Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[bennelson]

Sounds like I will need one of those LED pack monitors once I get my Metro going.

[MetroMPG]

Definitely. There are several styles available, some quite easy to make yourself, and the guy who made the one I'm using posted a schematic & a parts list.

I just recharged the car this morning (Ivan's had it for the last week or so): best ever efficiency: 126.9 mpg-e. Or 264 Wh/mile. That's really good! Mostly it's the warm weather, and the fact that the car was fresh off the charger before driving & recharged immediately after.

I'll have more runs than normal in the next few days as I use the new batt monitor to swap batteries around and make up the best possible pack from the floodies sitting around here.

[MetroMPG]

New YouTube flick:

Instrumentation, ftw!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHlq1J5dbb4

[MetroMPG]

Since "installing" the LED gauge, I've swapped out four batteries for "spares" that were sitting around. (They'd been more or less kept topped up once every month or so.)

The LED monitor is fantastic! By being able to identify - and then replace - the worst battery from the pack, I've managed to improve the range of the car significantly. The furthest I'd gone on this pack was 16.7 km, with an average closer to 12 km. I just rolled in with 19.4 km on the odo (and it wasn't on its knees, either). And this is the "B pack"!

I've done quite a bit of driving in the past 2 days sorting out batteries.

Of course, if I'd ever built a decent load tester, I could have figured out which batteries were strong/weak sooner than this.

[MetroMPG]

Ivan had the car for most of this week, but I went and got it this afternoon. Made good use of it for its last trip in probably a week or two while we pull it apart and pretty it up for the EV Expo in Ottawa at the end of the month.

- took a murdered battery up to the recycling place (10 bucks! Wish I'd held on to all the other ones I turned in earlier :P)
- brought half a dozen bags of yard trimmings to the city compost yard
- picked up the new front wheel bearing

I drove the car on two of the city's busiest roads. When traffic is heavy, the car actually does OK because people can't go fast anyway. One guy went around me "aggressively", but I rolled up beside him 3 times in a row at red lights. What a doofus!

So the next update will be pics of the tidying up of the motor compartment. (Can't say engine compartment any more.)

[MPaulHolmes]

Yo Darin! 'Sup? I have a question: Could you tell me these dimensions in my ugly picture of the little spline that was removed from your clutch plate (clutch disk?) and welded into your lovejoy connector?

-Paul

[MetroMPG]

If you're not in a hurry, yes. We're going to pull the motor compartment apart tomorrow evening, and one of the goals is to inspect the lovejoy/splined stub shaft for play and wear. I'll measure it up and get back to you.

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

If you're not in a hurry, yes. We're going to pull the motor compartment apart tomorrow evening, and one of the goals is to inspect the lovejoy/splined stub shaft for play and wear. I'll measure it up and get back to you.

I'm in no hurry. Also, By the gray part I meant the part that is not visible on the clutch disk. The black part is the part that is visible before the destruction of the clutch disk.

[mattW]

Hey Darin,
Do you have a schematic for those battery monitors? Some DIYers are intersted.

[MetroMPG]

Hi Matt - it's on EV Convert: http://www.evconvert.com/article/led...onitor#c002474