72 volt Geo Metro

[dday]

Ok here are some pictures. One of under the hood before I picked it up. And one ready to make the trip home.

[vpoppv]

Wow, an Xfi, those are rare. Excellent condition too. Odd that those batteries are giving you such trouble, they seem to have excellent readings; certainly much better than mine....

[dday]

Thanks vpoppv The car is in great shape and who ever did the conversion did and OK job of it. Not too much hack and slash. So how rare is the Xfi?

I have been keeping the car in the shop which is heated to 50 deg F. Tonights run was 5.2 miles Took a different route mostly down hill to start then after 1.5 miles there was a big hill to climb. 300 amps for 25 - 30 second then started to taper off and the amps eased up to less than 200 for the next 30 - 45 seconds. then flat again. And back to home. Took voltage readings front 2 read 12.81 and 12.82 Back 4 read 12.50 12.48 12.51 12.50. Again no hot spots any where.

Power was still good and when off the accelerator pedal volt gauge read about 75 volts. Oh yea tonight I had a passanger with me so that makes a weight difference in the car. Any way I think things are improving with the range. I will keep cycling the batteries and checking things.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by dday

Thanks vpoppv The car is in great shape and who ever did the conversion did and OK job of it. Not too much hack and slash. So how rare is the Xfi?

I have been keeping the car in the shop which is heated to 50 deg F. Tonights run was 5.2 miles Took a different route mostly down hill to start then after 1.5 miles there was a big hill to climb. 300 amps for 25 - 30 second then started to taper off and the amps eased up to less than 200 for the next 30 - 45 seconds. then flat again. And back to home. Took voltage readings front 2 read 12.81 and 12.82 Back 4 read 12.50 12.48 12.51 12.50. Again no hot spots any where.

Power was still good and when off the accelerator pedal volt gauge read about 75 volts. Oh yea tonight I had a passanger with me so that makes a weight difference in the car. Any way I think things are improving with the range. I will keep cycling the batteries and checking things.

Well according to MetroMPG less than 10% of all Metros

You have better readings on your batteries than mine. Now I'm really curious why you had such a short range....

[MetroMPG]

What are the specs of the controller?

I ask because it's possible (if it's a lower power unit) the max current available is tapering down as it heats up. That's a normal characteristic of commercial controllers.

[bennelson]

Welcome to the 72V Electric Geo Metro Club!

AN XFI converted to electric MAY be unique. Generally, XFIs have been really sought-after for their gasoline engines. Heck, maybe the engine blew on that car, and that's what lead to the conversion? Who knows.

Anywhoo.. As MetroMPG was saying, what you really need to do is load test the batteries by driving the car.

For a while, I had 6 Harbor Freight multimeters, each one hooked up to a different battery.
Charge each battery with a 12V battery charger. Then, go for a ride of some sort of medium range, or circle around your block a bunch of times - that way you don't have too far to walk or limp home!

Drive for a while and see if one particular battery starts dropping in voltage faster than the others. It will be REALLY noticeable at higher amps. So, drive around for a bit until you notice the voltage of one of the batteries dropping faster than the others - then, ACCELERATE HARD, this will put a much greater load on the batteries, you will see the voltage on that battery plummet.

Replace that battery.

Now don't go around doing weird things like that to your batteries all the time, but it does seem like a practical way to test for a bad battery.

The tough part is being able to drive while watching 6 multimeters. That's the beauty of an LED "Bar Graph" meter. It's really easy to read and compare the relative voltages of one battery to another.

Here's a battery monitor that I am using now that a friend built.


PS: Your Metro looks great!

[dday]

ok didn't get a chance to do any thing last night with the car but took readings on the batteries tonight and they were. (front 2) 13.26 13.25 (back 4) 13.00 12.98 12.99 12.97 So I think the pack is starting to equalize. So I will keep using it and charging it. should be able to do some more this weekend. Although we are headed into a cold snap.

And I have ordered all the parts to build the battery monitor. so those should be here in a couple of days.

[dday]

Hi there all.

Man work is really starting to cut into my personal time!!!

Any way have any of you used this charger. 12 Volt radiant charger from Renaissance Charge. model rc-2a12-3 Renaissance Charge - Intelligent Solutions to Premature Battery Failure

It is suppose to bring batteries back from the dead. Figured it might be of some interest to some of you using used almost dead batteries.

I just got mine yesterday and will try it out this weekend. Have just the battery to try it on.

[dday]

Ok so I know its been a while but I got back to messing with the electric car. I check wheel spin off the ground. Rear wheels spin free with a good 1/2 revolution turn got about 12 or so revolutions out of it. The front wheels are another story give them a good 1/2 turn and only get 1 1/2 turns out of them. Both front wheels were off the ground at the same time and I know your turning all the gearing but shouldn't they move better then that? Maybe the oil is too thick. What type of oil are you guys running in your transaxles?

[greif]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Congrats on the purchase!



Have you asked them about this? Might be worth a phone call.

Not if the batteries are tired!

FYI, the most important instrument in the ForkenSwift is the LED battery gauge. Being able to monitor each battery at a glance in real time (under varying load conditions) is invaluable for protecting the weakest ones from damage by drawing the voltage too low under load.

... And for learning what kind of range they'll deliver (before voltage sags too much to continue "normal" use).

You could do the same thing with a bunch of multimeters.

bringing back an old thread.....

metrompg

that is a great looking LED gauge, how has it been working? do you have any parts list.instruction on how your friend built it for you?


thanks
gary