum switch is capable of being wired either way, if I change my mind.

 

November 27, 2007     Wired the table top with the cable and the other half of the green connector for the traction battery gauges in the pod.  Blue and Green are attached to the outboard side of the shunt.  Yellow is connected to the inboard side of the shunt and the brown wire is connected to the positive post on the outlet that powers the converter.

 

Worked on the vacuum system finalizing all the connections now that we know everything works.  Used red Loctite on all the brass fittings and installed hose clamps on all the hose connections.  Put spade connectors on the C and NC contact wires for the vacuum switch that works the pressure gauge.  Haven’t found the final location for the ground wire yet.

 

Tested the vacuum system with everything buttoned down.  No more pump coming on and off.  The system holds vacuum nicely.  Although you can hear the pump, the vacuum gauge is a “visual plus” in knowing that you have brake capacity.

 

November 28, 2007     Had a problem with no break lights again.  After a lot of searching it turned out to be the mechanical connector used to tap the brake wire.  I removed it and soldered my wire in.  I tested the New Run Indicator (previously the Charge indicator) wire from the alternator harness.  I was able to make it light.  Connected this wire to the table top through the fourth contact in the purple connector. 

 

Unwound the remaining wires in the alternator harness and cleaned up the last of the wires hanging over the fender.  Saved the Yellow/White wire from the back of the alternator in a bundle with the block temperature sender connector.  Took the Black/Orange (looks like pink to me) wire that came from the back of the alternator and soldered it to the red wire output from the converter.

 

November 29, 2007     Used a relay to turn on the charge indicator (an icon of a battery) as a Run Indicator.  Can’t wire it backwards because the Air Bags are on the same fuse.  Mounted the relay on top of the Bypass contactor.  It gets picked when the interlock relay closes.  I tapped the NO terminal of the Throttle Interlock relay.  The new Run indicator, previously charge indicator, is grounded through the NO contact on the new Run Indicator relay.  This indicates that the car is on ( ready to drive, throttle enabled).

                                   

 

                                    On the left is the Fuel Gauge, I know how to move the needle but I don’t know how to make practical use of it yet.  I have a 47 ohm resistor between the yellow/white wire and the Black/Orange wire in the fuel tank harness.  It is indicating one quarter full.  Full is145 ohms and empty is 22 ohms.  Without a resister it indicates way over full.

 

                                    Next is the temperature gauge, which works to indicate motor temperature..  To the right of the speedometer is the vacuum gauge ( formerly the oil pressure).   This works nicely to show the state of the power brake system vacuum.  You can see it drop when the brake is used and recover when the pump comes on.  On the far right is the accessory battery voltage.  The pod, see photo page 51, shows the traction battery voltage and amperage.

 

 

The panel is pictured in the run state.  The key is on and the Key Start was activated while the brake was pressed.  The throttle is ready for use.  I don’t know what to do about the check engine indicator.  I guess it indicates that the key is on.  The battery Icon, the new Run Indicator,  formerly the charge indicator, indicates the run state.

 

The battery Icon and the vacuum gauge are very helpful and take some of the mystery out of what is going on in the silent EV environment.  Yes, I know, the vacuum pump is not so silent.  But, when it is not running, it is silent and it is nice to know that you have vacuum and it doesn’t need to run right now.

 

The Inertia Switch arrived today.  I have located factory switch on the firewall under the glove box, but have not demystified the wiring yet.  It looks like it may be integrated in the fuel tank harness.  I spent a lot of time today looking under the hood.  I had the whole harness unwrapped with no luck. I may just use the new one or maybe both if I can figure out the factory one.

 

November 30, 2007     Research on the Gas gauge led to the fact that the inertia switch Pink/Black wire is in the Fuel Tank harness.  Further research shows that the Green/Yellow input to the inertia switch is from the fuel pump relay which is located in the fuse box under the hood.  Relay number 5 on the far right is the one.  The NO contact is the lower of the two horizontal contacts just above the row of three smaller vertical contacts. A wire with a spade connector was inserted here. The Pink/Black wire in the Fuel Tank harness is the other. 

 

The Fuel Tank harness was separated from the harness running along the frame to the rear bumper up to a point under the cab.  From there it was folded forward and routed to the engine compartment.  The inertia Switch now is in series with the motor over temperature switch in the Key On wire.  The gas gauge wire harness is conveniently located for future enhancements.

         

A little tap, with a small hammer,  on the inertia switch shows that the power to the table top is lost when the inertia switch trips.  Pressing the reset button on top of the switch allows the ignition switch to be used to restart.

 

 

 

December 1, 2007       Discovered that the A/C vents in the car weren’t working.  Remembered that I read somewhere that they need vacuum on some models.  Apparently mine does.  Found the vacuum line near the service port by the blower.  Hooked up to a hand pump and sat in the car changing A/C settings and pulling on the pump handle.  Found I could change settings by  pulling on the handle of the pump.  Off to Auto Zone to get a Tee fitting for the vacuum line so I can hook up the A/C.

 

Weighed the table with all the components on it.  It weighs in at 60 pounds.

 

Hooked up the A/C blower too the vacuum pump with a new plastic Tee from Auto Zone.  Blower works fine.

 

Temporarily installed the circuit breaker on top of the motor so the positive cable to the 12 volt battery so the motor can be switched on and off.  Wired the other motor terminal directly to the negative terminal on the battery.  The welder can use this to checkout the belt on the compressor and maybe charge the A/C system.

 

December 2, 2007       Striped the table top and removed the Acrylic surface so the welder can weld the corners.  I’m glad I did this as I removed the acrylic some of the rivet broke.  Made the necessary repairs.  The finished welded table will be much stronger.  Tomorrow morning we tow the car to the welder for the A/C compressor install. 

 

December 3, 2007       Towed the car to the welder.  Picked up the table Top frame in the afternoon.  Inserted the Acrylic into the frame.  It went in easier than it came out.

 

December 4, 2007       Reassembled the Table Top.  Installed the hinges and the heat sink.  Started component mounting with the controller.  Used heat sink compound between the controller and the heat Sink.  Mounted all the rest of the components and connected the wires.

           

December 5, 2007       Picked up the Truck today from the welder.  Temporarily installed a contactor and a hand switch and drove it up the driveway on 12 volts.  Tested the Table Top by connecting it to the truck.  Everything still works.  Put the charger on the battery.

           

December 6, 2007       Tried the A/C with a jumper wire on pins 3 and 5 in the fuse box where the A//C relay #2 is.  It seem to cool even  at the low RM provided by the motor at 12 Volts with the compressor load on it. 

 

Rewired the Compressor.  The computer is not providing ground to the coil on the compressor relay due to the fact that the ICE is not running (I wonder why).  I have taken the cover off the relay and added a ground wire to the coil, which runs out of the Fuse box to ground.  The problem with this is the compressor clutch comes on with Key On and stays on until Key Off.

 

December 7, 2007       Continued with the Compressor wiring.  There are two sensors monitoring pressure, one on the high side and one on the low.  The computer uses these inputs to turn the compressor off when appropriate.  The sensors are normally closed switches.  I have taken them away from the computer.  The black yellow wire goes from the computer to the low side and the red yellow goes from the low side to the high side.  The black white wire goes from the high side to ground. 

 

The strategy is to take the black/yellow and the black/white and make a ground line for the compressor coil.  I traced the black/yellow wire from the Accumulator to the drivers side of the condenser right next to the High side sensor.  I joined the black/white wire to the ground wire I had added to Compressor relay coil. 

 

I then took the black/yellow wire and soldered a long white wire to it which I routed into the passenger compartment through the fire wall.  I left a long loop under the hood near the fuse box.   My plan is to put a switch on the dash to provide the final ground for the compressor relay coil.   The loop under the hood will be cut to insert a ground interrupt when the throttle us up and the motor is not turning.

 

I removed the escutcheon around the radio and cut a rectangular hole for a rocker switch.  The switch is installed.  I still have to wire it and put everything back together.

 

Although I haven’t finished yet, I tested the Compressor Clutch wiring by touching the ground wire to the chassis.  I also disconnected the low side and high side sensors one at a time to be sure the clutch wound stays off.  The final setup should provide normal A/C operation with two exceptions.  First, you will have to turn on the compressor rocker switch on in addition to the normal A/C controls.  Second, the A/C will not operated when the car is stopped.

 

December 8, 2007       Reinstalled radio escutcheon with new Compressor Clutch Switch. 

 

 

                                    The rocker switch is next to the radio.

 

 

Installed first traction battery.  Tipped too for forward.  Pressing on condenser housing.  Removed traction battery and  put shims in at the condenser side of the battery rack.

 

December 9, 2007       Installed table Top in engine compartment, with a single traction battery in place, as a trial fit.  It is tricky but it works.  I used the engine hoist to ease it in.  Realized at the last minute that the passenger side support was removed to install the compressor.  I found the support and wedged it in between the battery rack and the table top.  Have to do something with that later.

 

                                    Did a lot of inspecting and took several pictures under the table.  Can see no obstructions or close contacts.  Every thing seems to fit.

 

 

                                    After plugging in the umbilical cords and connecting two ground wires and the vacuum line, I ran some tests.  Everything still works.  We do have a vacuum leak to follow up on.

 

December 10, 2007     There is a slow leak in the vacuum line causing the vacuum pump to cycle too much.  I found that if I disconnect the A/C vacuum Tee and line, the vacuum holds up for hours.  I had a plastic Tee for the A/C line so I bought a brass Tee and set everything back in place.  Still the same problem.  After a lot of fooling around, I sat in the drivers seat and played with the A/C controls.  Seems like everything is fine in all positions except off.  For now it will be in defrost or A/C on.  Fortunately I have a separate switch for the A/C Compressor Clutch.

 

Cut about a half inch for a length of about 3 inches off the foot of the Table Top support so it intrudes less in to the area where the compressor is.  Will look this over again when the table comes out again to see if any further adjustments are necessary.

 

 

 

December 12, 2007     Pulled Table top and battery to get access to the battery rack.  Used self tapping screws to attach aluminum shims to bottom of rack.  Cut three inch wide steel plate to fill gap at bottom of rack.  It supports the cow mat and the batteries nicely.  Reinstalled battery rack and first battery.  The gap in the cow mat makes room for the battery handles.

 

                                    Bolted table Top support a little better now that I have access.

 

                                    Fabricated 110 volt AC outlet behind Charge Port (previously fuel filler) door.  Need to wire it in.  I used a hacksaw to cut the stem off the cap. Saved the outer cylinder from the lower half after removing the guts (springs etc.)  The hacksaw was probably not a good idea.  The cylinder was badly butchered.  Drilling down the center of the stem might work better.

 

One end of the cylinder is partially closed.  The top half of the yellow extension cord male plug fit inside the cylinder retained by the restriction on the other end..  The bottom half of the yellow extension cord plug was attached to the top half with extra long replacement screws.  The top half of the plug with the prongs  is inside the cylinder.  The bottom half of the plug with the wire coming out is out side the cylinder.  The prongs face the open end of the cylinder.

The open end of the cylinder has a flange on it.  The cylinder with the prongs facing out is dropped into the gas filler opening.  The bottom half of the yellow plug hangs out the back of the filler hole.  I put a hose clamp around the bottom half of the yellow plug to keep it in place.

 

 

 

December 13, 2007     Finished wiring the charge port and installed it.  The wire comes out in the bed behind the driver.

 

December 14, 2007     Installed Emergency pull cable for the circuit breaker in the passenger compartment.

 

 

The red knob is to the right of the hood release, just above the throttle pedal.  It comes into the motor compartment just to the left of the throttle cable above the table top.

 

Cleaned the floor of the bed in preparation for the batteries.

December 15, 2007     Cut and fitted cow mat.

 

December 16, 2007     I have been concerned about the proximity of the compressor and the motor.  After mulling this problem over I decided I might add a motor support on the drivers side.  The remains of the motor mount has not been put to use yet.  I settled on the remains of the clutch pedal as a source of steel stock for the project.  It has a bend in it that is almost the correct angle for the project.  After some cutting, a slight additional bend and some drilling, I came up with the solution.  Hopefully, this will help keep the motor from visiting the compressor.

 

 

Put blue Loctite on set screw on pulley that drives A/C Compressor.  Blew compressed air through heater core to remove any remaining anti-freeze.

 

December 18, 2007     Installed last batteries in front battery rack. 

 

Loaded five batteries in bed for trial fit. 

Created buss bar between main contactor and controller B+.

 

December 19, 2007     Bought some aluminum stock and all thread rod for batteries in rear.  Also got aluminum angle for front batteries.  Installed a piece of thin gauge angle at top of batteries to keep them away from bolts holding condenser in place. 

 

Using heavier gauge aluminum angle instead of flat steel on top of batteries to hold them down.  The steel bowed in the center leaving the center battery loose.  Even the angle had some of this problem but with the mat in place and the rope handles behind the angle the center battery is now firm.

 

The pictures shown for the 18th were actually taken today.  The batteries were in place then but not the hold down and the mat.

 

December 20, 2007     Tightened the front and rear gate bolts on the front battery rack.  Pulled the fuel gauge wires out of the harness down by the motor and extended them to the area between the fuse box and the accessory battery.  The Black/Orange was extended as Red and the Yellow/White was extended as Green.

 

December 21, 2007     Made cables for motor and installed

Estimated required length for cables connecting front batteries to rear.  Cut one red and one black.

 

December 22, 2007                 Pulled cables through conduit.  Pulled from front to back.  The sharpest curves are at the back.  Lined up cables so that they would not need to be adjusted individually.  The black high current  wire going to battery number 12 was made longer than the red wire going to battery number 4.  The low current red wire for the charger was made much longer than the green wire going to equalizer C at battery number 4. 

 

The bundle was taped with masking tape.  I tried pulling the cables without taping them but the rubber insulation was sticking on the sharp curves when I went from back to front.  Going from font to back and taping the cables made things slide through more easily.

 

I drilled the first piece of aluminum angle to hold the rear batteries in place. This is the piece that goes from side to side between the batteries and the tail gate.  I hit the bed support under the bed over the axle.  My bolt are about Ό inch too short.  I got the nut on but no washers.  Will have to get longer ones for this piece.

 

December 23, 2007                 Cut the remaining four pieces of aluminum for the base of the batteries in the bed.  Drilled and fit two of them in place. 

Fabricated the second buss bar for the Bypass Contactor connection to the Controller.

 

December 28, 2007     Spent the last two days cutting and drilling.  Loaded the last four batteries into the bed today.  The rear battery rack is done.

 

December 29, 2007     Fabricated a support for the emergency shut off cable.  Added a support for the circuit breaker. Made a right angle connector for the motor M- connection on the controller.

 

 

December 30, 2007     Finished up loose ends on table top.  Put connectors on throttle wires at controller.  Put a diode on the vacuum pump and a fuse on the converter input.  Put a screw in the piece of angle that supports the front of the controller to act as an anchor point for the table hold down.  Cut a piece of flat stock to use as the hold down.  Put Loctite on all the fasteners on the bottom of the table top.

 

                                    Spent the evening putting ring connectors on the battery Cheq equalizers.  Their ready to install except for the yellow wire on one of them.  This will connect Equalizer C to the long green wire between battery three in the front  and four in the rear.

 

December 31, 2007     Installed table top.  My wife notice a crack in the bottom piece of acrylic to the right of the converter.  I guess I tightened the right rear nut too tight.

 

Cut the table hold down to approximate length.  Marked hold down exact length using the table top support as a guide.  Cut hold down and drilled hole.  Marked Table top support with hold down intersection point and hole location.  Removed table top support and drilled hole to attach hold down.  Installed support and hold down.

 

Connected emergency shut off cable to circuit breaker. 

 

Installed throttle.  Some time ago I measured resistance of pot box while using accelerator pedal.  I found that I could not get maximum resistance (4400 ohms).  I adjusted the throttle linkage so that instead of using the hole at the end of the pot box arm, I used the third hole from the end.  Well, I forgot all these details so I decided to measure the resistance again.  Well now the pot box is plugged into the controller and the in circuit readings are much lower (2600).  I checked my diary and all my pictures and could find no clue.  Fortunately, the original holes in the pot box arm were too small for the throttle cable end.  I drilled them out, first the second hole then the third until I got the maximum reading I wanted.  The pot box arm itself was the only record of what I had done, but that was enough to jog my memory. 

 

Connected vacuum line, ground buss, the converter output plug, the green and purple connecter.  Did a cockpit test and everything works as expected.

 

Started connecting the high current connections.  Connected the motor to the controller black cable M- and red cable B+.  Connected the negative 144 volt black cable from the rear battery box to the shunt.  Connected the 108 Volt red cable from the rear battery box to the negative terminal of battery three.  I used the left over pieces of mat to cover terminals not being worked on while working on batteries.  Dipped the handles of necessary wrenches in Liquid Rubber.

 

January 1, 2008                        Made 9 short cables, one 18  inch black and one 18 inch red cable.  J. D. Potter, a Ham Radio friend of mine suggested the following cable stripping technique.  It was helpful.

 

This technique keeps all the strands together as you slide the lug over the cable.  Once the lug is firmly in place, you can remove the excess insulation and slide the lug the rest of the way.

 

Moved the cable post on breaker from contactor side to converter side.  Did not want to do this but there is just no room anywhere else.

 

January 2, 2008                        Put ring connector on # 10 green and red wires coming from bed under hood.  Connected red wire to the lock out switch positive terminal of number one battery.  Put spade connector on green wire in bed.  Put mating female on yellow wire on last unfinished equalizer.  Installed red cable on breaker and lock out attached to positive terminal of battery number one.  Installed short black cables between batteries followed by  equalizer installation.

 

                                                Once the last cable and equalizer was in place.  Turned on the lock out keys, held my breath and looked for smoke.  Seeing none, got into the cab turned the key to key on position, held my breath and looked for smoke.  Seeing none, put my foot on the break and turned the key to key start position.  Put it in reverse and tried very gentle pressure on the throttle.  I heard that Curtis whine for the first time as the car moved backwards slowly.  Got to the end of the driveway, put it in first and started forward.    Noticed the ammeter moving backwards.  Backed up and went back into the garage.  Reversed the wires on the shunt and continued touring the neighborhood without incident.  Friends and neighbors enjoyed seeing and riding in the truck.  Did five miles riding around the block.  Hot wired the charger to the charge port.  Soldered  the # 10 red wire from battery number one under the hood and a short black lead from battery number twelve to the Anderson connector for the charger output.  Started the charging process for the first time.  Lots of problems with 110 volt circuit breaker trips.  Outlets I thought were 20 amps were actually 15.  Tried moving from outlet to outlet with repeated problem.  Eventually got through the process.

 

January 3, 2008                        Drove to the dump to get the truck weighed.  Finished weight without charger is 4540 lbs.  This is 180 lbs over the current revised estimated final weight and just about equal to the original estimate.  I revised the estimate when the batteries turned out to be 120 pounds rather than the 132 lbs I had done the original planning with.  I am happy to be under the GVWR.

 

Drove 17 miles in all.  Came home put a plug on the charger and charged it up.  Used outside outlet with success for about three hours and then circuit breaker trips.  Final found a 20 amp outlet in the kitchen and had no problems after that.  Will install an outlet with number 12 wire and a 20 amp breaker in the garage to solve this problem.  Will finish up with an outlet at the end of the cable from the charge port.

 

January 4, 2008                        Drove 19 miles today.  Picked up some #10 Romex and a 20 amp circuit breaker and a 20amp GFCI outlet.  Plugged the charger in and it ran for about an hour and forty five minutes before it tripped the breaker.  I reset the breaker and their were no more trips.  The charger got to 172 volts and some of the batteries were between 137, 144 and 145.    I pulled the plug.  I let the equalizers even things out.

 

January 5, 2008                        Drove 17 miles today and had an incident.  It was dusk when I started to return home.  I turned on the headlights and began having problems, including loss of throttle.  It turned out to be a dead 12 volt accessory battery.  My wife took a cab home and came back with the tow bar and our neighbor Simon.  I charged up the accessory battery at the bottom of the driveway and drove it into the garage.

 

January 6, 2008                        Found there is charge voltage into the Anderson connector between the converter and the battery, but nothing coming out.  Some how the pins were misaligned on the negative side and met nose to nose and pushed each other out. Reassembled the connectors and put them together with no further problems.

                                               

Took a ride to Lowes with neighbor Carl to get some more # 10 wire.  I think I’ll add a second 30 Amp outlet.  Want to get the range up before charging again.  Between yesterdays 17  and today’s 10 miles, this charge will be for 27 miles.  The voltage was down to about 144 ( 35% SOC).

 

Installed a 20 amp outlet to replace the 15 amp by replacing the 14 gauge wire with # 10 and connecting it to a 20 am breaker and a 20 amp GFCI outlet.  Also added a 30 amp outlet right next to it.

 

The charge took a little over 8 hours to hit 171 volts.  I stopped it because some of the batteries were at 14.5 or 14.6 while other were as low as 13.7.  The manufacturer says not to exceed 14.4 charging voltage.

 

I can’t get into stage two of charging without over charging some of the batteries.  I have to work on this.  Maybe my volt meter is not accurate enough.

 

January 13, 2008                      We have been enjoying the truck.  We have made a night time run with headlights.  We have also tested the A/C system.  It seems to cool ok. 

 

The charger has been an ongoing problem. Not true. See April 1 entry on page 70.  Charger adjustments in the end were unnecessary.  Today I pulled the cover off and did some research on the web.  I am not the first one to turn the output voltage down on the NG3.  Looking around I found two blue pots on the control logic card.  This is a vertically mounted card perpendicular to the main board.  See upper left quarter of picture.

 

The one on the left is labeled “I” on the card and the one on the right stamped “U” on the card.  I gave the one on the right an eight of a counter clockwise turn without much difference.  I got a little more aggressive with a quarter of a turn and saw a small drop.  After over a full turn I saw the 171.6 I was told it was set at. After about two or more turns I got it down to 168.4 volts.  At this pack voltage no individual battery goes over 14.4 volts.

 

Completed all three stages according to spec. with automatic shut off at the end.

 

January 14, 2008                      Completed one more 29 mile trip.  Went to Sears to get a new AGM battery for the minivan.  Then made some movies of the truck around the neighborhood.  Can’t seem to find a reason to get a trip over 30 miles yet.

 

January 15, 2008                      First trip over 30 miles.  Went to Best Buy in Lakeland, 33 miles round trip.  No problems.  144.7 volts on return (40%) of charge.  Drove speed limit with gentle starts.

 

January 16, 2008                      I have made one more adjustment to the charger out put voltage.  It seems to rise during the second stage from 168.4 to 169.4 and higher causing some batteries  exceed 14.4 volts (14.5).  It now starts at 167.4 and rises to 168.4 during stage two.

 

I also attached a toslink cable to the charger cover over the led displaying the charge state.  I used a one inch square piece of acrylic left over from the table top.  I drilled a hole in it and inserted one end of the cable to act as a light guide. The other end is out where I can see it without removing the cover.  I would not recommend this if you are using flooded batteries or batteries that vent.  My batteries are SLA and my charger is adjusted not to overcharge any individual battery and I have a temperature sensor to turn the charger off if the batteries get hot.  Also the equalizers keep things balanced.

 

I have yet to fasten the charger down in the pickup bed.  I suppose there will always be adjustments and refinements to make  I want to do something with the fuel gauge at some point.

 

For now I feel I have achieved my goal of  a plug and drive vehicle with a range of 35 to 40 miles.  Although my longest trip is 33 miles so far.  It is everything I expected.  The lack of power steering is sufficiently acceptable that I have no current plan to add it.  I considered the Toyota MR2 electric pump, but the 80 amp draw is more than I want to put on my accessory battery and 30 amp converter.

 

To be quite frank, although this car is a viable alternative to its’ gas powered previous life, it is not its’ equal.  The V6 motor I removed was very responsive with the 5 speed transmission.  Neither is it equal in pollution or foreign oil dependence.  For me, this is the vehicle in which I will do over 90% of my driving.

 

The other thing I am concerned about, is that this car be used as an example of the limitations of  electric vehicle technology.  The limitations of this vehicle reflect my limitations.  For anyone interested in  the true limitations of the EV technology, use the Toyota RAV4 EV, the Ford Ranger EV, the Tesla or the EV1 (800 crushed by GM) as the standard.

 

I converted this vehicle because the automobile industry has abandoned this technology, for reasons I will never understand, leaving me no alternative, but to build an inferior substitute.

 

Although my car meets my requirements and is a wonderful alternative to pollution and foreign oil dependence, it is no match for GM or Toyota automotive engineering.

 

Chevron has taken steps to see to it that I can’t have NiMh batteries in my car.  I would have bought them if I could have.  The result is that my vehicle has half the range it could have.  The result is, I imagine, just what Chevron wants.  My car looks to be half what it could be, to anyone forming an opinion about Battery Electric Vehicle Technology.

 

My  car is here to show you that battery Electric Vehicles are viable.  It should not be used as an example of the limitations of the Technology.

 

Unless something important happens, this will be my last journal entry.

 

March 26, 2008                       At this point, I have over 1000 miles on the car.  One problem was charge port overheating.  I had a 15 amp rated plug and #12 wire to the charger plug.  I replaced the plug with a 20 amp heavy duty plug and the wire with #10.  The extension cord was also #12 wire I replaced it with #10 and the whole thing runs only slightly warm now.

 

Lost the air filter check valve assembly from the back of the vacuum pump due to vibration.  It was installed on the pump when it arrived.  I never checked it.  Fortunately, I found it on the table near the pump and reinstalled it.  No other problems have been found.

 

March 26 , Wednesday                        36 miles then charge to end of stage 2

March 27, Thursday                             Roger Stockton advised me that chronic under charging causes sulfation, which leads to loss of capacity.  My entire program to this point was based on avoiding over charging, with out concern about under c harging.

March 28, Friday                                 I Restarted charger ran through stage three pulsing as high as 182 at the end.  This was done in two, three-hour sessions with a one-hour rest in between for a total of six hours.

10:20pm                                               Now, about ten hours later, the voltage is 155.8 and holding, about a volt higher than the usual 154.8.  I'll check it in the morning.

 

 March 29, Saturday                             Voltage continues to drop.

March 30, Sunday                                Early OCV 155.3 ate 155.1 most of the day 34 miles, Returning voltage 146.8.  After an hour 147.6 volts Sent email to Karen Oakes at Universal Battery.

 

Text Box: From: Al Lococo 
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 12:01 PM
To: Karen Oakes
Subject: Re: UB4D 45965


Karen,

My UB 4D AGM batteries arrived on September 17 2007, I started using them
onn January 2 2008.  They have been in almost daily cycle use in my Electric
Vehicle ever since.

When I received the batteries, I saw that the label on each battery states
charging voltage for cycle use should not exceed 14.1- 14.4 volts.  At the
same time the spec sheets states charging voltage for cycle use should not
exceed 14.5- 14.9 volts.

I decided to use the lower range stated on the battery label.  I have only
recently learned about undercharging and sulfation.

My question is, which range is correct for cycle use14.1- 14.4 or 14.5-
14.9?  At what voltage are these batteries fully charged?

I am hoping you can have somone in technical support contact me with an
answer.  Thankyou.

Cheers,
Al Lococo
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 31, Monday                                          OCV 147.7 Charged to end of stage 3 Started at 6:30 am, stage 2 started at 3pm, 4 pm stage 3 start, 10 pm end of charge OCV 158.5.  Pulsing up to 180 at the end.  Midnight OCV 157.1 Received reply from Karen Oakes at Universal Battery.

.Text Box: From: "Karen Oakes" <oakesk@upgi.com>
To: "'Al Lococo'" 
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 9:18 AM
Subject: RE: UB4D 45965

Al,
we recommend setting the voltage at 14.4 volts. If you have any other 
questions please let me know.

Karen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent email to Karen Oakes at Universal Battery.

Text Box: Karen,

Thanks.  Is there a new spec sheet stating 14.4.  If there is I would like 
to have it.

I have attached the sheet currently on your web site.  Is this incorrect 
with regard to cycle charging voltage, 14.5 - 14.9?

What is the fully charged voltage?  By that I mean, the OCV measured 24 
hours after charge completes.

How deeply can I discharge the batteries?

Do I need to be concerned about undercharging?

Do you know of anyone besides myself using the UB 4D AGM in an Electric 
Vehicle?

My car has over 1100 miles at this time.  My longest trip is 41 miles.  My 
average trip is 17 miles.  I am very happy with the performance of these 
batteries in my car.  The conversion community is watching my experience 
with the UB4D AGM.

I want to make sure I am using the correct charge routine for maximum 
battery life.  The car is designed so that I have far in excess of twice the 
capacity needed for my average trip.  As a test, yesterday I drove 34 miles 
with an OCV this morning of 147.7 volts before charging.  I believe this is 
50% SOC.

Are you interested in seeing these batteries used in other Electric 
Vehicles?  Do you consider this to be an appropriate use of these batteries?

How long can I expect these batteries to last with this type of use?  Here 
is a log of my trips and discharge experience.  The return voltage is an OCV 
upon immediate return.  The actual SOC would appear higher, if I let it rest 
a sufficient amount of time before measuring the OCV and then charging.

http://www.lococo.org/Electric%20Truck/Milage%20Log.htm

This is my web page.
http://www.lococo.org/Electric%20Truck/Truck.htm

I am planning to start a topic on my web page with my battery experience.

Cheers,
Al Lococo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 April 1, Tuesday                                              OCV 156.1 Received reply from Karen Oakes at Universal Battery.

 

Text Box: From: Rick Ramsey
ToAl Lococo
Cc: Steve Crow ; Erin Hooten
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 4:48 PM
Subject: charge voltage for the UB4D


Both of these charge voltage ranges are correct...depending on what construction the battery is.  There are (2) batteries that have been referred to as "4D" size.  The difference is one is AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat), and the other one is GEL.  The AGM batteries requires the higher range voltage and is in a black case, while the GEL batteries require the lower charge voltage range
and are in a grey case.

I hope that explains what you need.

Regards,

Rick Ramsey
Director of Engineering
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information contained in this message is intended solely for the individual to whom it is specifically and originally addressed. This message and its contents may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure or distribution, or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information, is strictly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, now we know that the higher, more typical voltages for AGM batteries (14.5-14.9) are correct and the label is incorrect (14.1 – 14.4) . This mis labeling of these batteries caused me to take corective action to turn down the voltage on the NG3 charger which I now know was inappropriate.  In the end I returned the NG3 charger as close as I could to its original voltage.

 

Any statements about the NG3 charger made above describe actual experience which was tainted by misleading battery labeling by Universal Battery..

 

 I have taken steps to insure proper charging.  The pulsing third stage brings the batteries up to full charge or as close as I can get to full charge given that I was undercharging for three months.  A normal part of the discharge process is for sulfates to accumulate on the plates.  Charging reverses the sulfation if you fully charge the battery (slightly over charge.  However undercharging leaves some sulfates on the plates and if left long enough will harden reducing battery capacity.  I am now achieving an OCV of 13.1 volts.  Based on manufacturer cgraphs, this looks close to fully charged.  They have never responded to my questions below. 

 

I believe the NG3 charger and the Universal UB4D AGM batteries are well suited to this application.  I have included my  usage and charging experience below so you  can see how the combination has performed for this early part of the battery life cycle once the required charging voltages were understood.


 

Rick Ramsey,

 

Thanks.  You have answered my confusion.  I know which battery I have.  The source

of the confusion was because the label on the (black case) battery (UB4D AGM

45965) says 14.1 -14.4.  I have attached the label.  I mention this so that you know

why I was confused.  You may want to take steps to assure that the correct label is on

 the battery.

 

I had asked some other questions in my original note.  I include them here in case you

 haven't seen them.

 

If you can answer any or all of these questions, it would be helpful to me.

 

Thanks again for the answer you  have already provided, it goes along way towards

getting me off on the right charging regimen with these batteries.

 

Cheers,

Al Lococo

------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the fully charged voltage?  By that I mean, the OCV measured 24

hours after charge completes.

 

How deeply can I discharge the batteries?

 

Do I need to be concerned about undercharging?

 

Do you know of anyone besides myself using the UB 4D AGM in an Electric

Vehicle?

 

My car has over 1100 miles at this time.  My longest trip is 41 miles.  My

average trip is 17 miles.  I am very happy with the performance of these

batteries in my car.  The conversion community is watching my experience

with the UB4D AGM.

 

I want to make sure I am using the correct charge routine for maximum

battery life.  The car is designed so that I have far in excess of twice the

capacity needed for my average trip.  As a test, yesterday I drove 34 miles

with an OCV this morning of 147.7 volts before charging.  I believe this is

50% SOC.

 

Are you interested in seeing these batteries used in other Electric

Vehicles?  Do you consider this to be an appropriate use of these batteries?

 

How long can I expect these batteries to last with this type of use?  Here

is a log of my trips and discharge experience.  The return voltage is an OCV

upon immediate return.  The actual SOC would appear higher, if I let it rest

a sufficient amount of time before measuring the OCV and then charging.

 

http://www.evprogress.org/Milage Log.htm

 

This is my web page.

 

http://www.evprogress.org/

 

I am planning to start a topic on my web page with my battery experience.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


In response to the reply from Universal Battery, I have turned the charger up to a terminating voltage 173.3.  I gave it two and a half turns clockwise, which is less than I turned it down.  So it is higher than the NG3 Spec sheet says it was, 171.6, but lower than it actually was when it arrived.  I need to observe it in operation.  The charger tends to run a little higher in a real charge cycle.  Hopefully it will run between the 174.0 and 178.8 recommended by Universal.

 

 

April 2, Wednesday                  Early OCV 155.8 26 miles, Returning voltage 148.7  After an hour and a half 149.4 volts Started charger at 3:30 pm.  Stage 3 start 11:00, stage 2 peak voltage  171.4, 3:15 am 171-182 volt pulse range, pulled plug, OCV 159.4?

 

April 2, Wednesday                  10:am 156.6 OCV

 

April 5, Saturday                      8 miles, Returning voltage 153.4  After an hour and a half 153.9 volts

 

April 6, Sunday                        Started charger at 3:50 pm.  Stage 3 start 6:00, stage 2 peak voltage  172.6, midnight  176-186 volt pulse range, Green Light, OCV 159.3

 

April 7, Monday                       10:am 156.8 OCV 19 miles, Returning voltage 150.7   After an 20 min. 151.0 volts

Started charger 5:50 pm. Stage 3 start 11:20, stage 2 voltage  171.2, 10:pm  176-186 volt pulse range, 5:20am Green Light, OCV 159.3

 

April 7, 2008                            After 1200 miles of driving, I was traveling with my wife on SR 540 west when we heard a loud noise. The car continued to drive, but with a new vibration. The next day I took this picture of the motor coupler inside the transmission.

 

April 8, Tuesday                       6:55am 158.6 OCV 9:50am 157.5 OCV 15 miles, Returning voltage 152.2   After  30 min. 152.8 volts Took cover off charger and raised the voltage pot one more turn clockwise.  It should be close to where it was originally. Started charger 3:00 pm. Stage 2 start at 7:05pm, 172 volts, 7:35pm 172.5 volts, Stage 3 start 7:45pm,  end of charge 11:50 OCV163.4

 

April 9, Wednesday                  7:05am 157.5 OCV 7:45am 157.5 OCV Started charger 3:00 pm. 172.5 volts Stage 2 start at 5:30pm, Stage 3 start 6:00pm, peaking at 188 v end of charge 10:50, after 20 minutes   OCV160.8

 

April 10, Thursday                    9:50am 157.7 OCV 3:30am 157.5 OCV

 

April 20, Sunday                      3:30pm 155.8 OCV Drove the truck on a short 4 mile drive staying at about 80 amps the whole time. Returning voltage 154.2,   after an 45 min. 155.3 volts Started charger at 4:30 pm. Maximum stage 1 voltage 174.6,  zipped through stage 2, stage three start 5:30pm Pulled the plug at 8:20 voltage was ranging from 178 –188 volts. 9:00pm 159.4 OCV 10:30pm 158.0 OCV

 

April 21, Monday                     1:20pm 157.0 OCV 9:40pm 156.8 OCV

 

April 22, Tuesday                     8:00am 156.7 OCV Drove to Stewarts Auto Repair.

The clutch disc had thrown a spring and also cracked the bell housing. The plan is to have a local repair shop remove the transmission and replace the broken clutch disc and coupler. The EPT2 is temporarily out of service.

April 23,2008                           The truck is back on the road today,. A retooled Coupler from Wayne Alexander was installed by Stewarts Auto Repair. The Transmission was removed from underneath while on the lift. Ed at Browns Repair welded the bell housing. The new coupler is .5 inches longer and has a better grip on the transmission spline.

 

April 23, Wednesday                Picked up car and drove 14 miles. From Stewarts, Down US 17 and over SR540. OCV after several minutes 152.3 volts.  Start charge at 2:30pm  Stage 1 ended at 6:30pm at 174.8 volts.  Moved quickly to stage 3.  Completed at 10:50 with a peak of 188.7 and an average of 182.7 in the last hour. OCV 153.7

 

April 24, Thursday                    12:20pm 157.3 OCV 5:50pm 157.1 OCV Drove 9 mile to Lowes and Sheriffs Office e.  154.7 on retrn 154.2 after 15 minutes.  Started charger at 8:30 PM.  Stage 1 ended at 11pm at 173.4 volts.  Zipped through stage two.  Stage 3 peaked at 188.8 volts

 

April 25, Friday                        10:30am 157.7 OCV 9:40pm 157.3 OCV

 

April 26, Saturday                    5:30am 157.3 OCV Drove to FFA Leadership Center in Haincity  25 miles.  rrival voltage 151.2.  Charged 7:00am – 9:15am. OCV 155.0.  Drove 25 miles partial charge return voltage 147.1, after 148.3 started charger. For 2.5 hours. OCV 155 went to Andreas Restaurant and publix at North Gate 11 miles return voltage 147.7 after ten minutes 148.1.  Started charger 5:10pm.  Still in stage one when I went to bed/

 

April 27, Sunday                      End of stage 3 at 9:15am peak pulsing voltage was 188.8.  OCV 159.3 at 9:20,  60 mile trip with 4 hour of opportunity charging. 15 hour final charge plus 4 hours opportunity charging equals 19 hours total charge. 9:40am 159.1 OCV 12:15pm 158.1 OCV 10:45pm 157.4 OCV

 

April 28, Monday                     1:05pm 157.1 OCV Drove 10 miles 153.7 returning voltage and154.2 after 50 minutes.  Started charge at 4:50.  Stage 1 end at 8:00pm 172.8 volts max. Charge ended between 135 and 2:05 at 161.1 Peak pulsing voltage of 188.8

 

 

April 29, Tuesday                     1:05pm 157.9 OCV Drove 19 miles, started charge at 1:30 stopped charger at 3:30

Drove 9 miles 152.0 return voltage 152.5 after 30 minutes Started charger at 5:30 pm stage 1 ended at 10:00pm  172.4 ending voltage.  Stage 3 ended sometime between midnight and 1:30am. Pealing at 188.9

 

April 30, Wednesday                1:05pm 157.8 OCV Drove 35 miles 147.6 volts on return, 148.5after 30 minutes. Sstarted charger at 3:00pm. Peak pulsing voltage 188.4 volts.

 

May 1, Thursday                      10:05am 158.0 OCV 10:50pm 157.5 OCV

 

May 6, Tuesday                       Drove 30 miles.  Started charge at 3:00 pm.  Stage 1 ended 12:30 midnight at 171.5 volts.  Stage 3 ended at 185.1 volts.  OCV at 5:30am 159.0 volts

 

May 7, Thursday                      OCV 157.8 AT 10:00AM Drove 27 miles started charge at 5:oopm, 

 

May 1 – 14                              Charges during this time returned to the earlier higher values ending at 188.9, maybe due to cooler temperatures, high 70’s low 80’s.

 

May 15, Thursday                    Drove 19 miles with a returning voltage of 151.9 and 152.3 after 20 minutes.  Started charge at 5:40.  Stage 1 ended at 171.1 and stage 2 ended at 172.4 stage 3 peeak pulsing voltage was 182.3.  Temperatures in high 80’s maybe 90.

 

May 16, Friday                        9:00am 157.4 AT 10:00AM

 

July 9,  2008 Wednesday         Turned charger up again in a attempt to get closer to the Spec sheet constant voltage for the batteries of 14.5 – 14.9 volts.  Gave it 1.75 turns clockwise.  Stage two ending at 176.8 volts or 14.73 per unit.  Aalthough this in the range of 14.5 – 14.9 volts no other manufacturer recommends a voltage higher than 14.6 volts constant voltage charge of an AGM battery.

 

August 29,  2008 Friday           Received five new batteries.  Distributor replaced four batteries under warrantee and I purchased one more.

 

September 2,  2008 Tuesday    Installed five new batteries in Pickup bed.  Batman Watt/hour meter arrived.

 

September 8, 2008       Monday           Installed Batman Watt/hour meter.  After studying the instructions and considering alternatives, I decided to put the new shunt under the hood right next to the existing one.  I considered installing it in the bed on the last battery negative post because the area under the hood was so cluttered already.  I considered using only one shunt, but the existing ammeter is not zero centered.  Charging would drive the needle backwards against the pin.

 

In the end I made a buss bar out of copper about 2.25 inches long with a hole at each end and placed it between the negative high current cable and the existing shunt. 

In the picture on the left you can see the new shunt on top positioned horizontally with the negative high current cable connected on the left. The new buss bar is position-ed vertically and connects to the old shunt also verticle.  The lower horizontal buss bar connects the old shunt to the bottom post on the Key On Bypass contactor.  The top post on the contactor is connected to the controller with another buss bar.  In the right is the view from the front looking back.  The new shunt on top Horizontal and the old one vertical below.

 

You can see in the picture on the right that the red wire in the watt/hour meter cable is connected to the 144 volt connection used by the old volt meter.  It joins the fused red wire which goes to the bottom of the Main Throttle Contactor.  A hole was drilled in the fire wall on the passenger side very close to the hump for the transmission.  It comes out under the car just behind the heat shield and the firewall.  A rubber grommet was installed in the hole and the wire was fished through from under the car into the passenger compartment.

 

On the left is a picture of the meter cable coming from the shunt going through the firewall just behind the heat shield.  Above is the cable coming up through the firewall under the carpet on the passenger side.

 

8)     Inside the passenger compartment, the 12 volt connection is made using a cigarette lighter plug.  This is routed together with the cable from the shunt to the meter.  The 12 volt connection can be seen on the left.  The meter is shown below lying on the passenger seat.  The meter was tested by putting the shift in neutral and gently pressing the accelerator.  A further test involved plugging in the charger also successful.

September 9,  2008 Tuesday    Tried to start the car without success.  Looks like the brake positions switch is not working.

 

September 11,  2008 Thursday Started to look at wiring diagrams and develop a strategy for diagnosing the problem.  Went out to the car and noticed there are also no brake lights.           

 

September 12,  2008 Friday     Checked fuse 13, fuse ok.  Removed brake position switch, switch ok.  Checked Light Greeen wire tap for brake relay..  Wire tap in excellent condition.  Lots of  contiuity tests, voltage tests and head scratching.  Reworked wiring diagrams and made lots of improvements to my working notes.  I got brake lights to come on once for a moment during a test with fuse 13 in and fuse 9 out.

 

September 12,  2008 Saturday More head scratching, until I finally realized it was poor contacts on fuse 13.  I was able to flash the brake lights on and off by wiggling the fuse with a jumper in the brake position switch connector on pins 1 and 2.  So, I found that a new fuse hhad wider and thicker pins and when installed I had a betterfit and no more intermittent.  This was a tough one because it happend right after the install of the Amp/Hour meter.  I spent a lot of time thinking about how that could affect the computer and disconnecting it.  This proves that just because two things happen one after another, one did not necessarily cause the other.  All’s well that ends well.

 


 

8)     Statistics

 

 

Transmission pilot shaft 1.18”

Transmission pilot shaft gap to bell housing plate .015”

Transmission pilot shaft diameter .57 “

Transmission spline 1.82”

Shaft center to top of cross member under motor 6.5”

Total distance from motor face to outside edge of spline 2.145”

Spline on coupler 1”

Motor face to motor side of spline 1.145”

 

Before starting              Motor removed      assembly complete  Spring Over Shocks

Front ride height           31”                   32.5”                                        30.25                           30.5

Rear ride height            33”                   33                                            30                                31

Transmission bell housing height from floor        13”

 

Traction Battery:

UB4D AGM

8.66 inches high

9.65 total inches high

20.55 inches long

8.11 inches wide

 

120 lbs.

 

L terminal with 3/8 inch hole

 

Accessory battery: 7”x

 

Converter                     8 x 5 x 3.3

 

Engine Compartment dimensions

 

21” side to side over motor at rear

20.5” top of motor to hood rear

17” top of motor to hood front

13” end of CE motor shaft to condensed

18.375 Adapter plate to end of CE shaft

 

23.625” Frame to hood at rear center

22” Frame to hood hinge

19” Frame to top of condenser

18” Frame to top of accessory battery

 

 

31.75 Outside of frame to outside of frame at condenser

2.625” Frame thickness

25.75” Inside to inside frame at condenser (narrowest point)


 

 

9)      Credits

 

Thanks to all of the following.  First My neighbor Dave Park Who did all the heavy work related to striping the base car.  He didn’t just help he took over the hard work of removing the motor.  He is also the author of the front transmission cross member design.  I wanted to make use of a duplicate of the rear cross member, so I bought one.  Dave came up with the idea of turning it upside down and using the center section.  He also chose the placement on the chassis.  A very successful design. 

 

 

Mike Wiggum came over on a few occasions as did Ben ( Dave’s son) to help Dave and I.  Mike is a very knowledgeable young man who pointed out several tricks on stripping the base vehicle.  Mike and Dave helped me get the pickup bed off to get the project started.

 

Wayne Alexander for providing advice and making the adapter plate and coupler.  http://www.ev-blue.com/products.html  Wayne was always available and cooperative, answering questions on all aspects of the conversion.

 

Mike Moore from Ampmobile for his advice and support.  Mike told me how to remove the power steering without changing the steering gear. http://www.ampmobiles.com/

 

My wiring diagram is a modification of the Curtis diagram inspired by Jerry Halstead http://convert.jerryrig.com/step8.html or this http://jerryrig.com/convert/step21.html.

 

I used many suppliers.  I have no complaints.  Most of my stuff, motor, controller and charger etc. came from Electric Vehicles USA, Inc www.electricvehiclesusa.com.  I also got part from

http://www.evparts.com/cat-Street+Vehicle.htm

 

I got my battery check equalizers and several other items from http://www.evsource.com.

 

Ed Dygert of Brown’s Repair did all of the welding, including the Cross member, Ring Mount, Front Battery Rack and A/C compressor including installation, hoses, evacuation and charging.  His positive can do attitude and cooperation made him very east to work with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

©2007 Al Lococo. All rights reserved.