Back in the Trunk

Also finished in the past weeks: battery charger installation and battery box lids. It's a good thing I'm almost done because I'm running low on swimming pool plastic!

This turned out nice. I could get another four inches of vertical trunk space if I trim the box down, but I'll see how much call there is for it. It is a four door so storage shouldn't be a problem.

No fancy self-winding electrical cord here. The cord comes out the old gas filler door and it's forty feet of twelve guage, which they advertise as capable of 15 amps. I adjusted the Zivan charger so the first stage of charging puts 11 amps into the battery pack. I don't know how much current is pulled from the wall yet, need to rig something up. The charger puts out from 160-190vdc during the charge cycle, starting with a heavy current (11 amps, 160vdc), then at 80% charge it switches down to 4 amps or so with the voltage steadily climbing until it gets the batteries good and bubbly, then shuts off. There are adjustments for: safety current, end of charge current, max current, and gas voltage. Unfortunately they don't provide any detailed instructions, just a small chart of charge characteristic curves.
Also, along the left edge of the battery box you should be able to make out the hold down bars extending out of the box.

Another item checked off the to-do list is vacuum reserve. This was fabricated with PVC pipe and 'T's into the vacuum line to the brake cylinder. I found that going down longer hills it would start losing the power assist on the brakes: they still worked, but you'd have to work harder (not smarter) for the same braking action. Adding this three foot long cylinder greatly extends the useable vacuum...I haven't had a problem yet.

I expect to get my photos back tomorrow so more *stuff* is on the way. Also a report on how the car inspection goes!

Next: Batts & Brackets