Danger, High Voltage!

This weekend was full of high power! Lots of work done, many connections made, and all of my components are mounted! There are a handful of connections left to make plus the installation of my rear coil springs:

On the topic of my rear springs, they've arrived. I can't recall if I blogged about it, but I ordered new springs to compensate for the additional weight of my batteries. And, although i'm yet to install them, I am very satisfied with the company overall: coilsprings.com

I was referred to them from another EV guy, Randy. So, i called them up and said:"Hey, I have a '93 Tercel and need to support an extra 900lbs in my trunk." Without a flinch, they replied "Okay, just give me the OEM part #s on the original springs, and we'll have them out to you in about 3 weeks." Even better, it only cost me about $250. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.

This week, I'll be picking up a few extra feet of cable, calling the DMV, and renting a spring compressor. Ideally, next weekend, i'll be installing the springs and making my final connections. I may even drive by Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for reading.

Whose that guy

Not "That Guy", but I've gotten another sponsor: The Guy

"The Guy" AKA Christopher Schreiner, is looking for a nice set of wheel for my car. Much appreciated. Take a chance to buy his CD, see him live, or buy him a drink!

This weekend was a productive one. I finally carved out some time in the schedule to get stuff done on the car. Although I didn't know exactly what i was going to do when i started working Saturday morning, I soon work up, and got going...Coffee helps.

I began with what i had on hand, which was my Electric Vacuum Pump that had arrived this past week. After my coffee, i worked out where it was going to go, and proceeded to install it. In the process, I ran into the end of my heater core, which i new had to go, so I stopped installing the pump and began removing the heater core; If anyone has ANY expierence with these, you probably know that it is not the simplest of tasks. In a short matter of time (relatively speaking) I had the entire dashboard ripped apart, and I still scratching my head. Nonetheless, i managed to get the darn thing out. I promptly put it aside and continued to install the pump as i had originally intended. That pretty much wrapped up Saturday, aside from some evening pondering, on how I would complete the next few tasks, which brings us to Sunday:

I woke up with a plan: Coffee and breakfast, NAPA ( 4 ga. battery cable, fuse, terminal, etc), home depot ( 1.5" ID tubing 8 feet ), home + install. Unfortunately, NAPA didn't have all the cable i needed, but i got 10 feet insead of 30. The other 20 will be in on Tuesday. Anyways, i made a bunch of measurements. Connected some lugs on my long High Voltage leads, and proceeded to tackle the heater core. I fortunately found myself in the "Zone" and i was able to weld a pretty decent carrier for my new Ceramic heater core, which fits quite nicely. While i was welding, i figured i might as well go all the way, and i made 1 more battery tray for my accessory battery ( which i had much deliberation on. I didn't even really want to keep it, but there was no real reason to go buying some other battery. I had the space, i just needed to make it work. So i did. Still not 100% cool, but acceptable, more that it was.)

So there it is. I'm getting there. Not as fast as i had hoped, but getting there. If i find any time this week, i may actually have my full battery pack wired, and the car Hot! Whoa, that would be cool. I'm going to need to go back to ABCO for more 2/0 cable to make the final connection to the fuse, controller and motor. So, i'm not quite driving yet, but getting there...