Sunday 29 December
I have now 3 weeks off work so some progress should be very possible.
Since last post I have hosted a gathering of the AEVA Adelaide members at my home for a Saturday BBQ & general "Gasbagging" about things EV-wise. About 22 attended which was a pretty good rollup. Not to waste the occasion I obtained  a number of handy suggestions , though these wont be visible, they are useful in the  wiring up situation.

This shows the positive HT feed now with lugs to attach to the emergency switch ( that's it top right of picture) mounted in the centre console

You  can see that the glove box is still out , and so is the rest of the dash. I have yet to mount an LED that will feed from EVBMS from Ian Hooper in WA. Plus I am still perplexed over wiring into the heater fan circuit as part of the fail-safe measures for the demister. So that is why the glove box is still out, as it covers the wiring etc. for the fan motor.

Here is the console with the emergency switch and provision for the JLD404AH Intelligent Meter.

 

The two shots above are looking at the mounting box for the circuit breaker switch on left side of the grey box ( which will eventually have a cover). To the right is the 144v battery charger.

The feeds that  pass out to the underside of the car can be seen, as can the mounting bolts  that hold down the battery frame. These mount directly onto the seat belt mounts and ought to provide conformation to Aust. design standards for mounts.

The grey box also contains the 75mv shunt for the JLD404AH meter. The additional fuse is for 144v Neg. feed back to the meter as well. 

 

 

 

 

Underside of car looking forward.

 

Mounting all 45 batteries in the frame . Used SS banding in 3 sets of 15 batteries.
Then, also there is a 25mm flat passing between the banks terminating on a 1/4"thread. That then passes through part of the frame , to additionally lock in the banks. Finally there are 8 hold-downs on top that will be the final method of locking in the banks into the frame.

Progress with mounting the electrical hardware. Still mind bending!!!!!!

 

Progress also with the BMS wiring and battery interconnectors. 

 

Further progress

Inside the car - 240v conduit



How it looks with the caravan type socket in place of the petrol filler cap

Battery charger in position and to the right of frame is the 240v conduit & cable

Inside the car - these are the two glands for the Positive 144v cabling to the Emergency Stop switch

In engine bay  - this is the positive 144v cable and orange conduit coming from the underside of the car.

 Still have to pass the negative conduit & cable under the car from the battery pack.

 

Half shaft issues

Right side - 1/2 shaft in after modifying the motor support ( hidden)

Left side before CV & 1/2 shaft returned - at upper left is back side of gear box mount  filled with polyrethane

Right side  - from under car . The mounting plate had to be ground back slightly . Seems the engineer did not account for the fact that the CV steps out and get a little larger. All good now.

All good now.

Giving the gearbox new oil ! This is basically the end of the mechanical side.

Here is the engine bay again

2 months further on: hardly any progress

Battery frame & bits to go for galvanising



Battery frame



Motor hanging mount at top. Torque support nearest

After quite some time (2 months) , I figure it was time to update this blog.
First  piece of action was to get all the  welded bits etc. galvanised , both for the protection this will give but also from an aesthetic point of view.

after passivation

Here are the bits returned in gold passivation - Nice eh?

I got extra pieces of randon steel done as well - You never know!

 Note the motor support  - problems came later when I couldn't get the left side 1/2 shaft past this! Bugger!

 

 Battery  box - inside the  "runners" I have laid a strip of closed cell foam on the base  - the full length (20mm wide) and at each end.  



Mounted basically where the rear seats would have been. I also obtained some floor matting from a wrecker. This has been glued to the bare floor again , where the back seat was .

 

And here is what it might look more like once batteries are mounted.

 

 

The 20 mm closed cell foam is in the bottom of the guides (grey colour)

Further Welding

 

Battery rack in build

Now at the stage of finishing the welding . The part below , is the bottom band that will mate with a further band to completely wrap the motor. Once bolted tight this should be sufficient to prevent the motor from moving (torque rotation). The support (blue steel) fixes to the original left & right engine mounts that I had stiffened by having them filled with polyurethane.


Having taken out the back seat , I have then framed up to take the 45 batteries . The original anchorage  points for the seat belts will be the fixing at the rear of the battery frame. The original seats had mounts at the front & I have two pieces of steel vertical to meet the frame (the red & orange g clamps hold the tops of those steel pieces that goes down to the front of what was the seat space).  

This is the view from the back of the car. I used 75x75  galvo box section to raise the rear of the frame up to the same height as the front.

How the batteries will sit & the plastic orange bits will act as hold downs

The above & this shot shows, more or less the completed frame . This will need to be passivated . I also got a lot of polyurethane pieces ( orange) these are about 22mm diam. & 27mm high with a hole in centre to take 8mm bolts. These will be perfect to hold 4 batteries at each corner , the bolt passing through an angle that will in turn be bolted to the outside of the battery frame similar to what I am demonstrating in the shot here.

This shot is again of the engine bay which I now have to decide how I will mount the electrics!

I have started with a template from cardboard and will see how I go from there. The cable laying on the card is the original accelerator cable. This will be used to connect up to a Hall Effect pot box.







Also , hard up on the right of this shot is the vacuum pump . Its not mounted - just lying there at the moment while I think about where it and a vacuum reservoir (from an alloy drink bottle) will be mounted eventually.  Probably on the right side of the engine bay as the brake servo is behind the brake master cylinder (has the orange cable presently wrapped around it.

Sunday 21 July 2013

After considerable thought,& lack of enthusiasm ,I have 

Original battery trays

decided to abandon the notion of mounting the batteries under the car. As it would turn out using the 100ah CALB batteries , at their height, means I have to place them on their side & this then continues to restrict the numbers even further. Each of these would take just 10 , leaving me still to fit 25 elsewhere.
I have constructed already a frame for 11 in the spare wheel space  and would get 5 more under each front seat. So 4 would have to go in engine bay. This would mean then that I would have 6 carriers , two which would have to be waterproofed. Each would have to be wired up , in & out, and I could just see issues arising, not the least of which , for those batteries under the car, I would not be able to visually monitor any BMS I was to use.
 So out came the back seat.

Back seats in their original condition.

As it has turned out , the son's dog has made certain of my choice as I left the seat back outside the car and went out to a meeting. On my return, the dog had  destroyed a fair portion  of the seat foam & covering!     

Now it is simple - inside the car where the back seat was - 3 rows of 15 batteries -!!

Have spent a fair bit of time trying valiantly to mount the motor/gearbox in. Had a piece of 5 mm plate cut to rough shape and I drilled & mounted this to the motor. Then put combination a couple a times in & out trying to determine the best position for the top main mounting hole to mate the plate to the side engine mount.

The old engine mount is on left above the motor. This mount plus the original rear & original front mounts I had filled with urethane. This has firmed them up considerably, I hope to the better.

Here I have temporarily mounted the plate to the motor and worked out the location for the hole to pass the main mounting bolt to the mounting block on the right side of the engine bay. I have used the original engine bolt that originally passed through a cast fitting and then to the block. So without this casting anymore, I have an excess of bolt. I have had to use a number if 1/2"washers to pad this out including a couple between the plate & the block just to achieve a good fit without tensioning the plate too much.

Having got this far , the next consideration is  a combination of further taking some of the weight off the gearbox mount at the other end, and also to design something to hold.the motor and prevent the rotation torsion of the motor. Possible problems would be that excess torsion would rip the motor off the engine mount block and at best cause a weakening of the plate let alone too much of a reliance on the gearbox mount that originally would never have had too much weight reliant on it. 

What I have decided to use is to fabricate a 20x20mm tube , v cut , and bent below the motor. Picked up using original front engine mount , and picked at the rear using  the rear rubber mounts. Then I fabricated, using 20 mm flat iron, a hoop , sectioned,  and with two bolts to tension up around the motor. This hoop fits neatly between the motor & the 20x20 mm tube above. I will pull the motor up  & out  and weld this hoop to the tube. This will both pad that space, so as the load is now on the three original engine mounts, and much less on the rear gearbox mount.

I will remount the hoop before welding and its likely to overlap the motor's mounting eye-bolt. I will remove the bolt but will replace it after I make a  small notch in the hoop to accommodate the eye-bolt back into its screw hole.   Then I hope I have succeeded in what I believe is the last of the  major engineering parts. 

Further machining necessary. Also a few more shots of the completed heater .

These photos begin with the shots of the adaptor plate . It turns  out to be 20mm too thick (motor to gearbox) , so I couldn't get the combination in the engine bay. So back to the engineer for more machining - second photo is the final plate clearly thinner. Also therefore the coupling needed to be reduced & now also getting extra grub screw holes put in one half of the coupling to lock the three parts together , so that when the motor coupling half is screwed to the key & shaft , it will all stay as one.

The other set of photos are the final shots after fabrication, and internal cabin electrical connection of the heater.

Lastly are early shots of the two under car battery trays . These will now house just 20 of the 100ah CALB batteries. 11 others in boot. 5 each beneath each seat and now need to put 4 in engine bay. (So I get the planned 144v ) 

You may remember this from previous - its the adaptor PLATE & COUPLING. Turns out it made everything 20mm too long!

Back to the engineer who machined 20mm off the plate and 11mm of one of the couplings so now the motor shaft sticks out. I cut this back - see next shot

Shaft shortened and locked onto shaft with grub screws fixing the key in the key way & another grub screw onto the shaft itself. note the holes in the three prongs -  



This half of the coupling also machined (inside) but now I recognise that this coupling will "float" and may over time work back on the gearbox spline  and wear the spigot face of the gear box down and increase the "slap" until eventually I may have to dismantle everything. Of course I could weld the two halves together but that would defeat the use of the nitrile element . What I have again done is back to the engineer - three new holes for grub screws in the motor mount ( photo above) and  to supply 3 screws for this coupling with a pointed end . All 6 screws will "bite" into the element & will hold this coupling back & not "slap"- hopefully!!!!

 a few more views of the completed heater mounted in the heater box. On the side I have mounted a micro switch in the circuit so that the heater won't come on, if the inside flap is too  close to the electric heater . Don't want any melting.

 

 

 Dash apart  - Now its back together  fortunately

 Dash switch installed

 And will connect here to a new connector to the micro switch

And finally re- mounted back , with the 144v cable

 Got the two trays for the undercar batteries & started on the frame. One was too high ( rear) so again needed to re-think & decided to mount these 10  (not 14)  like those in the front tray of 10, on their side. Now need to find a spot for a further 4 batteries - will probably use space in engine bay.