Distributed Charging Solution

This post will cover the installation of my home charging station. The type of charging solution I chose is a distributed charging solution. This means that each charger will charge 2 6volt batteries. 24 batteries, 12 chargers. The chargers that I chose are Samlex 1215A 3 stage chargers. They complete their charging cycle with a float stage and can be left connected without worry of overcharging. A distributed charging solution is more battery friendly. As a battery pack ages, batteries develop voltage differences. A single pack charger cannot take these into consideration. If a battery must be replaced this causes more issues with a single charger. This is why I chose this solution.
I began with 2 pieces of 1/2 inch plywood which I painted green. I just happened to have a gallon of leftover paint which worked well. The color was not too obnoxious. Next I anchored these to the concrete block wall with anchors, 6 per board. I then made measurements to mount the chargers on the boards and began to attach them with 4 wood screws each. On the 120v side, there were 2 new 20A circuits added to the breaker box. (Of course all 120v wiring was done by a licensed electrician) Each circuit feeds an on/off switch that feeds 6 outlets. Once all the chargers were mounted and plugged in to ac outlets, I began running the 12v wiring to a barrier strip. There will need to be a total of 13 wires running to a plug that will plug into the truck where the gas cap used to be. The photos show the completed wiring. The barrier strip will be connected to a length of wires (13 wires ) to a cannon plug. This has not been started yet and will be done at a later date. More to come....keep moving forward.

Installing gauges

It is the weekend of March 14th after a relatively lucky Friday the 13th. My task for this weekend is/was to install the voltmeter and the ammeter gauges. The voltmeter reads from 115v-175v dc. The truck will be powered by 24 (6 volt) golf cart batteries for a total system voltage of 144v. The ammeter reads from 0-500amps. There is a meter shunt installed in the motor controller so the gauge is only getting 0-50 milliamps. Not sure I would want 400 amps going through my dashboard anyway. :) (unless you are cooking a chicken, and I am not!) I began by readying the light kits and installing them into the gauges. The bulb is held in the end of a short white tube with a drop of glue. I used superglue. Then the tube slides into the opening for the light. A small blob of silicone rtv to hold it in place. Next is the wiring and tie wrapping and drilling some access holes in the a-pillar. The gauges fit very snug in the pod and are held in place by the tight fit. Four holes are drilled through the pod and the pillar, then plastic fasteners hold the pod to the pillar. I then put the pillar/pod assembly on the dash and fed all the wiring through an opening under the pillar. Time now to move the assembly into place and then snap in the fasteners. The photos show the finished product. More time was spent with my head up the dash connecting wires to and fro, hither and yon. I tapped into the dimmer switch wire for the gauge lighting. Ammeter wires to the shunt in the controller, voltmeter wires to where HV+ and HV- will be under the hood. A short test verified the gauge lights worked and dimmed with the other dash lights. All good. Alas, I won't be able to test the actual gauge functions until I have batteries. There is much work ahead. Left to complete are the rear battery boxes, tilt bed, charging system, install and wire batteries, high voltage wiring, and testing. Then there is painting and cosmetics. Whew! I am going to keep moving forward. Until next time...

Completing the Vacuum Reservoir

Upon returning from Home Depot, I broke out the pvc glue and went to town. The new reservoir would have a piece of 2" pvc in the center. This allows the entire contraption to fit nicely in front of the battery box and behind the vertical bracket that the power steering cooling assembly was attached to. I drilled and tapped the end cap with the 2 hose barbs as before. Once the glue was dry, I showed it to my son and introduced it as the "Sword of Doom" from World of Warcraft. He plays the game, but somehow the humor was lost somewhere in the whole swinging it around and laughing a wicked laugh. Oh well. Back in reality, I installed it and connected the two hoses as seen in the photos. The 3/8" hose goes to a "T" that connects to the pump and pressure switch, the other side connects to the power brake booster. The 1/4" hose connects to a coupler that runs through the firewall to the hvac controls. All done less the test. I slowly turned the key to the "on" position and waited with anticipation for the pump to kick off. After about 30 seconds, it stopped. I ran the hvac control through all the positions, listening for the change in airflow through the vents. All good. Then a couple of test pushes on the brake pedal. All good. It took a few times before the pump kicked on again. I think I can sign this one off.....done.....now to keep moving forward!

Battery rack, Vacuum Reservoir Installation

Well... I am nearly caught up to current events with my S-10 conversion. One more post after this one and everyone will be up to date. This work was done the first week in March and begins with the repair and attachment of the flaps between the engine compartment and the wheel wells. One was in good shape, a few tie wraps in choice spots and re-attach with new plastic fasteners. The other side was in pieces. I used a rubber exercise mat and traced it and cut out a new flap. Punched holes and attached. I think it will work fine. Next is the battery rack installation. The front battery rack will hold 4 6volt golf cart batteries. The rack was made by Mark Hazen of http://www.evhelp.com/. He does a very nice welding and painting job on his battery racks. I also really like the hold down straps on the top of the rack. This one fit well into the space where the radiator used to be. My remaining 20 batteries will be in battery racks under the truck bed. That project is coming up soon. Stay tuned right here for all the details!
I positioned the battery rack and marked the spots where the holes would be drilled for mounting. There is a small shelf on which the radiator sat. It is to this shelf the battery rack was bolted. There are also 2 upper supports that attach just over the lip of the steel shelf just below where the hood would close. After the holes were drilled, I bolted the rack in place. Not bad, that is done. Onward!
There are a couple of schools of thought on using a reservoir to expand the vacuum storage for the power brakes and the air control (changes the vent positions when moving the selector from air to heat to vent, etc..). The first is to connect the pump directly to the power brakes and vent control. The second is to build a reservoir to extend the time between run cycles of the pump. Both work equally well for functionality. I chose the second. My reasons? It was inexpensive and I thought it would be cool to have. Unfortunately, I had to go through 2 iterations before I got it right. The photos in this post show the first attempt. My next post will show the finished product installed. I found the perfect place to install the reservoir, just forward of the battery box. I used a length of 3" pvc and 2 caps. I drilled and tapped in 2 hose barbs, one 3/8 and the other 1/4. I was going to use the entire 3 feet, but it would not fit properly due to a bracket in the way. So, I cut it off and assembled it, then connected all the hoses. After firing up the pump, I had leaks! Turns out the hose barbs were too small for the automotive type vacuum hose, even though they were both 3/8". I had an idea at this point on how to make the reservoir larger and solve the hissing air issue. A trip to Home Depot was in order. The next post will show and tell the completed vacuum system. Cheers!

Low voltage wiring

I can't wait to ride the new Small World ride....oops wrong blog, sorry! The date was 2-14-09 and it was time to begin running wires. I started with the wires to actuate the main contactor, ground and +12 to the pot plate. Next were the wires between the control box and the motor controller. More wires to the pot plate and run 2 wires from the ammeter shunt to the firewall entry opening. I needed to find some key switched 12v for the vacuum pump and the control circuits. I used the old fuel pump circuit for the vacuum pump and a wire at the windshield wiper motor for the other switched 12v. This one was suggested to me by Mark Hazen and worked well. You probably get the picture by now...lots of wires going all over the place. I attempted to use different colors for everything in order to keep organized. The dc to dc converter was the next item to be wired and finishing up with the vacuum pump wiring and relay. When everything was run, I used split flex tubing and tie wraps to make everything nice and neat. You may notice a large mass of wires in a couple places in the photos close to the firewall and low. These are the wires that previously went to the engine and all the sensors. I cut all these wires off and tucked them back into the flex tubing, adding a little electrical tape over the spot. Photos of this to come in a later post. Good progress under the hood...more to come! Keep moving forward!

Lots of progress!!

Welcome to the weekend of 2/8/09! A very productive one indeed. The first few photos show the motor with all the mounts secured and the vertical steel brackets for the motor controller and the dc to dc converter. Next up was the mounting of the main contactor electrical box. I mounted this to the firewall as seen in the photo. The main contactor is mounted to the box by drilling 2 holes in the top and inserting the contactor bolts through the holes and using the attached nuts to secure it. I had some help and advice with this from Mark Hazen at http://www.evhelp.com/ Check it out! And while I am giving credit, a lot of my S-10 conversion is patterned after his S-10 conversion, and he has been a tremendous help as I have progressed. The motor controller and control box I am using are manufactured by Mark.
Next, I put on the cover of the main contactor box and attached the control box to this. This is complete until wiring begins. The motor controller was then mounted to the vertical steel bracket on the passenger side. Moving across to the other bracket, I mounted the dc to dc converter. I set the battery rack in the truck to look at clearances and all looks well. I will mount this at a later date. I then mounted the pot plate using a metal bracket to the a/c housing. Throttle cable connected, ready to go. Last but not least, I mounted the vacuum pump as shown in the last photo. The pump will enable me to keep my power brakes. None of the hoses were run at this time, I am saving this for another time. Whew! I accomplished quite a bit...time to take a break!!

Installing the Motor

Catching up...the date is on or about February 2nd, 2009. It is time to install the electric motor into the truck. Almost...first I had to have 2 steel brackets fabricated. (3/16", 3" wide steel stock) These would be the mounts for the motor controller and the DC to DC converter. My local steel establishment took my measurements and delivered the goods. Perfect fit. These would go under the motor mounts and attach with the motor mount bolts. The holes I was using in the frame for the new mounts were not threaded. I went to Harbor Freight and purchased a metric tap and die set for 14 bucks. It worked great and I threaded the holes with ease.
On to the motor! After having an expert inspect my old clutch, it was decided to buy a new clutch. I would not be too thrilled to have to take things apart too soon after putting them together. After purchasing the clutch, my son and I lifted the motor to a position that we could work on it. We installed the hub to the motor shaft, and then attached the adapter to the motor. We used locktite on all the bolts/set screws. Next was the flywheel, then the clutch. We also replaced the throwout bearing. The motor was then lifted into place in the engine compartment of the truck and slowly aligned with the transmission. There was an issue with the pilot shaft of the transmission going all the way into the hub, which was solved with a little light sanding. Once together, everything was bolted together and tightened down. The motor top bracket was left for a few days and then secured. I ran a test of the motor through to the wheels by supporting the rear axle on jack stands and running the motor with a 12v battery. Everything seemed to work OK, the first roadtest will tell the tale. This completed a major milestone, the electric motor is installed!

The Motor Arrives!

My motor arrived on 1/20/09 on a Yellow Freight truck. He was not able to get into the driveway, so I took the Dodge Ram out to the street and backed up to his tail end. We lifted the approx 150 pound crate with pallet ( or more like slid it ) down into the pickup. For some reason he thought it was a generator for a camper. When I explained what it was for he just shrugged it off. I don't think he thought much of the idea. After my son returned from school, we lifted it down and into the garage. It was a few days before I unpacked it and connected it up to a 12v battery to make sure that it worked. A few weeks earlier I had received my adapter, hub, and motor mounts. Just about ready to install the motor into the truck. Keep moving forward!

Steering Gear Swap, 12v wiring

This is the summary of work up to 1/16/09. I purchased a manual steering gear from an auto salvage place to replace the power steering gear. From research, I did not want to have to deal with making the power steering function, either by installing pulleys and belts using the tail shaft on the motor or installing a 12v pump. So, bingo, out comes the power steering gear. It was a relatively easy swap out. I had to buy a fork to separate the ball joint where the pitman arm connects. Other than that, just 3 bolts holding it in place. After the change out, my steering wheel was not exactly centered when the wheels were straight, hopefully an alignment will cure this. I also purchased a new 12v battery and a 60A fusible link. This I spliced into the trucks 12v system. There were also some grounds that were connected to the engine that I grounded to the frame. I then mounted the truck's computer to the wheel well using some brackets. It was on top of the coolant bottle which is gone now. Things are starting to take form....onward to the motor!

Clean & Paint the Engine Compartment

Star date 12/21/08. The real fun begins. There is nothing like degreasing an engine compartment. This one was really greasy and grimy. I removed the flaps that were between the engine compartment and the wheel wells. These were in bad shape; how I dealt with these will be covered in a later post. So, a lot of degreasing spray and mineral spirits later, not to mention wire brushing, it was starting to look better. This was not one of my favorite parts of the conversion process. Once everything was nice and shiny, it was time to paint. Rustoleum was the chosen brand. It seemed to turn out well. Not much else exciting to tell in this post, so we will keep moving forward!

Removing the Engine

The date was 12/06/08 and it was time to get that greasy hunk of iron and steel out of my electric truck! Thanks to my son Matthew for letting me borrow his engine hoist, without it I could have hurt my back. ;) First we disconnected the myriad of wiring to all points on the engine. (The oil pressure sensor is connected to the ECM, the battery's connected to the alternator...(sang to tune of dry bones)....you get the picture.) We then used some old towing chains to secure the motor to the hoist and then took out all the bolts on the bell housing to engine. The motor mounts were next. After a bit of wiggling, the engine separated from the transmission and we lifted the ICE out. We then removed the clutch and flywheel to be used on the electric motor. The remains of the engine sits in my garage waiting for me to find it a home at a recycling center or if anyone needs a 2.2 block and head let me know. As you can see from the photos, the engine compartment was a huge greasy mess. Next in the process....clean up the mess!

S10 EV Removing ICE Components

The date was 11/23/08. My son and I began work in earnest on the rear section of the truck. We broke free all the bolts restraining the box onto the truck. There were a few scrapes and a few choice words, but we were finally able to lift the bed off the frame and place it in the garage. It wasn't as heavy as I expected it to be. We then used a hand pump to remove all the gas from the tank. (My son filled his civic with the leftovers) We then removed the tank from the truck and then turned our attention to the exhaust system. There were portions that were rusted through, these were easy to remove. Others we needed to use a cutoff air tool to remove the pieces. This wrapped up the weekend's work. The ICE was still in the truck, but it's time was running short...

Purchasing the Chevy S10

This is my first post for my S-10 EV conversion already in progress. I spent some time searching Craig's List for the perfect truck. I purchased the truck from a gentleman who was towing a boat and the engine blew a head gasket or warped the head, not sure which. I didn't need the engine, so that was fine. The truck was a 1997 Chevy S10 with a 2.2 L engine, pwr brakes, pwr steering, a/c, 5 speed transmission. Most of this will change in the course of the conversion. The date was Nov 23rd, 2008. My son drove the truck to my house, stopping to fill the radiator multiple times and steam trailing the truck. It looked like an old locomotive going down the highway. He commented, "There was so much steam in the cab, I couldn't see where I was going." Luckily he made it all the way alive and without a tow truck. The truck died several times during the journey, but always started again after a few minutes. It gave up the ghost at the house and was never to be started again. Say goodbye to the ICE. (Internal Combustion Engine)

"Goodbye ICE!"