Freelander 1 Freelander EV

Nodge68 said:

Another excellent video Ali. It made my lunchtime fly by.

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Thanks mate.
It takes a lot of time and effort to edit out my most boring bits.

Alibro said:

Thanks mate.
It takes a lot of time and effort to edit out my most boring bits.

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I enjoy the boring bits.

New vid.

I'll watch later Ali.
I must admit that I've been watching Aging Wheels EV conversion too. He's so funny, it's an excellent watch, even if the content isn't particularly relevant to me.

Nodge68 said:

I'll watch later Ali.
I must admit that I've been watching Aging Wheels EV conversion too. He's so funny, it's an excellent watch, even if the content isn't particularly relevant to me.

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He's one of my favourite channels, I don't even skip his ads as they are entertaining too.
I must admit I laughed out loud at the presume joke and had to watch it again to confirm what I heard.
I wouldn't ever attempt to be as funny as him.
SuperfastMatt is another I always look forward to.

Alibro said:

He's one of my favourite channels, I don't even skip his ads as they are entertaining too.
I must admit I laughed out loud at the presume joke and had to watch it again to confirm what I heard.
I wouldn't ever attempt to be as funny as him.

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Funny I replayed the presume joke too, it was hilarious and very clever. I'd love to be as funny as him, he's very entertaining, and has a proper EV too.
I also watch his friend from Technology Connections, another excellent channel.

I've had a kinda frustrating week but have achieved a few things.
I decided to try and finish the installation of the fish tank and fuel tank battery boxes plus the boot box before getting into the changes necessary under the bonnet.
As you know the fish tank modules are now in place and I've made all the connections to them so shouldn't need to go back there again.
When I built the fuel tank box over a year ago I made brackets to secure the modules so of course on Tuesday I could only find half of them. So I spent most of Tuesday evening remaking the brackets and trial fitting the modules before putting a lick of paint on the brackets.
last night I went looking for the BMS cables and of course the first thing I found was the missing brackets.
So kinda peeved at wasting a night I went ahead and made BMS connections for the fuel tank battery box using microphone multicore cable for 8 mics (16 core cable) so I used a single core for each module. This meant I could use a single multicore for all the modules in the box but doing it this way did not sit well with me.
I had hoped that tonight I would be installing the fuel tank box but decided instead to remake the cables I had made last night.

When I made the BMS connections for the fishtank modules I had used the same multicore but used two cores for each cell as there were only 8 cells to cater for. The nice thing about doing it this way was each core is insulated then they are shielded and insulated as a pair. Also using two cores gives double the current capacity for balancing so this was always the right thing to do.
So I spent most of tonight undoing last nights work and redoing it with two lengths of multicore but hopefully this will give a much better result.
The cable I'm using has been kicking about the house for quite a few years from previous projects so it didn't cost anything however I have 96 cells to make connections for so this will be a big job.

This is after several hours tonight.



It doesn't look like much but I had made the connections at the other end already plus another cable so this is less than a quarter of what I had to do.
The bunch of wires is the temporary loom I made for testing the BMS in my office.
I'm hoping to fit the BMS at the back left, if possible behind the plastic boot lining. If there is not enough space I don't mind hacking at the liner as it should be easy enough to box it in somehow.
Hopefully tomorrow and over the weekend I'll get this buttoned up and move onto the front of the car.

I made good progress today on the fuel tank box.
I originally planned to connect the power cables to the centre connections and had made links for the two ends but quickly realised there wasn't enough room so went with this configuration.


There is a link at the far left (original VW), there are two very short connections across the middle (made from VW copper busbar) and the power connections to the other battery box are on the right, (also VW as they fit so well). I had to use a M6 bolt to connect the VW busbars to the feed wires.


I first used heatshrink on them then 35mm PVC water pipe flattened to fit, I also used some bicycle inner tube to add a bit more insulation so there would be no possibility of shorting to the battery case or battery box. Probably overkill but......


The orange leads in the top photo are the BMS connections wrapped in some orange tape.
However before I could even think about connecting the BMS leads I had to make all the connections at the other end. Otherwise the leads would have been live and the chances of a nasty accident very high.
Once I had them all connected I metered the connector at the other end and I think all is OK. I'll not know for sure until the whole battery is connected but it seems to be OK.

So once all connections made tightened and tested I put a bead of tiger seal around the upper edge of the box and fitted the lid, then smeared more Tiger seal into the edge around the lid and weighed it down.


Of course it was only after doing all this I remembered I hadn't fitted any temperature sensors.
Too bad, they will be dropped in the hole in the lid and I'll either squirt in a load of sealant to hold them in place or hot glue. Either way the lid is on and staying that way.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get time to clear up the mess I left today and get the box bolted into position so next week I can move to the front of the car and start modifying the battery mounts that originally required holes drilled in the chassis legs.

IT'S IN!!!



So after a lot of huffing and puffing I got the box onto the trolley jack, raised into position and bolted in, then bolted on the rear prop shaft to double check clearance. Thankfully it has plenty of room. No I wasn't certain.
So the next step will be to make the required adjustments to the battery box frame under the bonnet and maybe some other changes but nothing major as I just want to get the thing on the road.

I like that Ali. A quick question if I may. Was there not enough room to add lowered sections on each side of the propshaft, so two additional batteries could be put below the outer batteries?

Nodge68 said:

I like that Ali. A quick question if I may. Was there not enough room to add lowered sections on each side of the propshaft, so two additional batteries could be put below the outer batteries?

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TBH it never occurred to me but I wouldn't want to have a battery box hanging down so low. It's surprising how much space is required above each module. I could have put two smaller cells in the fuel tank box in it's original shape but I didn't need the hassle of having to remove the sub frame to install it.

So to put off starting a new job under the bonnet I did a bit more work on the cables coming out of the fuel tank battery box.
I fed them through orange conduit for EV safety and after a bit more bashing with a hammer to create a bit of clearance I stuck the BMS wires down with Tiger seal.



Then cut a hole in the side of the battery box and carpet.



So now I have the rear battery boxes mostly finished I stopped procrastinating and it was time to switch to the front.
The big issue I have with the installation in the test mule is I had drilled holes in the chassis rails which apparently is a big no no, so after finding factory holes hidden by square painted stickers I made the required adjustments to the battery box frame and painted it.




Then adjusted and painted the two brackets I was previously using to hold the captive nuts inside the chassis rails



These brackets can be inserted into the chassis rails from the front so I don't need to weld anything. The captive nuts are positioned to line up with the factory holes in the chassis rails.



Then cut a bit off the back frame that was fouling the new bracket extensions and drilled it to match one of the holes. It just happened the frame I built last year was covering a hole I didn't even realise was there.



After this I welded on a bit to square it up but didn't get any shots of it.
Then yesterday I seam sealed all the frames and covers before painting.



Unfortunately tomorrow I have to go to a mates house to watch some stupid footie match with two crappy teams I don't care about so won't get much done but I hope to try and tidy up the brake boost vac pump and vac chamber at some stage.
I want to get as many wee things buttoned up as possible before installing the frames and batteries.

I managed to get a few hours done this morning and a bit this afternoon before heading over to the mates house for the big match. Yawn!
Anyway as the metalwork is all painted and more or less ready to go in I wanted to install the plumbing for the brake boost vac pump and sensor.

This may look like a dogs dinner of different size pipework cobbled together but really it's precision engineering in disguise.



Here we have a VAG vacuum pump, VAG vac sensor (but with different size pipework) and LR one way valve and vac chamber with some after market silicone hose thrown in for good measure so making it pretty is not an option.
I need to make up a bracket to support the lower right side as the whole thing is currently hanging from the upper clip. I'll do something with the aircon valve on the right to make up a support.
I realised this morning I can fit a M8 rivnut in the bottom holes of the metal plate the pump bracketry is welded to, so this is ideal for holding the vac chamber. I may be able to do something similar for the little controller board but need to make a box for it first.

This was made late last year but somehow didn't get posted.

I haven't posted much recently because not a lot has changed but in between work and family stuff I'm still doing bits in the background.
There were a couple of things I wanted to sort before I can move the motor, drive train and remaining batteries into the good car. Sorting the power brakes was one and mounting the heater was the other and I although I haven't completed either I've got far enough with them to be able to move on.

I know I mentioned the FBH before but I'm keeping that as a last resort so started looking for a location for the Nissan HV heater and found a nice spot above the motor and below the frame.



I cut up the original mount for this heater and welded it to a piece of angle iron with some scrap steel for support then used two motor mount bolts to secure it.



And after painting.



Of course like an idiot I've managed to lose the comms connector for the heater and it looks like it was unique in the Leaf so I had to improvise



I cut up another similar but smaller connector, removed the pins and hot glued them into the socket so they are really solid.
I'm hoping this will work but as I haven't been able to test it I won't be sure for a while.

The brake boost is still a work in progress but I will be able to reach it after the engine bay is built up so I'm pushing on. This is the frame I have the vac pump and reservoir screwed to. I had it bolted to the fire wall but it is a bit loud there and I feel vibration from the pump in the steering wheel so I'm going to follow Nodge's advise and bolt it to the motor. Not sure where yet but I'll figure it out. I wasted a fair bit of time with a pump controller I bought from another EV'er which had a design fault. Even after sorting the issue it wasn't great so after contacting another EV'er I'm going with an Arduino controlled setup. I've tested it and am happy it works well and can be easily adjusted to match my brake servo and sensor.



And last night I got the motor and transmission out of the test mule and into the garage with only minor leakage.



So the next job is to mount this in the good car.

Reference the heater. You can plumb the original FBH and the electric heater in the same loop Ali. This will give you the option to use either with little messing about. Heating either unit when off will cause minimal energy loss of the other. I suspect you'll be better off running the FBH as a primary heater energy source, especially if you use kero for the FBH, compared to running using mains electricity to charge the battery. It also won't reduce range, which is the main downside of an EV in winter. If you're exclusively using solar to charge, then obviously the electric heater is going to be cheaper and greener, but the trade off is range reduction.

Nodge68 said:

Reference the heater. You can plumb the original FBH and the electric heater in the same loop Ali. This will give you the option to use either with little messing about. Heating either unit when off will cause minimal energy loss of the other. I suspect you'll be better off running the FBH as a primary heater energy source, especially if you use kero for the FBH, compared to running using mains electricity to charge the battery. It also won't reduce range, which is the main downside of an EV in winter. If you're exclusively using solar to charge, then obviously the electric heater is going to be cheaper and greener, but the trade off is range reduction.

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I will probably plumb the FBH back to an area where I can connect it later if the electric heater becomes an issue. I don't want to use it initially as it is noisy, smelly and kinda goes against the plan for this car. If I plumb it in now the extra pipework and the FBH heat exchanger would cause some degree of losses.

So after Waaaaaay to much time procrastinating and fannying around I am finally making progress on the plumbing.
I have the HV heater mounted and plumbed, the brake boost mounted and plumbed and have made progress on the coolant pipework. I have to be honest and say I hate plumbing, always have and always will so it's no surprise I'm making a meal of the plumbing in the car.


I have the HV heater and brake boost pump mounted on the drive motor so hopefully that will help reduce any vibrations from them. For now I have the heater circuit on the HV heater only but have not ruled out using the diesel burning heater if needed in the winter. The pipes are there so it would be fairly easy to plumb it in. You can just see the heater in the photo above with an orange HV cable going to it. The header tank for it is mounted to the bulkhead. It's not easy to see the pumps but I have one for the heater and one for the coolant.
I've used the Freelander header tank going down to a T piece as shown below. The pump is kinda hidden behind the ridiculous frame but it goes from the T piece to the pump, then to a second T piece where it splits with one section going to the IRD and the second going to the motor, charger and inverter. I'm now in the position where I'm bolting stuff in with the intention of making it permanent which feels odd as everything up to now has been so temporary.



I have the motor plumbed in so now I have to check everything is in place and secure before installing the charger, inverter and batteries.

So here is a question for those of you who know a little about plumbing.
I have deliberately used a T piece with the flow for the motor, inverter etc going straight through and the flow for the IRD doing a 90% turn as I want most of the coolant to go through the motor. Is that how it works?
Also I need to rejoin the two at some point and I have a Y piece to do that so do I rejoin immediatly after the IRD or closer to the pump? Will it make any difference? I was going to connect both sides to the top of the Y so they would get equal flow at that point.
Does any of this make sense? Like I said I have always hated plumbing and almost always have a leak somewhere.

Flow will always favour a straight route over an elbow. So if you have the IRD cooler line coming off the main coolant line at 90°, then a majority of the coolant will flow straight past that joint. You could slightly restrict the straight line after the T, then you can divert more flow through the IRD if needed. It might take a bit of messing about to balance the flow initially.
Once the coolant has passed through the IRD and the motor/inverter/ DC-DC converter, then a Y piece will all both fluid streams to amalgamate evenly.

It's best to pump the coolant through the system, rather than suck it through on the return side.