new member 2007 Miles ZX40S

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cbaker

Ryan, you are a genius! Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Charley

LoL!

Try the 60psi first, if your batteries are balanced and in good shape that change ALONE will take the car from a 24mph top speed to roughly 28-32mph top speed. Although it takes forever to get there. Your tires are rated for 44psi up to a rather high speed, at 25-35mph besides the bouncing the tires will wear well and last a very long time at 60psi.

Once you get into the field reduction thing...
I can provide suggestions on what to use for field reduction, my car has less field reduction now and an on/off switch and contactor, I have been tempted to go back to the huge amount of field reduction I used to run (actually it was more efficient oddly) but the system has worked and the car moves well enough for putting through the 25mph streets around town.

Otherwise a transmission is pretty sweet and they aren't real expensive if you can find one locally at least. I cant help much on that side though.

I have always figured inevitably the ZX40 my father has will get turned into a DIY chevy volt with either a diesel or CNG 5k genset off the back on a trailer hitch rack.

Also one thing I forgot to mention, if you have the big motor take care not to go much faster than 35mph because your motor is only rated to 5000rpms, the little motor is rated to 6250rpms which is about 46mph using of coarse the stock 2nd gear we are stuck with.

Good Luck
Ryan

[cbaker]

Check the batteries with the DVM, if they are more than about .2 volts off from each other fully charge each battery with a normal 12v battery charger.

When I check and charge these batteries individually, do I need to disconnect them physically or is there some switching system that is built in that does that?
Thanks,
Charley

[rmay635703]

No just touch the (2) terminals on each battery, there is a positive bolt and a negative on each.

There are only (2) danger areas on a miles car the battery charger itself and inside the contactor box up front.

[cbaker]

It's here! Good news: It is as described and looks good with just a couple of body dings, nothing major.

Bad news: a couple of the batteries in the back are noticabley warped.

The numbers are ( I number them from back to front)
1 12.32 .197 badly warped and I think the seal is broken
2 12.51 .201 warped
3 12.55 .201 looks good
4 12.98 .205 "
5 13.16 .212 "
6 12.71 .204 " fixed the order

I'll start on the ugly one first I suppose. I'm afraid I will be out of town for a wedding today. This might take a while.
Thanks for any advice!

[cbaker]

I hooked a charger up to the worst battery on 2 amps and after a couple of hours checked it and noticed an acid odor. I just unhooked it and have to be out of town today.

Found the motor and the sticker was barely hanging on. It's an EV7100, I think the next one is TC3-04. Then there is what looks like a serial number and a bunch of Chinese stuff. Anyone know the specs on this motor?
Thanks

[cbaker]

nevermind! I just figured out that's the tranny.

[cbaker]

OK, I finally got every battery charged up, and went out for a ride this morning. Only about 3 miles with one medium hill. Climbing the hill, I dropped down to about 18 mph. On the flats 24-28 seemed easy. Going down the same hill, a whopping 35 mph. I checked the batteries after I got home.
1 12.14 1.92
2 12.73 2.02
3 12.76 2.03
4 12.73 2.02
5 12.92 2.05
6 11.60 1.82

I ran out of time, but will get back to the discharge recharge procedure this evening. At 30 mph the rpm was on 3, and at 35 it was on 4. I see no sign of the voltage meter. Everything appears to be hooked up, so I'll try to find a way to troubleshoot it this week. Tires are at 40 psi. Still trying to figure out the motor specs.

[cbaker]

Oh yeah, it started at full charge on the display, and lost a bar after 1/2 mile.
It was over half when I got home.

[rmay635703]

Your speed and behavior is pretty typical, an NEV is meant to maintain 21-24mph on flat ground, that means up hill you aren't going to move very fast.

Originally Posted by cbaker

1 12.14 1.92

6 11.60 1.82

If they are warped it means a couple things
1. Likely they were overcharged a LOT
2. Somebody has probably already tried to doctor them up

Also when a battery is resting above 12.6 volts its usually fully charged but yours should rest around 13.2v when new.

Anyway I would not leave either of those batteries discharged to those levels very long, they die awefull fast when they are in very poor condition like that.
11% normal capacity isn't good.

Anyway I would focus on battery 1 and battery 6.

I recommend moving them
A) In a cold climate to the center battery box or
B) In a warm climate to the front battery box.

Get them charged up as soon as possible with 12v battery charger(s) at 10 amp rate, then discharge slowly and recharge

The car can be used to discharge them but remember its AWEFULL hard on the things and can make things worse.

Also I find it odd that 6 became real bad, how long and at what rate did you charge? (it didn't require any charge)

Is your charger a smart style (digital/electronic) 12v battery charger?

Take care not to overcharge, these are big so usually if you charge the typical 6 hours or less it shouldn't hurt anything on a dumb charger, under charge, full is around 14.4 volts depending on rate and style of charger.

Cheers
Ryan

[cbaker]

I got the order on 5 & 6 reversed on my first post. It is a smart charger, that floats after it meets the charge. I will get back on it this evening.
Thanks again