FRONT BATTERY BOX

Over the last few weeks I have been collecting materials to start building the front battery box. Weight is an issue, so aluminum is the material of choice. It would be nice to have somewhere close by to purchase aluminum angle and sheet but as there were no vendors close by, turned to EBAY and ALRO Metals in Columbus, OH. The angle was actually purchased online but after a week, the order was still in review status, so I emailed the Columbus ALRO branch and arranged to pick it up in Columbus.

ALRO STEEL WEBSITE 

ALUMINUM ANGLE

Aluminum sheet was expensive at Alro Steel and only came in larger sheets, so I looked on EBAY and found some aluminum diamond plate from IRONLESS for a decent price and low shipping rate. It was ordered Sunday and was delivered to my door from Wisconsin on Wednesday before noon. Not too bad!

IRONLESS CATALOG

Now all that was needed were some self tapping fasteners to attach the angle to the side of the fender wells. EBAY again came through and I was able to find some 10-24 x 1/2 Torx Pan Head Self Tapping Machine Screw Zinc Coated Steel screws from  FABERSURPLUS.

TORX PANHEAD SCREWS FROM FABERSURPLUS

I was off work Wednesday to take my wife to the doctor, so started attaching the angle iron. The passenger side was open and the angle bolted in nicely. By the angle on this side was mounted and the vacuum pump was removed from the drivers side. 

PASSENGER SIDE ANGLE

The brake lines run down the side of the fender well on driver side, so had to be taken out of their mounting bracket and straitened, so they would run through a notch in the angle. By dark on Thursday, the angle was notched out and was attached on the front side.

DRIVER SIDE ANGLE

I was really excited to get home Friday to continue work on boxing in the front compartment but as Ohio weather would have it, started raining on the way home.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

DRIVE TO BUCKEYE LAKE BREWERY

Last week after working on the Fiero, I decided to go to Buckeye Lake Brewery for a growler of their Shovel Head Double IPA. They also make root beer, so I picked up a growler of that also. The car ran well and the speedometer lights went on and off intermittently during the drive, so there is hope of finally getting this fixed.



I have spent so much time with the instruments that I got on Ebay and purchased a new instrument cluster.

INSTRUMENT CLUSTER

The old vacuum pump and tank were removed and I am studying the front trunk compartment to determine where to put the batteries and vacuum pump, so the car is kind of out of service now. I am not sure if I want to mount the modules sideways or make a plate and mount 3 stacks of 4 cells. The latter would give me a lower center of gravity and would allow a cover to go over the batteries leaving some trunk space above.

Last week I wrote about setting up a JLD 5740 to operate an ABB 220 volt contactor to shut off the charger and it seems I burnt up the coil. In this world of shysters and thieves, it is encouraging to come across an EBAY seller who is willing to go the extra mile to lend service to their customers. I emailed EBAY user drvidguy asking about ABB DPE40C3P-80/MQC contactor he had listed. Even though I had not purchased mine from him, he checked one out and gave me a call to give me information on how it should be hooked up. As I had smoked the coil on the one I had, I purchased another one from him. A few days after it arrived, he called again to tell me that there was a closing coil in addition to the hold coil and gave me detailed instructions on how to hook it up. I tested the hook-up and the contactor works perfectly now. If you are looking for an EBAY seller who will go the extra mile, make sure and check out Lee's list of items for sale.His EBAY user name is drvidguy and with 10985 transactions and a 100% feedback rating, he is definatly an top notch EBAY seller!

ABB CONTACTOR FROM DRVIDGUY

I was bragging about the headlights working properly in the video but yesterday, the passenger side headlight went down and the motor kept running. I had to disconnect one of the leads to get it to shut off. The lights will still open but I have to open the hood and connect the wire for a second to get it to close. A 30 year old car is just full of surprises!

Tomorrow we are getting new floors in the kitchen and bathroom and I have been spending quite a bit of time painting the kitchen and pulling out the old carpets, so have not had time to work on the Fiero that much. I am really looking forward to getting the other two modules mounted in the front of the car and getting the exterior painted, in preparation for EVCCON. I have also been looking at J1772 charge stations so I can actually charge a a public station.

Until next week,

Randy

LIGHTING THE WAY

I have been having problems with the 12 volt system dropping too low during acceleration when the headlights are on, so this week I ordered a pair of  7" x 6" sealed beam rectangular headlight housings with glass lens on EBAY that will allow me to use an H4 LED headlamp.

6054 SEAL BEAM TO H4 HOUSINGS

Then I found a pair of high power white LED H4 headlight low beam 80W Cree XB-D headlamp bulbs that were also ordered from EBAY. They are 1360 lumen, so will be about the same as the stock Fiero low beam output.

H4 LED HEADLAMP

To hook up the LED headlamps, a couple of H4 headlamp socket headlight plug connector extensions were ordered, again from EBAY. I read on some of the LED headlamp listings that a load resister may be required, so if any of you have any experience with LED lighting, I welcome your input.

H4 CONNECTORS

Also, the jumper will be installed on the IOTA DLS-50, DC-DC converter, that will increase the voltage output from 13.6 to 14.2 volts. The IOTA is listed as having a range from 108 volts to 132 volts, so when the pack drops below 90 volts under acceleration, there is a chance the output voltage will drop to the 10.7 volts where the Synkromotive main contactor trips.

IOTA 14.2 VOLT JUMPER

It has become apparent that the HiPower LiFePo4 cells that are being used are not going to be sufficient to power the EV Fiero effectively. I am not out anything, as the plan is to set up the Synkromotive controller as a fast charger and I will need a battery pack for that. A couple of fellow builders are working on this for their builds, so if you want to follow their progress, below are the links to their blogs.

A 240Z becomes an EV

Saturdays & EV's

The temperature in Ohio was in the teens all of last week, so I didn't do anything on the Fiero, except order headlight parts. Over this weekend we got several inches of snow, so no test drives either.

WINTER IN OHIO

Spring is just around the corner and I am ready for it! January has been a productive month, with a couple of test drives, allowing me to work out the bugs in the 12 volt system and the Synkromotive tripping problem. I also got the tachometer and speedometer working.

After hooking up the new headlights, the next project will be the interior, instrumentation, cleaning up the dash wiring, and hooking up the heater control circuit.

Thanks for visiting the EV Fiero Blog,

Randy