I have finally caught up with everything around here and sat down and read the Saturn book. I found the sensor I was looking for the tachometer, I just have to figure out how to supply 5 volts to it to make it work. I can make something to mount on the other end of my motor with 2 pieces of steel 180 degrees from each other for the correct pulse for the sensor. and make a bracket to hold the sensor close enough to break the magnetic field on the sensor, to send a pulse to the tachometer.
I got to thinking about the converter being on all the time. It is a waste of battery power. I am going to put in a switch to turn it on and off. Also a gauge to let me know the condition of the 12 volt battery to let me know when I need to turn on the converter.
I talked to Bob today and he said Trojan is going to replace 4 Batteries in my car. I had bought 15 when I bought them and have replaced three of the batteries that need replacing. I took out the board and cleaned the contactors, and run the wiring a litle different to consolidate on the wiring. I charged and watered the batteries and then took it out for a spin. It brought back the joy of driving this car again. It was a 6 mile jaunt and it was fun. Right now the car is charging again as I am breaking in the new batteries. I still have to put in the heater, it is around 29 degrees here and the wind chill makes it 17 degrees, very cold with a low at 19 degrees + the wind chill. VERY COLD!!! The car is outside.
awesome, cant wait to hear how it is after those new batteries are worn in
:eek:I wipe my battery tops off everytime I check the electrolight but that is not enough. I took my voltmeter and checked the top to see if it was conducting electricity and it is. I am going to wash the tops with distilled water and dry them todayto curb the drain on them. They look clean and dry but they are still leaking electricity, I thought you would be interested in this fact. Iāll post later and let you know what happened.
[QUOTE=new dawn;1470]:eek:I wipe my battery tops off everytime I check the electrolight but that is not enough. I took my voltmeter and checked the top to see if it was conducting electricity and it is. I am going to wash the tops with distilled water and dry them todayto curb the drain on them. They look clean and dry but they are still leaking electricity, I thought you would be interested in this fact. Iāll post later and let you know what happened.[/QUOTE]
another guy on the site was having the same problemā¦ could it be corrosion of any kind? maybe wanna cover the tops in vaseline after you wash them?
I havenāt been able to tell which battery is the last bad one, So I have bought 12 12 volt gauges on ebay. I am going to hook them up so I can monitor each battery as I go down the road. It will be a temporary setup, and I do not reccomend doing this for safety sake. But it is the only reasonable way I have to monitor them on the fly. I have tested each cell and it didnāt reveal anything unusual. There is one bad one in the batch and I intend to find it. It probably wonāt be until after the first of the year before I have the answer on this delimma. I will probably set them up so the front four are displayed on the front dash and the rear 8 in the back window area and to be monitored via the rearview mirror. This is the easiest way for me to find the ellusive bad cell.
On a regular 12 volt system coating the terminals with vasoline is a good way to keep the terminals from corroding. I am not sure my system would be right to put that on. Vasoline is a petrolium product and is flamable. My problem not only occurs between the terminals but mostly between the cells. The best way I think to resolve the problem is to keep the tops clean. I feel coating the top of the battery would not solve the problem but make a mess. as the electrolight would still cover the top of the battery. DO NOT use tap water as it has minerals and conducts electricity, USE distilled water as it is only H2O and no minerals are present. I also washed my caps.
I took the control board out of my car and was working on it and decided to run the vaccum pump to see how long it would take to pump down the resovoir. after a couple of minutes the 12 volt system battery showed major failure. I went to the store and bought the cheapest Die Hard āstill 60 dollarsā and installed it in the car. What a difference it pumps down much faster now, I took it out and the acceleration was much improved, the charge was not a full charge on the 144 volts but it was a fun drive nonetheless. I cleaned up some wireing issues and it is getting a full charge for a run tomorrow. I am almost ready for the news to do a story on the progect. I feel it is show ready except for the paint job. The heater is still the next project to compleate, I ordered some more anderson connectors and when they come in Iāll put it in the car. It is nice to finally work on my progects for a change. I hope you all have a great x-mas and a happy new year. I havenāt forgotten the video it is coming soon.
The few times you described limping home with dead batteries could tell the story of your ābadā batteries. Doesnāt take many extreme DODās to kill even a quality battery like your trojans.
New Dawn
I have been meaning to ask for a while. When you pull up to a uphill stop does the car behave any differently than a regular stick(as in 5speed) car?
Thanks
Lazlow
When I have to stop on a hill I have to keep my foot on the brake and when the light turns green again I keep my foot on the brake and then push on the go pedal then let off the brake. If I donāt then the car will roll back until the motor kicks in. it is a little different and I have to remind myself about this as I donāt want to run into the car behind me. You could ust the emergency brake for this too but you have to be careful you donāt forget to release it hwen you go forward as you could burn up the rear brakes on the car.
Wow nice garage, I hope to find something half as nice to do my conversion. So far itās in the car port under my apt. hehe
Devin
I worked a good many years outside on cars before I was able to do the garage thing, I remember one time I used the neighbors tree limb and a cum along to pull a engine from my truck in the middle of a snowstorm. Keep plugging away, you have the right idea. Good luck on your progect.
Glad to see you have made some progress.
I came up and picked up a Saturn motor from you awhile back.
Kudos to your efforts.
Ive been thinking of building a boat, an electric powered boat. So I remembered your talk about this forum and I found it.
I have over 1300 miles on my car now and it is near compleation, I put it up on the hoist today and cleaned the armature, it was black from the graphite and glazed. I had thirty miles on it before I cleaned it. One of the things the car had always done to me was lurch in reverse, I thought it was because reverse is like first and the motor had too much torque and that caused the car to lurch. or the pb6 needed replacement. Once the armature was cleaned the ālurchingā dissapeared. I took it out for a spin and easily put on five more miles for a total mileage of 35 miles today. It is on the charger and I am going to see if it will do 40 miles tomorrow. The new batteries are breaking in nicely. I added 12 gauges in the dash so I can see each and every batterys voltage as I drive down the road. It has been very useful and it is a time saver, as I can pinpoint any battery problems I have as soon as it happens.
I showed the car at Leslie Science Center two weekends ago and it was a great hit. I had lots of fun and talked to lots of people about the car. I was invited to talk at a couple of places and asked by a councilman to show the car at the Washtenaw Dairy one weekend this year. I will update more often now and post new pictures soon.
Hello, this is my first post here. Instead of 12 individual gauges why dont you have one then a selector to view each battery. Or is it important to see the difference between them in real time. Just seems that 12 gauges is alot to mount inside the dash.
I donāt know if its possible to get a dial to select between each set of contacts, it would be easier to setup a switchboard with all of the connectors from the batteries run into female connectors so you can just plug the leads of the voltmeter into it to check it quickly. Then possibly have 2 or 3 voltmeters to view from.
I needed to see the way the batteries were doing going down the road, and how the drain compared to one another, it was worth the 100 dollars it took to do it, I know right away which battery is giving me trouble right away and which one to check when I get home instead of taking a bunch of readings that are unnecessary. Each one is fused.
I got 44 miles on my car the other day before the batteries needed a charge. I am out of town but next week I will be driving the car again.
Hi
Nice work. I am working on a Saturn as well. I am waiting for an adapter plate for the motor.
It seems to me that you might be being a bit rough on your batteries. I am only trying to be helpful, not critical. From what I have read, the easier you go on the batteries, the longer they last.
Anyway, nice job. I hope mine turns out half as good.
Peter