67 EV Miles so far...

This is a "catch-up" post with things that have gone on the past few weeks. No pictures for this one, but I will have some next time! The truck is now drivable, but I still have a considerable punch list of completion items, the big one being a paint job.

Mark Hazen of www.evhelp.com brought my upgraded controller back a couple Saturdays ago. We installed it and took the truck for a short test drive. Everything was working great! I finished that day with a nice EV grin. My longest trip so far has been 17 miles round trip. I had around 75-80 percent charge remaining on the batteries on my return. I will gradually increase the distance to gauge my working range of the truck. It took around 4 1/2 hours to recharge after this trip.

I purchased a kwh meter, single outlet, manufactured by Kill a Watt. One of my 12 chargers is connected through this meter. This will enable me to measure the electricity used for a single charger and multiply by 12 for total power use. More on this later when I have more data to write about. I should be able to calculate my cost per mile.

So, here we are, short and sweet. More to come later, so stay tuned!

Charge Wiring Complete

Finally... I am now able to charge all the batteries at once, with very little effort. I completed all the soldering on the truck side connector and then mounted it inside the gas door. It took some time to sort through all the wires and group them to the correct spots ( one set to the under hood batteries, one set to the rear batteries, two sets to the mid batteries ), and then route and attach them. Thank goodness for tie wraps!

Each battery connection has a 30A fuse in line at the battery terminal. This will protect chargers, batteries, and wiring should any shorts occur. These can be seen in the photos. Next I made all the connections from the umbilical cable to the terminal strip on the charge board. I had to cut them a second time to get all the lengths correct. I bought a nice hat hook from Home Depot for the cable to hang on when not connected to the truck.

Once all this was complete, I plugged in the truck and let it charge. I have been keeping the batteries topped off and ready to go. My chargers go to "float" mode when they are complete. My upgraded controller should be back on the truck next weekend and the truck will be ready for it's first road test. I acquired insurance and license tag this week.

My "to do" list is starting to get shorter. I am pretty sure I want to install an on board battery charger so that I can charge away from home. I have not chosen the one to use yet. The truck needs cosmetics. Sanding and painting, some body work, and some minor things to do to the interior. I want to install a removable tow bar on the front, also.

Until next post...it's been a long tunnel, but the light is getting brighter :)

Tilt Bed, Take 2, Charger Wiring Begin

This post includes some photos of the failed bed tilt attempt and then some pictures of the completed tilt bed. Since the last post, the bed was removed from the truck and the new hinges reinforced and welded. Two pins made from cut off trailer hitch pins were added in the front to hold the bed when down. These work nicely and I will try to take some photos for the next post. I ordered 2 200lb gas springs and attached these to the truck frame on one end and welded brackets onto the bed cross member on the other. When raising the bed, it is lifted a few feet and then the gas springs take over to raise it the remainder of the way and holds the bed up. Closing is very easy also. The bumper was not able to be reattached where it was originally. It was bolted to the frame and this is not possible due to the tilt bed. New brackets were welded into place and attached to the existing modified bumper brackets. This turned out very well. The bed was then returned to the truck and hinges bolted into place. Some priming and black paint was applied to the new steel pieces, then the bumper attached. Small spacers were cut to put onto the hold down pins between the bed and the cotter key. This works very well also to keep the bed down. This completes the tilt bed. Access is provided to all batteries for servicing. The bed is also totally removable for battery replacement when needed.

My work then turned to charger wiring. I cut 24 6 foot lengths of #12 stranded wire and soldered them to a 24 pin cannon plug. I then ohmed each wire out and labeled them all. This will attach to the charger board on the wall of my garage and will plug into the truck to charge the batteries. There is a photo of the completed assembly. Next, I had to determine the lengths of wire needed to go from the gas door cannon plug down the bed and to all the sets of batteries. I cut all these lengths, labeled them, and began to solder them to the connector. The last group of photos show my work setup for soldering and the mess of wire that I will deal with soon.

That brings us up to date! My one year anniversary of buying the truck is in about a week. I had hoped to be finished by now, but alas, it was not to be. The light is shining at the end of the tunnel, stay tuned for more!

Tilting the Truck Bed (beginnings)

I wanted to write up a quick post without photos, because it has been awhile since my last post. Work is still continuing on the truck, mainly with the bed. A couple weekends ago, we spent most of Sunday welding hinges onto the bed and the truck frame only to have the hinges bend when we attempted to tilt the bed. My analysis determined there were 2 factors that caused the problem. First, the hinges were too far forward and put a lot of stress on them trying to raise the bed. The other issue was the hinges themselves were just not up to the task. Sorry about that Lowes!

I ordered some heavy duty hinges online and the following weekend, we found a different point on the bed to weld the hinges on. A piece of angle iron was welded across the rear of the truck frame, and to this holes were drilled and the hinges were bolted. This is good because I wanted to be able to remove the bed to replace the batteries when necessary. Our test tilt was successful and the next working session will be to remove the bed, finish reinforcing the hinges and welds on the bed side, then install the gas springs and some kind of pins to hold the front of the bed down.

Next post will include photos of the above work. I continue to keep moving forward.

Installation of Batteries, Test Run!

I reached a major milestone this weekend! Thank goodness for the 3 day holiday! It was appropriately named Labor Day. Let me cover a few things that I accomplished leading up to this weekend before we get to the fun stuff!

During the previous few weekends since my last post, I re-attached the cable running to the tail lights and ran the hv cables from the under the hood to the rear battery box. I also put 50 pounds of pressure in the air shocks as a starting point. I will adjust this to level the truck once the bed is re-installed. I cut some pieces of a rubber mat to place in the bottom of the battery racks to keep the batteries from sitting directly on the steel and give them a small cushion.

On Saturday I went to our local Sam's Club to purchase the batteries. They are Energizer Brand (made by Johnson Controls) 6v golf cart batteries. I got a few strange looks and had to offer some explanations. "What are you going to do with all those batteries?", was the most asked question. I was glad the great employees there loaded them into my truck (many thanks!) or I would have been there all day...followed by a trip to the hospital to fix my back. Each battery weighs 65 lbs. I was dodging thunderstorms and made it into the driveway before the downpour began. Luckily, I had a tarp to throw over the batteries.

After a short break, I unloaded the batteries one at a time, and put them into the racks. I had to make sure they were in a certain pattern, so the cabling would follow a path I worked out on a drawing. Once they were all in, I installed the hold down straps that I made. The day was nearly over by then. Cabling would start on Sunday.

I began making the interconnect cables, a process I believe I covered in an earlier post. It involves a torch, solder, 2/0 welding cable and terminals. All the batteries are wired in series. Half way through the day my son Matt came to help me finish. We also installed a 300A fuse in a box in the middle of the battery pack. This protects the pack if there are shorts within the pack. It was near the end of the day when we had everything wired.

We put the rear axle up on jack stands for testing. I had already previously run through most of the testing (less the HV part) and everything passed. I used my trusty voltmeter to check for voltage at the main contactor. Good! Next, the key was turned to the "on" position. Controller fan running, (check) vacuum pump running..then stops, (check) dc to dc converter operating, (check), radio playing classic rock, (check-a-rooney)!

Next there are 3 conditions to be met in order to drive. A relay box ensures this. First, the key must be on. Second, release the parking brake. Third, foot on the brake pedal (then release). Next, push slowly on the "gas" pedal. The main contactor then "clunks" into place, feeding the high voltage to the controller.

I pressed slowly and the rear wheels began to turn...all good. We let the truck down and proceeded to back out of the garage. No need to use the clutch to start and stop, only to shift gears while underway. I drove once around our pond, then Matt drove around once also. I can only guess that the croaking alligator I heard in the pond was congratulating us on the maiden voyage ( or else he just wanted to eat us ). Either way, it was all good :)

It was a very exciting drive! I was thrilled that everything was working! I would have driven around the block, but I needed to charge the batteries. That about wraps up this blog post! Next on the task list is to put the pickup bed back on the truck...more to come, stay tuned!!

Oh, and one last thing. If you happen to come to see my truck, don't say, "that's a lot of batteries!" I heard that quite a few times throughout the weekend...lol

Paint, Front Batteries, Circuit Breaker...Progress

It has been quite sometime since my last update. The weekends are the primary time to work on the S10, and I have been gone a few, and had more pressing things going for others. So, here is what has gone on since the last blog post.

I completed all of the priming of the rear battery boxes and frame. Following this I applied 2 coats of flat black paint to the same area. Next I installed a set of helper springs to the rear leaf springs. These will enable 1500 pounds of extra load. Then I ran the lines for the air shocks and tested them. This pretty much completes the battery racks until batteries are purchased.

Up front, the 4 front batteries were installed and cabled in series. I also ran the wiring to the controller and the motor. This is all now complete. My attention then turned to the main circuit breaker for the high voltage. I purchased a box from digikey to mount the breaker in. I had a difficult time finding a place inside the cab to mount the circuit breaker box and finally decided to put it under the driver's seat. When finished there will be a line attached to the breaker to a ring mounted by the driver so that the driver can trip the breaker to off if needed. The photos show the breaker during and after installation. I then ran the 2/0 wire to the main contactor under the hood.

That about wraps it up. I have one more 2/0 wire to run from the front batteries to the rear battery box, then I will be ready to buy the remainder of the batteries and install them. I believe the light is starting to be visible at the end of the tunnel! Until next time, I will .....keep moving forward!

Finish Battery Boxes!! Finally

Hello, everyone! I made a lot of progress on the truck this week. I took vacation days on Tues, Weds, and Thurs. Each day I put in 10-12 hours to get to the place where I am today. My twitter friends may have noticed me more absent than usual on these days.

Quick review, from the last post we had just welded in the rear of axle battery box. This box holds 8 batteries. Before this week began, I had several weekends of welding fun. I completed all the welding on the front of axle boxes last weekend. On Tuesday myself and Mike welded the front 2 boxes to the truck frame. Wednesday was spent grinding things down to look pretty and then I began sandblasting the frame to get it ready to prime. This was my first experience at sandblasting (much the same as a lot of "firsts" on this project) and to say the least, it was interesting. When I was finished, I had sand everywhere! There was sand all over me, also, in places I didn't know existed! :) It sure cleaned up the rust and left everything very clean.

The remainder of the last day and a half, I spent priming all the metal of the frame and the battery boxes. I used Rustoleum Professional Primer from Home Depot. It took 4 large spray cans to complete. In retrospect, I should have used my air compressor and a spray gun....Oh, well! Everything about this project has been a learning experience.

I was finished using my 4 purchased batteries as templates, so I installed them into the battery rack under the hood. They are ready to be cabled together. You can see these in the photos. You will notice the "Energizer" labels on the batteries. This truck will be powered by the Energizer Bunny! (or several thousand of them running mindlessly around a circular belt)

That about wraps it up for this post...next up is topcoating everything you see in red to flat black. I am getting real close to purchasing the remaining 20 batteries. I even checked them out at Sam's Club to make sure they had enough in stock. Until the next post....keep moving forward..... :)

More Battery Boxes!

I'll bet you are getting sick of reading about battery boxes. Well, I am getting tired of building them! Hopefully we can move on soon!

Whew! Another Sunday is over and a lot was accomplished this weekend! My first job on Saturday was to remove the last remaining original cross member on the rear frame of the truck. Lots of grinding to remove the heads of the rivet bolts and some pounding to finally get the thing to come out of there. With that gone, there is much more room for the battery boxes and complete access to the batteries for maintenance.

I set up some paint cans and blocks to put the battery boxes in place for sizing. As you can see in the photos, they appear to fit. These boxes will not be worked on at this time.

Before the welding began, I had some time to put together a couple of the HV cables. I used 3/8" lugs, solder pellets, and 2/0 welding cable. They are fairly easy to assemble. Place the lug in a vise, add some flux to the strands of copper, heat up the lug to melt the solder, and slowly slide the cable into the lug. Remove the heat and let it cool. Add some heat shrink to cover. I completed the motor jumper, controller to motor, controller to main contactor. Plenty more of this later.

Mike and I (mostly Mike) completed all the welding on the rear of axle box. After some grinding and clean up, we welded the box onto the support square tube on the truck. The rack is very solid and seems to have come out nicely. Two batteries were placed in the rack. It will hold 8 when full. The rear box can be seen in the photos.

This was the end of the work today. It was over 90 degrees and very humid today. Lots of fun. This portion of the truck is taking the most time of all the conversion process. I guess I should have known, constructing these boxes from scratch would take some time....quite a bit of time! Some S10 conversions just place the batteries in the bed of the truck, I guess I could have gone this route, but really did not want to give up my bed space. I also wanted the truck to look as much like a normal S10 as possible. So onward we push toward the goal line.... More to come!!

Welding, not welding, welding...

First post with no photos. Not much has changed since the last post, but wanted to do a quick update. All of the steel has been cut for the battery boxes and just about all the boxes are tack welded together. There were a few setbacks when my Argon/CO2 tank ran out and I had to take it in for a re-fill. The tank was out of certification, so they had to send it away for a week to be pressure tested. The gas company gave me a small loaner bottle to use in the interim.

Last Sunday we got down to seriously welding the main rear of axle battery box. Before this I purchased 4 of the GC-2 golf cart batteries from Sam's Club so that we could do final fitting checks before finish welding all the joints. The batteries fit this box perfectly.

The bad new is: the little bottle of gas lasted about an hour and we did not even get all the joints done on this battery box. So after buying Mike some lunch, we called it a day.

Yesterday, I went to the gas company and retrieved my bottle and some 2/0 welding cable to use for High Voltage connections. Hopefully we are set up to complete some battery boxes next weekend.

I didn't realize this process with the battery boxes would take so long. Live and learn, I guess. Keep moving forward and until next post....

Battery Boxes Continued

This post covers work done over several weekends. All of it involved steel work and some frame modifications to the truck. Since my last post I have done a lot of steel cutting to get all the pieces ready for tack welding on the rear of axle battery box and one of the front of axle boxes. I still have yet to cut the steel for the remaining battery box. This one will be a bit trickier because the drive shaft of the truck is slightly offset and there is not as much room on the passenger side as on the driver's side. This battery box will be a very tight fit.
My son's friend Mike has been a big help with the welding. So far we have spent a couple days tack welding the first battery box together. I have been practicing with the welder also and managed to successfully tack weld the second battery box together. I will more than likely let Mike finish all the critical welds. I am not real thrilled with the idea of batteries bouncing down the road because of inexperienced welding.
On the truck frame we welded in a new support of square tube across the rear of the frame. This will support one side of the new battery box. I then used the chop saw to remove a section of steel between the shocks. This would serve to impede my access to 2 of the batteries. After the pictures were taken, the front support was also welded into place. As soon as the rear of axle box is welded complete, it will be ready to install into the truck and welded into place. So, the battery box work continues, and maybe a few posts left covering it before we move on.
There are some tricky roads ahead, but progress is being made. There have been a lot of comments from friends and others about seeing the truck after it is done. I believe we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Stay tuned for more EV fun!!

Rear Battery Boxes...Beginnings

This post covers work on April 25 and 26. Before the weekend I made a trip to Harbor Freight to purchase a chop saw and a sandblaster (to be used later). You can't beat Harbor Freight for great prices on tools. I also acquired enough steel to complete the rear battery racks from a local steel contractor. My last big purchase was a welder from Craig's List. Now I just need to learn how to weld! :) Luckily my son's friend is a very good welder.

I hammered together 4 rectangular pieces of wood in the exact size of the batteries that I am going to purchase to assist in making the racks. After working the details out on graph paper, I began cutting the angle iron and flat stock for the bases of the racks. The first series of photos show the rack that will be behind the rear axle and under the truck bed. The cut pieces are laid out on the floor in the way they will be welded together. This rack will hold 8 batteries. After these pieces were cut, I moved on to the racks that will be in front of the rear axle and behind the truck cab. These will also be under the truck bed. By putting the batteries under the truck bed, I will retain the use of the bed. You never know what you may want to carry in a pickup truck.

The front left and right battery racks will hold 6 batteries apiece. They will be positioned on either side of the drive shaft. The plan is to support these racks with square steel stock running across the frame of the truck.

Still moving forward toward completion. I can't wait to drive this truck on a daily basis. More steel to cut and lots of welding in my future. Stay tuned right here for more EV conversion fun!

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!"