Monday, March 11, 2013

EMPTY ENGINE COMPARTMENT

Over the last 2 weeks progress has been made in removing the remainder of the battery racks, charger, and sound system amplifier from the engine compartment and trunk of the Fiero. Also the spoiler has been removed as the studs were rusted quite badly and need to be replaced. Lead Acid batteries sure do a number on any exposed metal. I have been measuring and laying out the weight distribution for the lithium batteries and am going to try and keep the weight a little lower and centered over the axles a little better, as the handling with the old lead acids was a little scarey at times.

I tried to lift the rear of the Fiero up with my engine lift as I saw a Youtube video where they did that. They must have had a higher capacity lift than mine as it seemed to bypass right before the wheels came off the ground. I want to drop the engine/transmission cradle and check the clutch and coupler. Also I am going to install solid transmission mounts and cradle mounts as the motor and transmission shifted around quite a bit before. The dog bone has been replaced with a rod with rubber mounts and I am going to make that solid also. With no ice engine, there shouldn't be any vibration to worry about. This will also be a good time to blow the motor out and install some new Helwig Red Top brushes.

I kind of hit the wall on the Curtis 1231C controller as I am measuring a dead short between the capacitors and some of the new resisters I soldered in are reading infinity. I am going to have to remove some solder as I must have flowed some over and shorted to the other bus. I must have over heated a couple of the resisters, so I will need to replace and use heat sinks when I put the new ones in.

Hoping to get some LiFePo4s soon and that will put some spark into the rebuild.

Randy

No comments: