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 a wedding stalled the process for a few months, but I now have all the parts out of the S10. It was about 5 days of tracing wires, and trying to figure out why things were hooked up the way they were. I still have questions, but the huge amount of pictures I took and notes on what wires go where have lead me to believe that one day I’ll be able to put the Vitara back together.
One thing that amazed me is how everything fits together. When you’re used to working on Gas motors as I am the size of the electric motor is so small! And it mounts up in such a simple manner! All that space you save is taken up by batteries though so don’t get too excited!
I’ve noticed one thing about DIY’ers… they tend to cut corners. I bet I will as well but when I opened up the electrical boxes there were wires EVERYWHERE! I get that happens, but there needs to be some method to the madness. No colour coding, not notes makes it very difficult. Also, once a wire is outside the electrical box there was nothing covering them up. In modern cars they all use convoluted tubing (or wire sleeves) so that it looks neat and tidy but also protects the wires. I know I will go that route… the previous owner did not.
Once all the parts were out and I listed everything for sale, I actually sold a large part of the truck. So much that I actually had to pay someone $100 to take the S10 away. I know I should have taken a picture but I completely forgot. Let’s put it this way, there were no doors, windows or axles on the truck! Still some left over but made back close to $2000 on the cost of the S10 so that is a great accomplishment!
Now that the S10 is done I can move the Vitara into the working bay and get it all underway! Next step is to get the outside of the Vitara prepped for paint and finish the interior.
Well, when I got the S10, I put as much of a charge as I could on the Lead pack to test some parts. Bad news… something went pop!
Turns out it was the DC-DC converter to charge the 12 volt system. There was a leak in the canopy and water got onto the circuit board melting a hole right through. Maybe I’ll try to fix it in the future. The good news is everything else works!
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!
I’ve been going back and forth with a few different people about my conversion. I’ve been pricing things out and with the US Dollar being so strong (and the Canadian Dollar being so crappy), everything has gone up in price dramatically.
One of the people who has helped me a lot suggested I pick up an old conversion. I could then take the parts and put them into this car. What a great idea! I started looking. I checked into http://www.evtradinpost.com/, http://www.evfinder.com/classifieds.htm and many forums. Through one of those I found an S10 that was converted by someone I trust, and it has everything I need! Only short batteries. Well… It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but after going back and forth we settled on a price. I go and pick it up on Friday March 4th 2016. So excited and so scared. This is coming together.
What I’ve had to sell the wife on is how to do this. I’ve decided that I’ll get the truck and get it working, more to come on the batteries soon, sell my car (which will pay off the truck purchase) and then pay off the batteries with my fuel savings. Good plan. Problem, there is no AC in the truck and I work in a suit. Crap. Guess I’ll be motivated to get the vitara done.
