#2 is out, service disconnect is in

I was not looking forward to pulling out the number two battery. It has been not holding a charge and keeping the pack from getting fully charged, so it's got to go.

I had to remove the Zivan (you can see it upside down in the upper left of the pic.), a bunch of high voltage cables, the high voltage box and it's wiring and the bracket that hold all this in place.

Once all of that was out of the way, the battery was pretty easy to pull out and set aside.


Once the battery was out I started on my next project - installing the service disconnect. The idea is be able to disconnect the battery pack from the driver seat to make it easy to service the car or in case of an accident. Some people call these "emergency disconnect" switches, but I like the "service disconnect" name - why not put a positive spin on it?

There are three ways to do this
1. run high voltage wires under the dash to a breaker or switch.
2. put a low voltage switch on the dash to open a contactor
3. install a mechanical cable that activates a breaker under the hood.

Though I had originally planned on using option 1 and placing the breaker under the dash, I realized the high voltage cables really don't belong under there. I went with the 3rd option as it was the simplest, least expensive and safest (compared to #1).

I bought a choke cable at Kragen for around $5. I mounted the "pull" side on the tunnel near the bottom of the dash. This position provided the most room for my big feet...

I needed to mount the cable below the breaker. I ended up bolting an angle iron to one of the top rack's mounts. The cable itself was looped through a hole in the breaker's lever. The cable then looped together where a cable clamp to hold it in place.

It works good. It doesn't take much of a pull to pop the breaker, and just a little push to reconnect the pack. The breaker is spring loaded and does most of the work.