Lance's S-10 EV Conversion

Things are going well

2010-09-18T21:15:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted for awhile but the truck is working good. After getting it running life caught up with me and I haven't really done much since. I still use it several times a week around town but I haven't figured out my gauges yet, the dash needs to be reassembled, and other miscellaneous tasks remain uncompleted. I am hoping sometime in the near future I will be motivated enough to finish a few of these.

The only critical problem I am facing right now that gets in the way of using the truck is my 12 V battery. I have the Iota DLS-55 charger that is recharging my old 12 V battery from the main traction battery pack (144V pack) while I am driving. This was doing ok until I started noticing on long trips the battery would start to overheat and smoke (boiling). It isn't clear to me if this is the fault of the old battery, which came with the donor car, or that I am pushing too many Amps into it. I am worried it is the latter but went ahead and picked up a new 12 V battery to replace it. The new one is a much smaller battery made for a moped but because I am not running a starter the reduction in size should not cause any problems.

The best thing that happened since my last post was receiving my Illinois Green Fleets conversion rebate check from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. This is a program in Illinois that provides money back for 80% of your purchases made in the conversion of an ICE vehicle to an alternative fuel vehicle up to $4,000. I didn't go into this project expecting this rebate, although I did know it existed, but it was a wonderful surprise to see a check for $4,000 in the mail. I must admit that I felt a little guilty receiving this money from the State of Illinois knowing the financial trouble they are in. They have laid off over 50 teachers in my area due to funding issues but I didn't lose too much sleep over it. I figured if I wouldn't have received the money budgeted for the program some company probably would have.

Other updates: My melted battery fix is still holding without issues. The NetGain Controller's charger I am using has been working great. I don't have a 220 V plug yet in the garage so I haven't tested the chargers ability to do 220 yet. 110 works great!

Battery Terminal Repair

2010-03-14T22:46:00.006-05:00

I was able to repair my melted battery terminal. My terminal type has a bolt section that connects to the main post that runs into the battery. The bolt section was complete toast after the meltdown but thankfully the main post area remained mostly unscathed.Above shows my melted terminal, note bolt fell out after failure.

The plan for the repair was to tap a hole into the main post and bolt my 2/0 connecting wire to it. To help me with this I purchased a cheap tap and die set from Amazon for $35. I have never attempted to tap threads into anything before so I practiced several times on wood and then a scrap piece of metal I had around. The process was relatively easy to accomplish as it only consists of drilling a 5/8" hole deep enough for the bolt and then using the tap tool to create the threads.
Above is the thread tap tool I used from my set.Here is the hole I drilled being very careful not to drill too deep into the battery as I had no idea how far the post went down. Thankfully I didn't hit any internal parts of the battery and had enough room for my bolt to tighten with the battery cable connector in place. This picture shows the tap tool inserted and turned a few times into the hole. I was careful to turn it slowly and backed it out several times to remove any shavings from the bottom so they wouldn't get in the way of the tap preventing the threads from going all the way down to the bottom. Turning the tap into the lead was much easier than the scrap piece of steel I practices on. Here is the finished tapped hole. You can see the threads in there if you look closely.

I was concerned that the malleability of the lead was going to cause my newly tapped threads to be stripped when I tried to screw the bolt into it but that wasn't a problem. I was careful tightening the bolt and will continue to be careful when I work with this particular battery in the future.Overall I think the repair went well. Spending the $35 for the tools is much better than spending $100+ for complete replacement battery and I get to add to my tool collection ;). Only time will tell if this repair will last but so far so good. After I was done I took it for a test drive and it held up nicely.

Battery Terminal Meltdown

2010-02-18T12:26:00.005-06:00

First the good news. I have my headlights and turn signals working now. These were failing due to an disconnected grounding wire which use to connect to the ICE. I also have insurance and tags on my truck now so I have been taking it around town for some test runs.

Now the bad news. In one of my recent drives the traction pack failed and I coasted to a nearby parking lot. I don't have any meters yet so I initially thought my pack had been completely depleted but when I checked the front four batteries they still had juice. Unfortunately I don't have my lift bed working yet so it took me a bit of time to get the bed off to expose the rear batteries. Once the bed was off the problem was obvious. One of my battery terminals melted where the wire meets the post. I bypassed the problematic battery and drove the truck home. Here are some pics of the meltdown.

I researched what different battery terminal types are good for EVs prior to selecting these batteries and didn't see anything about staying away from low profile threaded terminals. I did see some posts saying the automotive style posts are the best but my battery provider didn't have this specific battery with that post available. I am hoping that this meltdown was caused by user error on my end around not having the bolt tight enough on the terminal and not an error in my judgment on the style of post I used. We will see if I have future failures then the latter might be true.

The battery doesn't seem to be ruined as it still tests good voltage. I am planning on tapping a new threaded bolt into the remaining post and putting it back into service.

Still working when I can

2010-01-19T23:41:00.006-06:00

I apologize for not posting in a long time. Thankfully I have still been able to work on the truck as time permits. It hasn't progressed as quickly as I would have liked, due to other things taking my time, but it is still moving along. As a matter of fact, I went for a test drive around the block last weekend. There is still a lot to do but overall the test drive went great. I called it my mini-EV grin experience because it still isn't street legal. I have a call out to my insurance agent about covering the car and I need to visit the department of motor vehicles to get license plates.

Below are some recent pics of the project

Above is my main board housing all my components. Items here include

Iota DLS-55
Two Contactors
Pot box w/ throttle attached
Main fuse
NetGain Controls Charger

My board has two tiers. This picture shows the second tier attached and it contains the controller, easy disconnect for wiring, and fuse box. I had to go with this stacked configuration because the charger was so large and I wanted to keep it in the car for remote charging away from home.

Here is a shot of my front battery boxes with some insulation around them. towards the back you can see my two main Anderson disconnects. One for traction pack (red) and one for motor connection (blue). I was pleased to see the different color Anderson connectors don't work together so it isn't possible to plug the red into the blue by accident. The white tube on the top right is my vacuum reservoir for the brakes. I made it myself out of PVC piping.

Here is an updated shot of my rear battery box. It still isn't covered with the bed because I have had problems with my bed hinges holding the weight as I raise it. For now I am going to secure the bed to the truck using the original bolts and revisit the tilt bed later.

Temporary battery boxes and test fit

2009-08-26T00:08:00.003-05:00

Tonight I created my temporary wooden battery boxes. These are temporary because I eventually plan on creating some better boxes with walls made from two thin pieces of plastic with insulating foam in between. For now I am going with the wooden ones to get the vehicle rolling sooner and will revisit the better boxes later.

The wooden boxes are nothing more than 1/4" plywood, with a few sections being a little thicker because of scraps I had laying around. I will probably be putting a coat of paint on them at some point. Once I had the pieces cut I secured them together using angle brackets. The boxes are a little flimsy but I am not that worried about it because the outer steel cages are what really hold them batteries in anyways.

Once I had the boxes in place I did a test fit of the batteries. One thing that is obvious to me now is that I will need some type of reinforcement to the shocks and struts. The truck's rear sags considerably when the batteries are in place. I was orginally hoping this wasn't going to be required but I guess it is.

The other 4 batteries are in the engine compartment battery box.

NetGain Charger Arrived!

2009-08-25T19:47:00.002-05:00

My new NetGain charger arrived in the mail today. I unboxed it and took a few pics. Right away you notice the huge heat sink fins protruding from both side, the good thing is the unit has no fans so should be quiet. It is a large unit, much larger than Zivan's NG3. The size is making me reconsider how my engine compartment will be laid out.

Overall it looks like a nice piece of hardware and I can't wait to try it out. It has an included thermal sensor for adjusting the charging profile based on battery temperature. The DC side has an anderson connector and the AC side has a normal male three prong outlet plug (120V).

Battery Box Welding Complete

2009-08-23T22:57:00.008-05:00

I have finally completed the battery box welding. It was a much larger job than I anticipated but so far I am happy with the results. My welds are by no means professional looking but I did seem to have good penetration of the metal with my beads. There are a total of four battery boxes on my truck. One in the front (4), Two down the drive shaft under the bed (2X4), and one larger one under the bed behind the rear axle (6). The truck will have a total of 18 batteries in these boxes for my 144 volt system.
The rear battery boxes along the drive shaft.

The rear most battery box.

I will now be fabricating some wooden boxes to go within these metal supports.

Charger Purchase

2009-08-23T00:23:00.003-05:00

I have been putting off my electric vehicle charger purchase because there has been a few recent products introduced and I was waiting for the smoke to settle a bit before committing to one. When I was doing my initial planning I was going to purchase the Zivan NG3. This has been a long time favorite for custom conversions and, from what I hear, has a good track record of reliability. This charger is configured once at the factory for either 120 or 240 Volt AC input. The problem with this one time configuration is that it isn't very flexible. You either get fast home charging at 240 V or you have slow home charging but have the ability for 'in the field' opporutnity charge on a more common 120 V outlet. Another alternative is to purchase two of these chargers, one at each voltage level, and you have the best of both worlds, but this approach is cost prohibitive.

In my search for something better they guys at Pioneer Conversions told me about the Elcon PFC 3000W charger. It is still relatively new product release so real world reviews or even product information is hard to come by. I do know that it comes from China and the Pioneer guys gave me the product info PDF. Some other locations I found information on this charger are here and here. The great thing about this charger is the ability to accept 120 and 240 V input from a single unit. It seemed to be available from several resellers as Pioneer Conversions, KTA Services, Electro Automotives, and Electric Conversions could all get them for me for around $1,000. I was just about to pull the trigger on this charger when I heard about yet another one.

The Pioneer guys, who happen to be located rather close to NetGain Motors Inc., informed me that NetGain is getting into the charger market. The unit specs are as follows:

3kW AC draw
~92% efficiency
156/144V nominal output (lower voltages also possible)
Various amp-hour settings
AGM/Flooded algorithms
Pulse charging during final stage
Temperature compensation with included external temperature sensor
Output isolated from AC mains
Sealed enclosure - heatsink design without fans
Greater than 0.98 power factor (current and voltage between 1 and 2 degrees out of phase)
90-260VAC input without any modifications to the charger
Automatic reduction of power draw on 120VAC input to 1500W (12.5A), and full draw with higher AC voltages
Input frequencies of 45-65Hz
Weight of about 14lbs
Short circuit protection
Reverse polarity protection
Automatic restart when below about 12.5V or after 30 days
Dimensions (L x W x H): 13.85 x 6.9 x 5.5 inches, 352 x 175 x 139 mm

Aside from it being a little larger than Elcon's, the specs seem very similar. I liked the idea that it was made in USA (presumably) and supports dual voltage. I don't, however, like the idea of being the guinea pig for this new charger.

Well, which did I choose?

I went with the NetGain charger. Only time will tell if this was a wise decision. In the end I didn't feel like the Elcon charger had a better track record than the NetGain one at this point. I have also already heard a few people complaining about Elcon's lack of support for their charger. NetGain has a good reputation for their motors they sell so I am also hoping the same level of qualty has gone into their charger. The order went out to Pioneer Conversion for the unit so I hope it arrives next week sometime.

Battery Box Update

2009-07-24T00:11:00.001-05:00

I have been working hard on the metal welding and forming needed to complete the battery boxes. It is going a lot slower than I anticipated. I removed the two existing frame supports running directly under the bed and I am in the process of adding new supports that will provide for more battery room.
Under the truck bed before starting battery boxes. Note the two, looks like three, supports running directly under the bed. Those are the ones I removed and replaced with new supports.
Here is the oxy acetylene torch and cylinders I used for heating the metal to make my bends.
I created this low budget metal forming jig out of some cinder blocks.
Rear most battery box lateral supports (note stock supports have been cut out)
Middle battery boxes supportsOne of the middle battery boxes complete.Welding for both middle battery boxes is complete.

Fox 2 News Story Broadcast

2009-07-21T01:01:00.002-05:00

The interview for Fox 2 aired today on the 9 pm news. It was exciting to see 30 seconds of my 15 minutes of fame. Overall I am happy with the piece. My wife sent a text message to my family and friends before it aired so some of them watched it as well. They jokingly said I should start a fan club.

You can watch it yourself off their site here. Ron did a great job talking about his truck.

A step in the wrong direction

2009-07-07T23:19:00.000-05:00

When installing the new electric motor in the truck I made a mistake. I forgot to place the small foam piece that sits between the transmission, shifter, and the vehicle's interior. The mistake wasn't noticed until after the entire drive line was assembled. It probably isn't a critical component but I would imagine at a minimum it helps cut down on road noise.

Tonight I decided to rectify my blunder and disassemble the drive shaft and transmission mount so I could insert the missing foam part. All-in-all a fairly simple procedure but I would rather be making progress on something else rather than backtracking. Oh well.

Fox 2 Interviews Me

2009-07-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

Paul Schankman and a vidiographer from our local Saint Louis Fox 2 station came to my home and interviewed me today about my EV conversion project. Ron Erb, fellow member of Gateway EV, was the one that actually setup the interview and will be in the final piece with me. Ron has his own custom Ford Ranger EV already completed so he thought it would be good if Paul could see a finished conversion and one in progress.

It was fun talking with him about my project and it will be cool to be on the news. I am not getting my hopes up too much though because Ron is much better at EV promotion so he will probably have most of the spot. I laid down a horindess weld bead on camera for them so I should at least have that. They will probably get calls at the station commenting about how I shouldn't be trusted with a welder.

Electric Motor is in

2009-07-05T23:44:00.002-05:00

I spent the weekend mounting the Canadian EV adapter plate and adapter coupling to the electric motor and my transmission. It took me several attempts to get it together exactly right. My first few attempts I couldn't get the transmission shaft and the adapter coupling to mate properly. After a few hours of frustration I took a brake and searched the internet for ideas.

It ends up that I should have been using a clutch alignment tool to make sure the clutch plate was centered properly to accepts the flywheel and transmission shaft. I went to my local auto supply store (O'Reilly) and picked up the tool, it was cheap to purchase because it is just a small plastic thing but they just let me borrow one from a clutch kit they had (thanks guys!). With proper tools in hand I was able to finally get all the pieces together, although it still took a bit of work.

I then put the transmission and motor combination into the vehicle with my engine hoist. I also purchased the Canadian EV mounting kit to bolt directly into my existing frame's engine mount holes. The tricky part about this is that the holes the kit uses are actually the holes for the larger V6 ICE and not my inline 4. Chevy has all mounting holes for all engines already drilled in the frame but not all are threaded. So I had to use the kit's bolts, which are self tapping, to thread the mounting holes. You just place them in the hole and start to screw them in. The tapered end of the bolts digs into the frame and automatically thread the holes. This was not incredibly difficult to do but there was no documentation with my kit so had to figure it out on my own.
Closeup of the mounting brackets and the self tapping screws going into the frame.
Here is the top view of the engine mounted. whoopee!

Electric Motor is here!

2009-06-19T23:54:00.001-05:00

I purchased the Advanced DC FB-4001A 144V motor off of ebay. The seller was actually the very reputable EV parts retailer Cloud Electric and I ended up getting it several hundred dollars off what they were listing it at on their site, so I was happy.

The motor is so heavy, ~ 160 lbs, that it had to be shipped freight. This means it comes on a pallet and either I have to pay extra for a lift gate truck to deliver or I have to pick it up myself from the UPS freight center in Saint Louis. I opted to save about $60 and just go pick it up myself. The freight center was an experience in itself but once I figured out where I needed to go they quickly loaded up my new motor onto the back of a f-150 I was borrowing from my father.

Once at home I couldn't wait to open it up to check it out. My model has a dual shaft so the drive shaft sticks out on both ends. Some other EV converters have used the other end to power accessories like power steering, alternator for 12V system, climate control, etc. I don't see how practical that is considering it spins at the motor's RPMs and only when the vehicle is moving. In the end I will probably not use both ends of the motor but at least I have the option.

My camera broke while the family and I were in Florida so sorry no pics. I hope to have a new one soon.

Getting Ready for Battery Boxes

2009-06-18T22:00:00.002-05:00

With the motor in place it is time to start on the battery boxes. There will be four boxes in total, one in the front engine compartment (4 batteries), two along the sides of the drive shaft (4 batteries each), and a large box behind the rear axle (6 batteries). I based the design of my boxes off of Kurt's S-10 conversion here.

The frame of the boxes is going to be a combination of square steel tubing and flat steel bar. I have never purchased steel before so I had no idea where to get it. I visited a local welding supply store and they pointed me to a supplier in my town so I headed on over and purchased what I needed. I ended up purchasing the following:

1.5" x 1/8" square tube: 28' total - rear box upper supports
2" x 1/4" bar: 60' total - front and rear box supports
3" x 1/4" bar: 12' total - rear most box inner supports. Used this wider bar to support the longer spans in the middle of this box.
2" x 2" x 1/8" angle iron: 8' total - Front battery box

When all said in done I had about $200 worth of steel. I spend a long time trying to figure out how much steel I will need to complete my boxes. I tried using Kurt's list at first but it seemed to be more than I needed.

The next issue I had to solve was how to build the rear cages of the battery box. The problem is the 2" bar I am using needs to be shaped like a 'U' and the batteries placed within them. I initially thought to just used my chop saw to cut the pieces and then weld them back together to make the 'U' shape. This sounded good at first as I already had the welder and chop saw in the garage. However, I opted not to go this route because I have never welded before and am already worried about how strong the welds I need elsewhere are going to be. So rather than add more possibility for failure due to my inexperience, I opted to purchase an oxyacetylene torch and cylinders so I can heat the steel and just bend it. I was shocked at how expensive the cylinders were but I bit the bullet and purchased a 80 cubic foot oxygen and a 75 cubic foot acetylene and a cheap $50 torch off Amazon. I had the option to rent the tanks on a 5 year lease to save a little money (about $100) but ended up not doing that in hopes that if I don't need them in the future I can recoup some of the cost by selling them.

Well it has been an expensive day. Lets hope these are few and far between.

Shopping Spree

2009-06-10T00:13:00.001-05:00

My wife is kind enough to be giving me fathers day weekend to work on the truck when my daughter and her go up to Chicago to visit her family. Personally I think this is a great fathers day gift and beats a new tie hands down.

In preparation for the big weekend, actually 4 days but 2 of them I have to work, I am lining up a bunch of parts to be delivered.

Prepping the frame

2009-05-07T23:50:00.001-05:00

I am still cleaning off the years of grease and grime left from the old ICE. I started trying to grind it off, didn't work. Then tried scrubbing it off w/ degreaser, didn't work. The best results I have had so far are hitting it with my fathers' pressure washer. This took off enough of the heavy stuff that the degreaser was actually able to get most of the rest. I am sure there is a magic cleaner out there that would have made my life so much easier but at least I have it clean. I will now be putting a coat of primer and some flat black paint.

Manual Steering Box

2009-02-14T23:39:00.001-06:00

I have never owned a manual steering automobile but most people suggest replacing the power steering box with a manual one on electric vehicles to save power, so that is what I did. My buddy Tom and I went on a scavenger hunt to several area junk yards in search of the part. The good thing is that older S-10s (later body style) used the same mounting configuration as my truck. The bad thing is that most junk yards have already scrapped all their older S-10s.

We finally ended up finding one, although it wasn't in the condition I was hoping. It had been cut off of a vehicle at some point and was sitting in the mud for who knows how long. Against my better judgment we went ahead and purchased it. It cleaned up nicely and I don't feel any internal problems when I move it but only time will tell if this component will hold up.

Perhaps once my vehicle is operational I will devise a plan to add power steering back into it.The ugly used manual box I picked up, and this is even after I removed a lot of mud.
I scraped and ground the paint off and applied a rust protection primer.

The final part all cleaned up and painted black. Not too bad if I do say so myself, especially because this is my first time using a paint sprayer.

ICE is gone!

2009-02-13T23:32:00.009-06:00

My buddy Tom came over and helped me pull the internal combustion engine out of the S-10. It took a lot longer than I expected but we finally accomplished our goal. The service manual suggests disconnecting the engine and the transmission and then pulling the engine. However, for the life of us we couldn't figure out how to get the bolts off that where holding them together. There was barely clearance to get your finger over the bolt let alone a wrench or socket. We ended up just pulling the engine and transmission out together. The key to it all was to lift the motor enough to get to the engine mount bolts and then remove the engine mounts. Once those were out of the way we were able to shimmy it out slowly.

The ICE before the surgery ;)

Tom under the mid-section of the car removing the transmission support. Had he put down the cigurette maybe he wouldn't have dropped my 1/2 inch socket into the frame, thanks Tom ;). [Update: was able to retrieve the socket after purchasing a automotive magnet pickup tool]
Starter, drive shaft, and transmission support all needed to come out before we started pulling engine.Taken before one of our many attempts at pulling the engine.

We placed the floor jack inline with the transmission so we could control the transmission height as we pulled with the engine hoist.

One of our failed attempts at getting it out, I know this because engine mount is still installed here.

Tom giving me his, "I am too tired for this s***" look.Finally! it came out. The key was removing the engine mounts from the frame so we had the needed clearance.

What a mess! I should have done a better job draining the transmission before all of this.Temporarily supported engine and transmission on jacks. I am going to build a simple support out of wood so I can reclaim the jacks, definitely going to need those for the rest of the work.

Why I want to do this

2008-09-06T14:58:00.000-05:00

You might be asking yourself why I would want to be spending time and money to convert a late model vehicle to pure electric. The main reasons I am doing this is

Learn a few things - about all sorts of things like mechanical, electrical, fabrication, etc.
Have a vehicle that does not directly contribute to our environmental problems like internal combustion engines (ICE) vehicles do.
Save money on gas. It is cheaper per mile to run on electric than gas, although actual savings are negated by initial investment I am still hoping over time I will come out ahead.
Meet people w/ similar interests. I plan on joining the Electric Auto Association (EAA).
To have a hobby that gets me away from my daily stress.

Well now you know!

Found the donor car!

2008-09-05T14:23:00.000-05:00

After looking around for a suitable donor car on Craigslist for several weeks I finally have a winner. I went out today and picked up a '98 S-10 truck from a nice kid in Pevely MO (about 50 minutes from my home). The truck has a blown engine and doesn't run but that is exactly what I was looking for. The engine failure obviously makes it cheaper than blue book and the body and frame are in decent condition, thankfully I don't think they use much salt out there in Pevely. I had the truck towed back to my garage and I can't wait to get to work on it.

Gateway EV website

2008-08-03T15:32:00.002-05:00

I created a new website for our Gateway EV chapter of the EAA. It is a work-in-progress but my hopes are that it will reflect what our chapter is all about. I also create a forum section so members and guests can share ideas. Check it out!

Joined the Electric Auto Association

2008-07-09T15:25:00.002-05:00

When working on complex projects it is always good to have people around that have been-there and done-that. That is the main reason I just joined the Electric Auto Association (EAA). A few guys around Saint Louis started a local chapter of the EAA called Gateway EV. The individual that pushed me the most to join Gateway EV was Ron Erb. Ron lives in my town and recently converted a Ford Ranger to be electric.

Welcome

2008-07-05T14:11:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my S-10 Electric Vehicle (EV) conversion blog. This site will contain periodic updates of my progress on converting a 1998 S-10 to an all electric vehicle that is road capable. I look forward to sharing more of my experience on this journey with all of you.