Getting The Right Fit

This past weekend I spent time looking at different ways to get the right fit for the batteries inside the battery box as well as find an easy and safe way to fasten them down. I originally planned to insert the cells in packs of four and a while back had cut out an opening for a small door/flap to facilitate battery installation. When the batteries were shipped to me last month, they were packed in packs of five which meant that I would have to shorten the straps and reattach the ends/jigs but then I realized that I would be short two sets of ends/jigs. That's when I contacted some of my fellow EV converters and some unused spare jigs were found and soon after en route to me. When starting to place things into the box and laying out all the hardware, I decided to scrap the packs of four cells approach since I blocked off the doorway to incorporate a solid fastening system. I was feeling a bit disorganized at this point as I found myself changing plans several times while trying different setups and thinking things over.

Having all the cells side by side required that I fill in gaps around the pack inside the box so I used a combination of rigid foam insulation and wood strips. I also made my own bus bars out of copper that I found at my local metal recycling yard for connecting across the battery strings. Since each string is eight cells long (even number), two of the four cross string connections required cables. If I had an odd number of cells in each string, four custom copper bus bars would have sufficed.



Now, if the weather would only cooperate so I can continue working on the car. It's been an unusual rainy summer so far with temperatures below seasonal average. We even had a few hail storms over the last few weeks.