EV Trans Am

As my wife says it takes almost as long to post happenings here as it does to do happenings.

13 hours in this week doing battery racks. I know because I got a timecard from Fabricator Mike. I got another couple in this weekend touching up some stuff.

• Removed, painted and reinstalled battery racks (they are bolted to mounts that are welded to the frame)
• Installed the forced air cooling on the motor, excluding wiring
• Found out the zolox speed sensor and kit do NOT work on a WarP 11.  Hopefully some modification (more than expected, I knew it wasn’t a perfect fit) will make it work.
• Layout of the rear battery pack and removal of rear carpet and plastics.

Yesterday and tonight we finished up the remaining front battery rack. Finding mounting points was difficult because the A/C compressor and lines were in the way. Even with 2 bars supporting the tray, the batteries have a slight amount of give to them. They won’t be going anywhere though unless I pop a wheelie and slam back down. Then maybe.

With that done I can complete my front layout, probably work on that this weekend. Tomorrow we begin to hack out the back for the 8 battery rack. Fabricator Mike has been looking forward to that.

Mike the Fabricator (are you keeping track?) came by today and worked up the first of three battery racks.  It turned out pretty well.  It took several hours and it was hot today.  Florida is even in a heat advisory.  Fortunately wife went out to Publix and came back with a case of water and 2 – 64 oz of Gatorade.  We about finished them off and ran the fridge out of ice, donchaknow.  (We just watched “New in Town” where someone from Florida went to Minnesota during the winter.  It was entertaining, and Harry Connick Jr. sure looked good with that beard.

So it was hot but we got a good amount done.  I also cut and crimped 8 battery cables.  That makes all of the side-by-side battery cables complete.  I want to wait until we have the racks in so I can get a more accurate length for the long runs.  Here are a couple of pictures from today.

First I used my clamping table to force the handles of the cutter to close. 2/0 cable is pretty tough, so I got Louie the Cat to help.

That was pretty difficult so I tried a hammer on the garage floor.

This picture shows the difference in ends from slowly cutting with the clamp and fast with the hammer. The hammer cut is on the left, slow clamping on the right. I liked the hammer better because it looks more symmetrical and left the tiny wires more at the same length. It was also easier and faster. Slowly cutting seemed to crush the wires into the middle.

This is a trick I learned. Once you remove the outer sheath of the wire it wants to spread apart. You have to get all the tiny wires into the terminal so I realized that this smaller the length of exposed cable, the easier it would be to slip it into the lug.

Here are a couple that show the battery rack being assembled.

The rack is really two parts. First there are 4 lower arms that are welded to the frame for good. Then there is the actual box that is bolted to the 4 lower arms. This way the rack can be removed by yanking those 4 bolts if I ever need to pull the motor.

Neighbor Mike has a big Ford Expedition so we expeditioned ourselves to our local Sears Auto Center and picked up 13 Diehard Platinum P1s last Saturday. They are equivalent to the Oddysey PC1500 I was eyeing up, but about $50 less each so I’ll give them a go. The best part was customers weren’t allowed in the work area unless they had eye protection. Neighbor Mike jumped right in and helped loading, but in doing so took the only extra pair of safetly glasses they had. So I scoped out the vending machines while they loaded 650 lbs of batteries.

I did help unload and then moved them into the garage on a pallet though. I’d never heard it before but people are saying that leaving a battery on concrete will drain it. One idea I thought made sense is that the concrete remains cooler than the ambient air so the electrolyte separates at the bottom. The slight differential created eddy currents which drain the battery. I remember hearing about those at UF, but I don’t know what they are. I do know they aren’t used to build roads and were not on the PE exam.

Today a package from Grainger arrived with my 5/16 – 18 lefthanded tap arrived.  That matches the threads on the motor that will drive the accessories.  Next time I need something from Grainger I think I will order it through NAPA and pay the 30% markup.  They charged me $13 to ship a 3 or 4 oz piece via USPS.

Regardless, I got the part and I think it worked out well.  I’ll have to power up the motor to find out for sure, and will try that out later.  Through the captions below I’ll describe the process to get from where I was to where I am.

Yesterday I put together the wiring for the power steering motor while watching the Nascar race. I’ll have to put up some pictures later, but I think it came together pretty well. I used heatshrink and all so its very professional looking. The only wire I need to figure out is the trigger to the relay. I want it to be on when the key is turned to on, same as the main contactor so I think I’ll just tap into that.

I’m wondering though if I want everything to be triggered off the same line from the fuse box. If something went out with that connection the Trans Am would become a glider with no power steering and only the vacuum remaining in the reservoir for brakes. It should be sufficient for a stop or two at least. The benefit would be if everything is triggered off the same line, a single LED in the dash would tell me whether it is all working or not. I think I’ll do that. The contactor already has auxilliary wires to indicate when it is open (light off) or closed (light on).

I posted on Craigslist finally to try and sell the remaining engine parts. It generated a lot more interest than on the enthusiast website, surprisingly. I’m happy with the buyers and it seems the LT1 will get a good rebirth. The buyer of the block has plans for a 383 stroker for a Camaro. That was my alternative before decided to go electric – I know, a complete 180 – so it’s pretty awesome the block will go that route after all.

If you are budgeting to sell your ICE components, I wouldn’t plan on as much as you’d think. It took about 4 months and a firesale to move them.

Overall I think I netted about $120, so $100 to the wife to payoff the car parts in the living too, and that leaves me with a slew of tacos and quesadillas from Taco Bell.