I believe one of the consequences of having the wheel come off my car when I forgot to tighten the lug nuts is two of the lug nuts became stripped. Can the rotor be tapped? Not according to the VW mechanic I called. "Buy a new one and don't drive your car until it's replaced."
Alright! Now where's that receipt where I bought my rear disc conversion kit from??? Oh well, I decided to call one of the online parts companies that I had done some business with and well, to make a long story short, after the wrong one was sent and returned what they sent was a rotor with 10 holes. What the heck? That's exactly what the guy at O'Reilly's said when I showed it to him. Let me back up, this rotor didn't fit the lug nuts I had but instead the second set of holes matched the rims but used smaller lugs. That's when I took it to O'Reilly's and that's when they said...What the heck is that?
The good news is they hooked me up with the right nuts and now I'm back on the road.
Before I hit the road I did what's known as a gravity bleed. You jack up the back of the car as high as you can and then drop the front as low as you can. You then open the lid on the master cylinder and open the rear bleeder valves. The theory is any air bubbles will make their way to the rears. You need to give this a couple hours and expect some leakage from the back. Then tighten the bleeder valves and bleed the brakes you normally would. I saw where Corvettes do this and it is encouraged for old VW owners to do the same. This helped my brakes but they are still not completely perfect yet. I'll probably have to perform a master cylinder bench bleed at some point.
Here are the results from this weekend's drives
(I measure the amount of energy going back into the pack from the charger through a kilowatt device)
Yesterday: 21 miles - 5.23 KWh used - 250wh per mile - avg speed 35 mph
Today: 26 miles - 8.46 KWh used - 325wh per mile - avg speed 45+ mph (steep hills)
So far, I've done about 140 miles in testing, still haven't gone on the 70 mph freeway yet. But I'm looking forward to the first commute sometime this week.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Supercaps Part I
My Supercaps have arrived - all 49 of them. I got them on Ebay for cheap. Notice I'm not using Ultracaps. Why? They require balancing boards and are usually more expensive. I played with a Maxwell Ultracap 12V bank once after reading about the EV1 that uses them to drag race. You should definitely google that one!
Some observations: The supercaps are a little heavier that what I thought, they have no voltage when they arrive - that's good!
The next step is to make bus bars out of 3/8 inch OD copper tubing that I bought from a hardware store. BTW, copper ain't cheap anymore. I made a small busbar just to make sure it was going to fit right, so far so good. The entire area will be approx 18" X 18" X 4". This pack, when complete, will run in parallel to the main battery bank.
Quite a few folks have tried this before with much success, look at DIYelectriccarforum and see what others have done. I'm no pioneer, just a guy that likes to steal from the best. Yes, there are skeptics and no I don't have any kind of equipment to quantify the results. I figure if it helps my $5K battery pack perform better and last longer for under $120 bucks - I'm in!!!
Some observations: The supercaps are a little heavier that what I thought, they have no voltage when they arrive - that's good!
The next step is to make bus bars out of 3/8 inch OD copper tubing that I bought from a hardware store. BTW, copper ain't cheap anymore. I made a small busbar just to make sure it was going to fit right, so far so good. The entire area will be approx 18" X 18" X 4". This pack, when complete, will run in parallel to the main battery bank.
Quite a few folks have tried this before with much success, look at DIYelectriccarforum and see what others have done. I'm no pioneer, just a guy that likes to steal from the best. Yes, there are skeptics and no I don't have any kind of equipment to quantify the results. I figure if it helps my $5K battery pack perform better and last longer for under $120 bucks - I'm in!!!
Decals
When you were young, did you ever put together model cars? I always loved putting on the decals. You'd soak them in water then carefully place it on the model hoping they didn't stick to your fingers.
The original Bradley had decals. A quick goggle search on the original ads will show this. Kitcarguy on the bradleygt site will make the decals for anyone who wants them. He has quite the selection. I got silver, my second choice was black. Four of the logos and four of the text. My wife likes the way the silver turned out, so I must say, I made the right choice.
If I ever do paint the car, the $50 bucks to get the stickers done again will pale in comparison to the cost of the paint job. I called the other day, and because it's fiberglass, the estimate was $6K. Wowsers! I didn't expect that price.
The original Bradley had decals. A quick goggle search on the original ads will show this. Kitcarguy on the bradleygt site will make the decals for anyone who wants them. He has quite the selection. I got silver, my second choice was black. Four of the logos and four of the text. My wife likes the way the silver turned out, so I must say, I made the right choice.
If I ever do paint the car, the $50 bucks to get the stickers done again will pale in comparison to the cost of the paint job. I called the other day, and because it's fiberglass, the estimate was $6K. Wowsers! I didn't expect that price.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
E-Brake Fix
Yes, I complain about EMPI often, but they are way cheaper than the competition. Plus, since I installed EMPI disc brakes I need to stay with the same brand to install the E-Brake.
Previously, the E-brake cables were too short and I tried to cut the cable housing to elongate the amount of cable going into the cab. Basically, the cables were about an inch too short. THIS DIDN'T WORK WELL.
What I did this time was cut about an inch off the tube that comes out of the chassis that the cable goes into. Yes, this did work. The first pict is before the cut. The second is after the cut.
Works well and I hope a very long time.
Previously, the E-brake cables were too short and I tried to cut the cable housing to elongate the amount of cable going into the cab. Basically, the cables were about an inch too short. THIS DIDN'T WORK WELL.
What I did this time was cut about an inch off the tube that comes out of the chassis that the cable goes into. Yes, this did work. The first pict is before the cut. The second is after the cut.
Baby Got New(er) Shoes!
OK, not really new but new to the Bradley. Yes, I bought some used tires. Why? The tires that came with the Bradley were cracked on the tread. Really, I mean cracked. I've never seen cracked tires except at a junkyard. I needed tires that weren't so wide, P235 60R16, the old ones were actually tearing into the fiberglass in the front when I made a sharp turn. At $35 bucks each, I'm a happy camper. The new size is P215 60R 16. I did a quick test drive and they seem to be working just fine.
Some will say the 3 inch lift I installed makes the car look like a "monster truck." I think that's absurd. This car wasn't meant to have large tires.
Electric cars aren't usually driven year round, unless you live somewhere warm in the winter, like Arizona. These have enough tread to last a year or two. Ideally, you should buy low resistance tires and over-inflate them. On a fiberglass car, that translates into NOISE!!! And that's with the Rammat that I installed way back when.
Some will say the 3 inch lift I installed makes the car look like a "monster truck." I think that's absurd. This car wasn't meant to have large tires.
Electric cars aren't usually driven year round, unless you live somewhere warm in the winter, like Arizona. These have enough tread to last a year or two. Ideally, you should buy low resistance tires and over-inflate them. On a fiberglass car, that translates into NOISE!!! And that's with the Rammat that I installed way back when.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Brake Solution
Lots of noise coming from the back when I drive and hit bumps. I decided to look at the brakes. The main metal bracket that attaches the caliper to the axle had come loose on both sides. Despite my best efforts to tighten, all I did was strip the bolt heads. Of course these are no ordinary bolts. They're metric and they have a reduced head. I suspect the bolt sleeve was getting in the way, or the washers weren't thick enough. I ended up going to Fastenal and the guy asks me if I could use an allen hex bolt. Same length, no sleeve and the head looks about the same size. Sure...let's give it a go! These bolts with the lock washers worked perfectly!!!
And what a huge difference this has made. Tonight's 6 mile test drive was amazing, I could hear the electric motor purring while I drove.
Now if I could fix the little vibration in the shifter.......
And what a huge difference this has made. Tonight's 6 mile test drive was amazing, I could hear the electric motor purring while I drove.
Now if I could fix the little vibration in the shifter.......
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Adjusting the Charger
My PFC 20 was going to need to be adjusted. Three dead cells means 9.6 volts difference in the maximum charge. (Not to mention almost a full KWh of power source gone) The PFC 20 has a voltage limiter that ensures the batteries don't get toasted. But you have to adjust the setting. There's a download area at manzanitamicro that details this. One thing you must absolutely make certain of: that switches 1 and 4 are turned on!
When I had my overcharge situation, the switches were off and the MINIBMS was not completely hooked up. In the long run, my bad! And now three cells total are dead. At $100 a cell, that's a bad mistake to make. But both are working well together and I'm at the point where my confidence is high.
I did a charge tonight and this worked perfectly: I started charging at 15 amps then it throttled back when the battery pack came close to the set "full" voltage then went into a top balance mode of 1.75 amps while the timer was flashing blue. All the batteries were shunting, perfectly equalized, with the red lights on. Excellent!!
When I had my overcharge situation, the switches were off and the MINIBMS was not completely hooked up. In the long run, my bad! And now three cells total are dead. At $100 a cell, that's a bad mistake to make. But both are working well together and I'm at the point where my confidence is high.
I did a charge tonight and this worked perfectly: I started charging at 15 amps then it throttled back when the battery pack came close to the set "full" voltage then went into a top balance mode of 1.75 amps while the timer was flashing blue. All the batteries were shunting, perfectly equalized, with the red lights on. Excellent!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)