I’ve been tossing around how to couple the motor to the transmission. I’ve decided that I want a clutch so my wife can drive the car, and that’s about it. There is nothing I can find off the shelf so I have to build it.
I put the clutch back together and took some measurements… I also have the parts from the S10, so I’ve been trying to explain this to a buddy who is a shop teacher at a high school… so I had some other pictures. Too bad the S10 and the Vitara weren’t compatible!
Well summer was tough. We went on 2 giant road trips and did not spend a lot of time at home. Needless to say not much work has been done.
I have sold most of the parts from the S10 and Vitara (parts I don’t need) so that’s a plus and now it’s time to get back to work! Onwards and Upwards! PS… I’ll get better at taking pictures!
So the Adaptor Plate… this is a problem. I’ve been asking around for quite some time to find a place. I found one online, but a trusted friend has told me not to deal with that company.
I’ve been referred to a place in Washington through SEVA (Seattle Electric Vehicle Association) and so I’ve got to check that out. I’ve also been referred to a place out of California who does this all the time. You’d think that is the logical choice, but they need a transmission to get the measurements and I’m in Vancouver, BC. It’s $200 to ship a transmission… That brings the cost for everything close to $2000 USD. More than I was hoping.
I then came across this thread: http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/want-build-adaptor-plate-myself-looking-52905.html How hard can it be? If I don’t find someone to do it for me soon… we may attempt this. I do need this done shortly though (as I work on the “looks” of the car) so that I’m not waiting on the motor come October when I need to start assembling electric parts.
Now for the part of the job I hate.
The perfectionist in me is very good at Bondo and fibreglass (I re-built a boat a few years ago) but man is it a terrible job.
The bumpers and cracked in a few spots and need to be strengthened and there are the inevitable dents and dings. The Vitrara is in great shape otherwise and only has about 6 dings that need to be fixed… but it’s still a bit of work. The goal is to get the paint and interior done by the end of Sept so that all is left is installation of batteries and electric parts to get done by the end of December. I’ve been told this is the easy part!
To add insult to this injury, I’m also removing tire from the back door as I don’t need the weight or the spare. This means that I need to take the “bump” out of the rear bumper and make it look like a single piece. That’s the next thing to tackle! Fun :-S
Well I had a day off work so off to the wrecker I went!
Picked up a bunch of parts for my truck (which took a total of 2 weekends to install), and I ended up with seats for the Vitara. The seats in that car were a mess. 300+ km on them and not well taken care of. They needed to go. I was looking for (and found) a set of Jeep Grand Cherokee seats from a 1998 Jeep. Dark gray to match and full power and heated seats! Great find!
Also found head rests to replace as they didn’t come with the Vitara. Also picked up a battery so that I can move things like windows on the Vitara as I’m working on it. Very difficult otherwise!
***I’m learning as I write this I need more pictures!***
So now that the Vitara is in the “work” bay I’ve had the opportunity to take some measurements and start the planning in my head.
Although a Leaf pack is very functional and easy to work with, they are very “hot” items right now. A single wrecked leaf is going for anywhere between $3000 and $5000 USD on Autobidmaster. That’s a bit more than I want to pay for a battery pack, not to mention I want 1.5 packs which involves buying 2 cars! Yes I can sell parts and make some of the money back, but after doing that with the S10 I’m less than excited to do that again, let alone twice.
In terms of battery packs I’m looking for somewhere in the range of 30 KWh at 144 Volts. I have all the parts for this and the 144 Volts will allow me to upgrade to an AC motor in the future if I so choose. My search for batteries lead me to the Chevy Volt. These packs are a little more volatile and difficult to work with than the Leaf cells, but they come in 48 Volt cells with included heater and cooling system. Not a bad deal if you ask me! I would need just under 2 of them (leaving me 1 48 volt pack left after) and they are $1,800 USD at a wrecker just across the border (less traveling for me). These cells also come with wiring for a BMS system. It’ll need to be a large and expensive BMS, but easy to connect. Seems like a good plan so far…
***Problem… with the cooling system these packs are big, and take up a lot of space. This means I can find room for 2/3 not problem, but I have more cells to find space for. This is going to be a challenge***
Soon I’m going to need to get my hands on a pack to get exact measurements. There is a really good thread on these cells here: http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/2012-chevy-volt-battery-93101.html It’s a huge thread but there are a lot of details in there.
Onwards!
I’ve been going back and forth in conversations with people about whether to leave the 4×4 in, or take it out. After a lot of discussions… it’s coming out.
The thought process was we need the vehicle to be as light as it can be (as it’s not a skinny vehicle to begin with), and I already own a 4×4. We have a big truck for camping and off-roading. The Vitara is strictly a commuter and I’ve been driving a car for the last 7 years that is only 2 wheel drive. Also here in BC we don’t get a lot of snow so that shouldn’t be a problem. One thought I did have was putting an LSD in the rear so that if it was slippery (or I just had to do a burn out) it would be more functional. Turns out I can get one in the $500 range. Definitely a want not a need but I will be keeping that in mind for the future.
2 Hours, and I dropped the front differential and removed the CV axles. The front drive shaft is still connected… I’ll need to get to that later.
Headliner is still drying out from the second cleaning, but the truck is starting to smell a lot better. very fresh now!
Now that I’ve come up with the truck idea I’ve gone back to the drawing board about the batteries. This is coming together so fast that I will be driving an EV by summer. I need batteries… fast and cheap. Went back to my support group and asked. Why not a leaf? There are lots of wrecked ones, and they can be had cheap!
Open up Google and here we go. There are a lot of people doing this. Looking at some forums, I stumbled on this: http://media3.ev-tv.me/news031414-1280.mp4 (Leaf portion starts @ 1:24:08). They test the batteries, and show you the good and the bad. Seems like the perfect fit for a daily driver to me! Now to find one.
On to http://www.autobidmaster.com/, type in Nissan Leaf and find one close. Be sure to read the rules here and a few people’s experiences and you’ll be good (although at the point of writing this I have no experience yet!)
Then the gold mine… http://insideevs.com/putting-nissan-leaf-battery-modules-chevrolet-s-10-truck-video/ This guy Jay, lays out everything I need to do to this S10 to get it running on leaf batteries. WOW! I’ll do it slightly differently, but this is a great place to start.
One hiccup is that I doubt the leaf will give me enough range on it’s own. The S10 I have coming is setup to run at 156 Volts. I can get the leave to 128 volts, 144 volts and 160 volts with setting them up in 16 volt packs as Jay does. I’ll have to make some decisions. I’d like to get 100 miles out of the leaf as I’ll need some extra for the AC, but that means I need 60 cells. That’s 1 and 1/3 of a leaf (more than 1). How to sell this one to the wife. My plan of attack currently, is set it up so that I can add the extra 2 16 volt packs, and just start with 1 set of leaf cells. See what I can get for range, and plan from there.
With this, I’ve discovered that I need to be able to access level 2 chargers on the road. Back to the research. I found out that from the Leaf I’m buying I can just take the J1772 connection port and hook it up. The S10 though has a 2008 PFC-30 Charger so it won’t talk to the EVSE… Damn. Alas, I found the AVC2. This little baby tell the EVSE when the car is ready and let the juice flow! Woohoo! Future problem solved! I can get around with a leaf pack, even if I can’t quite get my 85 km day on one charge. Guess I’ll have to stop for coffee that day 🙂
Onwards!
The headliner has been a huge battle. I’ve looked at everything online on how to clean these headliners and what not to do. I’ve tried Folex, Borax (and vinegar), and oxy clean. Although the car smells better, it is still stained.
I decided to do exactly what everyone says not to do… use a carpet cleaner. I filled it up as you would to clean a carpet and started soaking the roof in 2 foot square spaces and cleaning it out. They say not to soak it, but I had nothing to lose. If this didn’t work I was going to go and get a new one (at a significant cost and pain). To my shock… it cleaned it… really well. Oddly enough it didn’t do as much damage as the scrubbing with the previously mentioned microfiber clothes and cleaners. After I just threw the dehumidifier back in, and let her go. A few days later… no delamination and it looks and smells night and day better. I’ll need to do it once more to get a couple more stubborn stains, but I feel so much better now. The car is really coming along.
The interior colours now are the next problem. The exterior will be a burnt orange, and black. I’d like to match the colours on the interior, and I’ll keep the light headliner and darker grey carpets. The seats will be black but maybe have a burnt orange highlight. I need to get these seats figured out next before I can start prepping the interiour for paint… Onwards.
So, I have no pictures (of the mold)… But this is by far the worst thing I’ve had to deal with thus far…
When the car was outside, I was playing around and I had a brain fart. I took off a few of the door panels and removed the vapor barrier. Here in BC, we get a lot of rain. When I took the Vitara into the garage, it ended up warming up, and now there is white mold throughout the car. I was dumb and hadn’t cleaned out the car yet, so there was a lot of mold.
I searched the web, and found the best solution (apparently) is a Borax, vinegar solution with hot water. I started taking the entire car apart. Seats out, seat belts out, carpets and all the side panels. I then vacuumed out the entire car and then took to soaking every piece of furniture and scrubbing the whole thing down. Once I was done with that, I put a dehumidifier into the car and let it run for 4 days. Then the carpet cleaner came out to clean the seats and carpets. Again, dehumidifier for 4 days. Car has no mold now and the carpets are spotless! The seat belts are stained though so I’ll need to replace them (at least the front ones. The seats are pretty worn out and I’ve decided I want power seats, heated seats. Problem is I can’t find any… So the search begins.
I’ve decided that I’ll need to go through the wreckers and find seats that are close and make the bolt holes line up. Then after all that is done, I’ll send them off to be re-upholstered at a local shop. That way I can get new, comfy seats rather than the rat bagged ones that are in there. My first thought is Dodge Durango seats, as I have a lot of experience with them (being that is my other vehicle). We’ll see what I come up with.
