Tesla Powered 33 Hot Rod

[Mastertech5]

Can you imagine working for a battery manufacturer and doing that every day? Looking good Brad!

[BradC]

Can you imagine working for a battery manufacturer and doing that every day? Looking good Brad!

No, I couldn't imagine doing something that tedious all the time. I actually went to the Tesla factory in Fremont once for work a few years ago. They were integrating one of our products on their production line equipment and needed engineering help with it. I got the non-public tour of the line which was pretty cool. Their battery pack assembly line looks nothing like the one in my garage! They have it just a bit more refined than I do.

[BradC]

Who do you think would sue me first?? Haha...

FFR Tesla Logo.JPG

(Dave, Elon - I'm just messing around...)

[Mastertech5]

That's awsome!

[BradC]

I finally have the front box BMS wiring done. Whew. The bus bars should be here tomorrow. I need to machine some plastic protectors for all of them but I should have the front box all buttoned up ready to drop in shortly.

The cluster of wires down low look like a mess but I'll clean them up once that lower bus bar is in place.

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Side panels on just to make sure everything lines up after being all apart.

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[cc2Arider]

Wow! Very sanitary looking...like something that would come out of a "clean room" ...

Craig C

[Mastertech5]

I know it fits in the "engine bay" but it looks rather large sitting there, like it wouldn't fit. Great job!

[BradC]

Wow! Very sanitary looking...like something that would come out of a "clean room" ...

Craig C

Thanks - the occasional profanity cloud floating in the air keeps it from being "clean room" clean though. Ha..

[BradC]

I know it fits in the "engine bay" but it looks rather large sitting there, like it wouldn't fit. Great job!

Funny - I was thinking the same thing looking at it on the ground. And this is the smaller version. I originally had all 26 packs up front.

[BradC]

Got the bus bars today and was able to make the ABS covers for them. These will help prevent accidental shorting if I'm working on the box in the car. Or any time the side panels are off.

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[BradC]

All bus bars on for the front pack!! All the sparks are still in the batteries and no smell of singed flesh lingering in the garage. I'll call that a success. The voltages of all the BMS leads register correctly and total box voltage measures about 225V as expected.

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The other underbody pack is all assembled and wired too. The front box has to go in first but Im really close to getting them all in and ready to power up the BMS controller. It connects to a PC and will store the cell voltage limits, temperature limits, control cell balancing, and communicate with the motor controller and charger.

Got my last backordered part from FFR yesterday too - a cable for the electric power steering. All I'm missing from stuff I've already ordered now is the cable from the wall AC source plug to the chager. It was missing, and EV West has been trying to get a replacement from Elcon forever now. Not looking good so far. It's not a huge deal for now but I won't be able to charge the packs until I have it.

[BradC]

The plan for installing the heavy front pack is to use my lift. I'll hoise it up and roll the car under it. I bought two of these engine support bars that will straddle the lift rails - one for the front of the box and one for the rear. I'll be able to fine tune the tilt too. I was going to make some cross bars but by the time I bought steel, chain, hardware, and spent the time welding it together it was cheaper to just buy two of these. They are only $70 on Amazon. Easier and faster wins out!

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[33fromSD]

4-Post lifts are so versatile for things like this. Your plan is a good one. I used my 4 post lift to set my assembled box on my 55 F100 pickup I'm building, worked great!! I've used it many times to lift other things too.

Jim

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[BradC]

Yep! Same idea. The lift was one of the better purchases I've made. I was half way done with my 68 Camaro when I finally decided to get one. Should have had it before I even started the thing.

I like that color. Gonna be a nice one.

[FFRWRX]

Who do you think would sue me first?? Haha...

FFR Tesla Logo.JPG

(Dave, Elon - I'm just messing around...)

I make custom car badges. Want me to make you one?

Rick

[BradC]

I can make them too, but thank you for the offer! I may end up doing that somewhere on the car. The more I look at it the more I like it.

[BradC]

All battery boxes are in and hooked up, and I'm getting the expected 325V at the end leads. The lift bars worked out perfect for the front install. The four corner adjustability made it super easy to drop the box in place. I'll work on getting the BMS powered up and connected to a PC today. Hopefully that all works well.

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Decided to set the body back on to check again where I have space to mount things and route lines.

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Heaed off to SEMA this week!! Should be fun. I get the chance to go now and then as a sort of honorary employee of a friend who owns a shop.

[BradC]

I got the BMS powered up and reading out to a PC. The cell voltages all show correctly but the temperature sensors show as shorted. I read the manual closer and it hit me that it mentions 'thermistors' for temp sensors - EV West told me to get Type K thermocouples and even sent me the Amazon link. Those are two different animals. Man, if I have to take all the packs back apart to install thermistors that will royally suck. I'll call EV West tomorrow but this isn't looking good. Ugh..

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[Just 1 More]

I'm curious of the weight differential between the battery packs and an engine. ANy idea on the difference?

[BradC]

I'm curious of the weight differential between the battery packs and an engine. ANy idea on the difference?

The front box weighs about 450lb with I would think pretty similar weight distribution to a gas engine - maybe slightly lower CG because I have packs down where there would normally be a somewhat hollow oil pan. The two boxes under the floor are about 100lb each located similar front to back with where a transmission would be, but out wider. The motor in the rear is about 200lb and slightly forward of where the rear diff would be on the IRS setup. Heavier than a rear diff, but then I have no fuel tank up higher. So overall I think it will be maybe ~100-200lb heavier than a normal build but the final cg is probably a little lower. The front to back weight distribution should still be close to stock but I won't know until it's all built up.

This is the underside showing the two lower boxes..

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[cc2Arider]

Bummer Brad about the thermistor mix-up....at least you can say "thermistor" three times fast and it sounds like you're having a good time

Craig C

[33fromSD]

I got the BMS powered up and reading out to a PC. The cell voltages all show correctly but the temperature sensors show as shorted. I read the manual closer and it hit me that it mentions 'thermistors' for temp sensors - EV West told me to get Type K thermocouples and even sent me the Amazon link. Those are two different animals. Man, if I have to take all the packs back apart to install thermistors that will royally suck. I'll call EV West tomorrow but this isn't looking good. Ugh..

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Hi Brad

just curious, why are c80 to c84 not showing any voltage?

Jim

[BradC]

Good catch! It's the way I wired them. The BMS can do 96 cells but I have 91 in my setup. It made more sense wiring wise to have the 5 unused channels in that spot.

[BradC]

Bummer Brad about the thermistor mix-up....at least you can say "thermistor" three times fast and it sounds like you're having a good time

Craig C

Haha - I'll try that while I'm taking it all back apart and see if it helps. The cursing in between might ruin that though.

[33fromSD]

Good catch! It's the way I wired them. The BMS can do 96 cells but I have 91 in my setup. It made more sense wiring wise to have the 5 unused channels in that spot.

Ah, got it, Thanks for explaining.

Jim

[BradC]

Got back from SEMA last night. Was a nice trip. It was a bit different from other years I've gone though. Lots of vendors, new layout with the recent huge addition to the convention center, but seemed like quite a bit fewer cars on display. Still lots of nice builds but not as many as before I think. No Chevy or Ford presence either. Just Toyota and Dodge. There was a new section for EV that was decent. Several cars I recognized from my EV research which was cool to see. The build quality of a few of the ones there wasn't quite up to SEMA standards IMO, but it's good to see the growing presence. The EV winner hands down to me was Dave Kindig's #3 CF1. They had #4 there too and of course it was amazing as well. Can't wait to see if they do an episode on it.

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And another bad arse Kindig build is this Pantera. They did a two part show on it that I had seen last year. Completely amazing - was good to see it in person.

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I spent a lot of time talking with the FFR guys too. My "employer" friend has known Dave Smith for a long time and we had a short talk with him about my build. Talked with two of their engineers too. They had their new F-150 frame swap prototype there and Dave was telling us about how he wants to get in to off road racing with it. It's really impressive and a clever idea for a totally new market. That's gonna be a cool one to watch.

So, back to my build....

Turns out I do need to take all the battery boxes apart and change the temp sensors. Oh well. Getting started on that today. Of course the dryer broke while I was gone (I always seem to get that similar text from my wife when I'm gone - haha) so I spent all day fixing that first.

[cc2Arider]

RE: The Kindig electrification project. They were mentioning as such in the latest TV episodes. I didn't realize the TV production was so delayed from real-time events

Were you able to "talk shop" with the Kindig crew to get some more ideas?

Craig C

[Mastertech5]

RE: The Kindig electrification project. They were mentioning as such in the latest TV episodes. I didn't realize the TV production was so delayed from real-time events

Were you able to "talk shop" with the Kindig crew to get some more ideas?

Craig C

With their projects taking a year or more and the show giving us the whole build in 1 to 3 episodes they would be delayed by alot.

[BradC]

RE: The Kindig electrification project. They were mentioning as such in the latest TV episodes. I didn't realize the TV production was so delayed from real-time events

Were you able to "talk shop" with the Kindig crew to get some more ideas?

Craig C

Yeah - they seem to lag quite a while. I didn't get to talk to them. When the bigger celebrities come out there's always a big line. Most are just there to say a quick hi and get an autograph or picture.

[BradC]

I swapped the temp sensors in one of the lower boxes and now I'm getting the correct value for temperature. Good that it's working but still bad I need to rip it all back apart. Here we go... <sigh>

[Mastertech5]

Hear about it in a couple days! LOL

[BradC]

Ok - the temp sensors are all swapped and reading correctly. Took about 10-12 hours I think - what a chore. At least it gave me the opportunity to route the wiring a little better than the first time inside the boxes and through the firewall to the BMS modules. It's a bit cleaner now.

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I need a break from wiring - I think I'm gonna work on something mechanical and messy - CV axles!

[BradC]

CVs are assembled. That was the break I needed from wiring. I'll put them in the car tomorrow.

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[Mastertech5]

Did you have fun with that grease? I always hated replacing torn bolts on those. The last place I worked just replaced the whole thing. Boots weren't cheap and with the extra labor involved you could get reman axles for about the same $.

[BradC]

It was messy for sure. A roll of shop towels and 10 pairs of gloves probably. I've done replacements before too and always just bought the whole thing - much easier. Not really an option here though.

[BradC]

Axles went in super easy. Looks like I got the lengths right. I was pretty confident they were ok because I based it on the CAD model but it's good to see them fit in anyway.

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[Mastertech5]

Those clips on the ends of the inner joints or on some, the output shaft, give guys trouble sometimes getting them to go in. A little trick for future reference, turn the clip so that the gap is at the bottom so when it sags in the groove you don't have a part of the clip catching on the joint splines. I've seen guys bend the clip trying to force them in.

[BradC]

Good to know. Thanks! Fortunately these Tesla clips are pretty easy.

[BradC]

I've been busy mapping out the full car wiring this week so no noteworthy pictures to post. I have the EV specific plan done enough to start running wires so that will be the task at hand for a while. Gonna try and take most of next week off work to focus on it. I should be able to get it to the point where I can maybe spin the motor relatively soon. I have to get the inverter firmware checked and possibly updated by EV Controls beforehand so we'll see how that goes. I can't pull the current firmware version until everything is wired up though.

I'm going to just sort of fake the 12V portion with temporary switches off the battery to start. Once the EV side is all working I'll focus on the full wiring and getting it tied in with the main FFR harness, DC-DC converter, and the charger. There will be a lot of the stock harness I don't need, so there's a bit of work to be done cleaning it all up.

[Mastertech5]

Happy wiring! That's what I've been sorting out too.