[ElectriCar]

For those who aren't up on this, I ordered 51 Calb SE200Ah cells in December for my S10. Paid up front with a check direct to Calb to get a discounted price. This upgrade should boost my trip capacity to around 100 miles from the current 30. It also saves 719 lbs, almost half the weight of the lead pack.

The batteries arrived yesterday. Today I checked the voltages to see what I had. A sample of 12 cells yielded 9 at 3.265V, a couple at 3.266V and one at 3.264V, all within 2/1000 of a volt. Pretty amazing right there! I think that's close to fully charged for a Calb battery.

Tonight I worked on the layout of the racks and a little on the conversion of power brakes to manual brakes. I'll be able to fit all 50 cells under the bed with room to spare. Battery 51 is a spare. I should have the brakes completed tomorrow. Had to get a part machined for the brake pedal to attach to the push rod. Eliminating the power brakes allowed me to drop 17 lbs and more importantly eliminate that God awful vacuum pump sound!

[rwaudio]

Originally Posted by ElectriCar

For those who aren't up on this, I ordered 51 Calb SE200Ah cells in December for my S10. Paid up front with a check direct to Calb to get a discounted price. This upgrade should boost my trip capacity to around 100 miles from the current 30. It also saves 719 lbs, almost half the weight of the lead pack.

The batteries arrived yesterday. Today I checked the voltages to see what I had. A sample of 12 cells yielded 9 at 3.265V, a couple at 3.266V and one at 3.264V, all within 2/1000 of a volt. Pretty amazing right there! I think that's close to fully charged for a Calb battery.

Tonight I worked on the layout of the racks and a little on the conversion of power brakes to manual brakes. I'll be able to fit all 50 cells under the bed with room to spare. I should have the brakes completed tomorrow. Had to get a part machined for the brake pedal to attach to the push rod. Eliminating the power brakes allowed me to drop 17 lbs and more importantly eliminate that God awful vacuum pump sound!

I don't have experience with Calb, but that voltage on a TS or Headway would mean much less than 100% SOC. Fully charged after the surface charge disipates should be over 3.3V It's not like lead acid, in resting state the difference between 80% and 20% is very very small.

[ElectriCar]

That's how they arrived but I'll figure it out once they're all connected and I can charge them for the first time.

Finished the brake conversion today. Works like a champ so far. The pedal rests in the right place keeping the brake light off, something I was concerned may not happen.

In the photos, you can see the plate that attaches to the firewall on an S10. The plate holds the push rod in place. The yellow thing has a hole in it where the rod goes through to the pedal. To do this conversion you'll need to get those three pieces from a salvage yard or such.

The photo of the pedal shows two studs. The smaller one on the bottom is where the brake switch activator connects and the old master cylinder rod used to connect. The thicker one above it is one I had machined for the manual master cylinder (MS). The hole was already there so I just needed the new stud. I had to coerce it a little to get it in with a brass hammer but it's a nice snug fit. I then welded the back side to retain it.

Also shown is the power brake MS and the manual MS. Note the diameter of the cylinders. The power brake has a larger diameter cylinder but a short stroke. The manual one has a smaller diameter but longer stroke. The smaller diameter makes it easier to push the pedal. Relocating the push rod closer to the pivot point gives you more leverage which also makes it easier to push.

When finished I noticed it really opened that side of the engine compartment up. Lots more room there now with no vacuum apparatus and no brake booster.

Now I have to finish the drawings for the battery boxes and install the Zeva Plus fuel gauge driver. It will operate the factory fuel gauge by counting amp hours installed and used. That will be a welcome change. NO MORE ERRATIC PAK TRAKR!!!!! The old pak trakr modules went into the trash. I wouldn't recommend that system at all. It's a good idea just not engineered properly.

[ElectriCar]

Originally Posted by ElectriCar

That's how they arrived but I'll figure it out once they're all connected and I can charge them for the first time.

Finished the brake conversion today. Works like a champ so far. The pedal rests in the right place keeping the brake light off, something I was concerned may not happen.

In the photos, you can see the plate that attaches to the firewall on an S10. The plate holds the push rod in place. The yellow thing has a hole in it where the rod goes through to the pedal. To do this conversion you'll need to get those three pieces from a salvage yard or such.

The photo of the pedal shows two studs. The smaller one on the bottom is where the brake switch activator connects and the old master cylinder rod used to connect. The thicker one above it is one I had machined for the manual master cylinder (MS). The hole was already there so I just needed the new stud. I had to coerce it a little to get it in with a brass hammer but it's a nice snug fit. I then welded the back side to retain it.

Also shown is the power brake MS and the manual MS. Note the diameter of the cylinders. The power brake has a larger diameter cylinder but a short stroke. The manual one has a smaller diameter but longer stroke. The smaller diameter makes it easier to push the pedal. Relocating the push rod closer to the pivot point gives you more leverage which also makes it easier to push.

When finished I noticed it really opened that side of the engine compartment up. Lots more room there now with no vacuum apparatus and no brake booster.

Now I have to finish the drawings for the battery boxes and install the Zeva Plus fuel gauge driver. It will operate the factory fuel gauge by counting amp hours installed and used. That will be a welcome change. NO MORE ERRATIC PAK TRAKR!!!!! The old pak trakr modules went into the trash. I wouldn't recommend that system at all. It's a good idea just not engineered properly.

Finally the conversion is completed. After swapping master cylinders about 3 times, bench bleeding, reinstalling and trying to bleed the brakes again for the 37th time I found the push rod was too long by 3/16" or so, even using the factory master cylinder and push rod assy.

Evidently the pedal location was a little too close to the firewall compared to the '85 the hardware came off of. This prevented the piston on the MC from retracting all the way so once the bench bleeding fluid was pushed out, the rear cylinder became empty. Finally the combination valve popped and the brake light came on. Couldn't get it to reset until the real problem was found. This left me with front brakes only until I found the problem. I solved it by placing some 3/8 washers between the firewall and the MC.

Anyway a power brake to manual conversion is a huge hit on convenience! Seriously it takes a lot more pedal pressure to stop even with 4w disc. BUT, it's a hell of a lot better than that damn pump coming on every other stop brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. God that was irritating! I can live with the pedal pressure. My right thigh muscle may become grossly larger than the left though by the time I wear out those Calb batteries...

[ElectriCar]

Oh yea I forgot, drove it around today about 4 miles after finally bleeding the brakes. Still have some finishing up to do but it's drivable now.

[JRP3]

Sounds as if you didn't locate and isolate the pump properly. Mine in the back corner of the trunk sitting on foam can't be heard when driving and can barely be heard when stopped. If you ran yours to the back corner of the vehicle under the bed soft mounted in a box or something it probably would have been fine.

[DIYguy]

Originally Posted by ElectriCar

For those who aren't up on this, I ordered 51 Calb SE200Ah cells in December for my S10. Paid up front with a check direct to Calb to get a discounted price. This upgrade should boost my trip capacity to around 100 miles from the current 30. It also saves 719 lbs, almost half the weight of the lead pack.

The batteries arrived yesterday. Today I checked the voltages to see what I had. A sample of 12 cells yielded 9 at 3.265V, a couple at 3.266V and one at 3.264V, all within 2/1000 of a volt. Pretty amazing right there! I think that's close to fully charged for a Calb battery.

Tonight I worked on the layout of the racks and a little on the conversion of power brakes to manual brakes. I'll be able to fit all 50 cells under the bed with room to spare. I should have the brakes completed tomorrow. Had to get a part machined for the brake pedal to attach to the push rod. Eliminating the power brakes allowed me to drop 17 lbs and more importantly eliminate that God awful vacuum pump sound!

Glad to see ur off and running with your new batteries! I checked a bunch of mine with a DVM. So far, they are all 3.299 or 3.298. I'll resurrect my thread soon. Sounds like we have similar upgrades going on to similar vehicles....

[ElectriCar]

Originally Posted by DIYguy

Glad to see ur off and running with your new batteries! I checked a bunch of mine with a DVM. So far, they are all 3.299 or 3.298. I'll resurrect my thread soon. Sounds like we have similar upgrades going on to similar vehicles....

Our meters likely are a little off from each other. Mine is fairly new but never been officially calibrated. Don't need that anymore for what I do.

This afternoon I finished the dimensions of my boxes. I'm planning for 1/2" polyisocyanurate insulation with the foil on one side. It's pretty rigid and is R4, better than the pink foam insulation at home stores.

Here's a photo of my 200Ah cell. These things were a little larger than I expected.

[ElectriCar]

Got a new game plan for the pack install thanks to a friend. He restores old cars and is restoring a '40 Ford pickup to convert. So his idea is to build ONE big rack between the cab and the rear end to hold all 50 cells. Beats the heck out of building 3!

It's a radically different approach to the norm but I like it. It's going to eliminate more heavy cables between racks AND the hinged bed. No more lifting that thing up! His plan was to build the rack high enough to clear the drive shaft and rear end travel. This way it will take up the entire area between the frame rails from just behind the cab to right near the diff. Naturally it will protrude through the bed a few inches but he's going to build a box around the area with an air gap between the battery box top and new bed extension.

I'll have to give up some bed space and hauling ability but the idea is errands, not hauling big stuff. Besides with the loss of weight I can connect a trailer if needed. Speaking of dropping weight, including 17 lbs of power brake apparatus, copper wiring and 170lbs of battery boxes and support bracing, the total weight removed is now about 255 lbs!

The new battery box I'm guessing will weigh no more than 45 lbs including the top. The new 4/0 aluminum pack cables, about 12' each to the engine compartment will only weigh 4.7 lbs. That gives me a net weight loss estimated at 205 lbs plus 719 battery lbs for a total of 924 lbs as of today. Old weight 4147, new weight 3223, a 22.3% drop! That should save me about 90-100 watts/mile I'm hoping after allowing for wind losses.

I'm planning on replacing the leaf springs with composite springs for another huge weight loss. On average a 70% weight savings they say. However my springs for the lead batteries are 5 leafs versus the factory 2 so I expect to save a big chunk there.

[ElectriCar]

Yea I just read the manual that came with them. Said they are shipped at 60% SOC. Lots of neat stuff in there like start the cooling fan once the batteries reach 40C (104F), go to limp mode at 50C (122F) and shut down the motor at 55C (131F). Also said to charge to 3.6V but never exceed 3.9V. Lots of conflicting data in the manual versus what I've read on this site. I tried to post the PDF manual but it's like 5MB which is too big for this site.

I have a cycle analyst to install, HVC relay already installed, a Zeva plus fuel gauge driver to drive the factory fuel gauge which I'll likely install tomorrow. I'm getting a ventilated battery box built and hope to have it on hand by early next week. Going to install probably 3 120mm PC type ball bearing fans to draw air out if it overheats operated at 12V. Also a heated mat of some sort underneath to keep them warm in winter.