Sunday, October 26, 2008

Wiring, wiring and some charging questions...


I started out today by returning the crimper and vacuum tester, then a quick trip to Lowes for some electrical parts for adding a 220 outlet. I was originally thinking of going with a 30 amp 110 outlet for the Zivan, but the distributor recommended 220vac for the input saying it would make the Optimas last longer.
When you can choose both the outlet and the inlet (the part on the car) you have a ton of options. I decided to go with the L6-20 because it's locking (no cables falling out by mistake) it's reasonably priced and I could get a pre-made 15' cord for $25. BTW, there is a proposed standard inlet/cable combo that I did consider - but it's way expensive. I figure if it does become a standard, I'll make a cable up.
Putting it all together was straight forward. Plugged the car in, and the Zivan beeped a couple times, it's fans spun up and charging commenced. A few of the BEQ1s had their yellow LEDs lit, which made sense because the pack shouldn't need much of a charge. Then after a bit one lit it's red over temp LED. This BEQ was hot and the manual says to shut the charger down when this happens. I did a little trouble shooting and determined that this battery was the replacement for the one I toasted. It shows 13.3 volts where the rest of the pack is showing 11.9 to 12.4 volts.
So, until I figure out a remedy, there will be no charging.

Next I cleaned up the under hood wiring. I put in a split loom over the wiring to make my wiring look more stock. A word of advice - put the loom in first, then run the wires. Do not put the wires in then try to squeeze the loom over them - like I did. It was a long frustrating experience, but I finally got it in place and it looks good.

I had a little more time, so I relocated the horn. The old location would hit the nose rack, so I drilled a hole inside of the bumper in the gap between the sides of the nose rack. Fits real nice and the stock wiring even reaches.

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