Chevy Volt Battery Install -> 2000 GEM 4 seater in San Diego

Good idea… I don’t know why I had in my head it had to be 1 big hose clamp vs. 2 combined. I’ll do that

Looking good. I mounted my shunt opposite the fuse on the other side. Worked out nice with the cabling.

Do not let the shunt short to ground.
Do not let bms-24t case contact metal. It is poorly isolated from internal electronics.

You can get a steel band kit that will allow you to make any size clamps you want. Much cheaper than buying individual clamps and putting them together. I’ll try to get a picture of the box. Had enough for two gem conversions.
I used most of the original battery wires with two from the volt pack. I really liked their cables and would always try to get the entire module just for those and all the stainless hardware if nothing else.
Still just using a cheap ratchet strap from harbor freight and some wood blocking to hold everything down. Seems to be working fine. Nothing is moving, But thankfully, I haven’t ever rolled my Gem! I will get something better installed eventually.
Enjoy your newfound power and post some pix.

Breeze Make-a-Clamp Kits. I think the 4000 has 8’ of strap and a couple of screws.

I’m overdue to post an update. The wife was out of town (which never happens) and I was homebound with the kiddos. Figured I’d take a couple of days off to spend in the garage and work on the GEM.

For strapping the batteries, I liked the idea of using steel straps but the kits were pretty pricy so I decided to go with poly. Got a setup off Amazon for around $180. Ended up putting 2 straps around each battery. I made them pretty snug. Not sure how tight you can go on these things and if there is a too tight? The corners seems to be bending so I figured that was good enough and didn’t want to crank anymore.

Next up was to strip the car of the stuff I didn’t need. Pulled the batteries, removed the old battery wiring, removed the 2 marine chargers, etc.

Out with the old and starting to put in the new stuff -

Connected the spoof… that was pretty straightforward when you get the wiring harness out of the controller. FYI - I’ve been following a bunch from this thread which is a very similar setup to what I have in terms of year GEM, Charger, BMS, and batteries.

Now it’s time to figure out the shunt mounting. I bought a block of UHMW Poly off ebay. Cut it down to the right size with a combination of my tablesaw and chop saw. Then it was time to put the dress press to work.

Counter sunk the bolts so the shunt bolts wouldn’t touch the frame… and the screws attaching the shunt mount won’t touch any metal. Think it came out pretty clean but I’ll let you guys be the judge.

Now it was time to dry fit the batteries and figure out which way to position them. Fit easily with the water jackets off but I’ll have to come up with some blocks to secure them and keep them from moving around. that will be one of my last steps

I’ve had a battery lug crimper hiding in my garage from boat projects a while ago, so I used that to make custom fit battery cables using marine grade 4g wire. Used red and black heat shrink to help me keep things straight when I’m hooking everything up.

Ended the day wiring up most of the batteries. Have the packs paralleled and the cables run from the controller B- to the shunt and the battery disconnect switch to the fuse.

Goal for tomorrow is to at least get a test drive in; stretch goal will be to get the delta-q mounted. I’d like to get the BMS in but let’s see how far I get. Figure I could always use the chargery charger and the BMS in the interim, Delta-Q last.

If you see I’m doing something screwy or have suggestions, I’m certainly open to them!

Will get another update out in a day or so.

I ran out of battery lugs for making cables so I figured I’d work on the install of the Delta-q. I did a mock up just holding the charger against the firewall and realized there wasn’t enough aluminum vertically to meet the top and bottom mounts. I’d have to figure out a way to extend the aluminum firewall and get the 1 inch spacing so the cooling fins weren’t hitting the components on the left and right side.

Went to the hardware store with the charger in hand and some pictures to see what I could come up with. Ended finding some square 1x1 aluminum. Figured I could cut these to length and use them as rails to mount the charger to the firewall.

I used bolts to go through the rails and into the firewall. Used self-tapping metal screws to mount the charger to the rails. As other’s before me have noted, it’s a snug fit. A little worried that heat might be an issue when charging. I’ll have to do more research on what someone (a think Dave @Inwo) suggested about putting the charger on a timer to cycle on and off.

One other thing I did and changed. One of the threads had the charger with the DC side facing down so I followed that. Then read the installation manual and it said it’s recommended to have the DC side facing up so I spun it around. Wondering if it matters or there’s a reason for going DC side down. Guess I’ll find out when I wire it up if there are issues with space.

pic of the charger flipped with the DC up

one bone head move when drilling one of the holes… let the AC side insulation rub against my drill chuck and it wore some of the insulation away. Can’t see any of the cables so hoping this is fine. Someone smarter than me let me know. Just sucks screwing up something that’s brand new!

Error code 77… that’s where I’m at right now.

Got all the batteries wired up, double checked, crossed my fingers and threw the disconnect switch. Nothing sparked or set on fire so that was good :). Dropped the parking brake and the solenoid clunked, a little accelerator and I get error 77.

Checked the voltage from the batteries and I was at 96.5. Have had the headlights on for 3-4 hours now and am reading 95.7. Still getting the error (mind you, I have an inexpensive multimeter that I got off Amazon so who knows how accurate +/- .X it is .) . Pretty sure I read that 96 was the hard limit for the T2s so I’m guessing I just have too much voltage.

Did I miss a step somewhere to get this going? Is there a controller setting I need to adjust on the T2? I have the spoof installed in Pin 1. In the meantime, figure I’ll leave the lights on until it gets down to 95.0v.

code 16 is the high voltage error code and 77 is over speed so that’s interesting you get that sitting still.
Have you tried unplugging the motor speed sensor? My T1 will still move and gives no error when I unplug the motor sensor.

Deutsche connector right off the side of the motor? Just unplugged it and tried again, no dice. Error 77 when I hit the pedal.

Wondering if there’s a regen setting I have to increase on the controller?

Got me…

is the controller status unknown? ie it was not working before any work has been done to upgrade batteries?

Brand new from flight systems (not a rebuild) probably less than 50 miles on it.

FSIP wouldn’t take a t1 as a core so that’s how I ended up with a new one.

Should work at 95v. If not, you will have to keep discharging until it will.

Ok… will turn the headlights on in the am and run down the voltage. Will report back
Thanks

Dont worry about heat on the DeltaQ . It has a thermal sensor on it , If it gets hot it drops back charging amps . The charge light (usually only #5 or #4) will start blinking in protection mode . The lower internal resistance of Lithium batteries will easily trigger protection mode in a hot climate . Since I live in south Florida my DeltaQ pretty much lives in protection mode . You could add a small 120v fan connected to charge cord , would only come on when plugged in .

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Looks like 94v is the magic number for my controller. Once I dropped below that, the wheels would spin and no error codes.

Next up, BMS and the charger. I plugged in the Chargery BMS with the cabling supplied by @Inwo to the batteries. Nothing blew up and everything seems to be working (I’ll have to figure out how to configure it - any suggestions on the best thread for that, let me know).

Have a question about wiring from the BMS to the Delta-Q. Dave hooked me up the with the connector and white wire to enable the charger. Where do I connect that to on the BMS?

I’m thinking it’s the far left red wire in the harness that goes to Chg/Dhg Controller?

PS… do you guys use the temperature sensor, alarm, and/or LED?

I don’t…

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Correct port but you dare not connect that 60 volt output to the 3.3v white wire from delta-q.
Is there an interface led with the things you have?

If not you will need to buy or build one to connect bms to charger. A small relay or ssr will work too.

Chargery dot com for instructions.
If you can use enough of your battery capacity using 24s, you may need to cut back to 23s.
Maybe @LithiumGods will do the math for you.
24s at 3.9v versus 23s at 4.15v