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Stupid Noob question...Why do you have to disassemble a Leaf/Volt battery pack?

2025 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Ampster, 
H
Hello everyone.

I have been watching some video on disassembling Leaf battery packs. It looks like a bit of work but not too bad. I was wondering though if there is any reason, other than being able to configure the batteries differently, that disassembly is required? The larger Leaf pack looks like a nice contained unit at approx. 32" long and maybe 12"-15" wide. With nice busbars and cladding to keep everything safe. The smaller packs look to be a similar width. They look to have nice connectors to carry current from pack section to pack section also. The pack looks to have a nice main connector that I'm sure could be re-purposed.

Can't the pack sections just be removed from the larger housing and be mounted into a DIY EV? Or if you were doing a small pick-up (not my plan) just mount the pack as a whole into the bed?

I know they have an BMS system but I'm sure it is proprietary in some way and not really usable for a DIY'er.

Can anyone give me some insight?

Thanks.
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WolfTronix
I am reusing everything, bus bars, BMS wiring, BMS, contactors, temp sensors, heaters, etc...

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/leaf-module-based-150v-65ah-battery-181490.html

Not sure why others don't, but most likely space constraints.
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P
If you are going to use it as a 360 volt 60 amp hour set up then I guess not. The big module is about 200 lbs. so trying to move that around as a single unit would be tough, but not impossible. I used an engine hoist to take it out before disassembly. There are good supports on this that keep it tight as a single unit. You certainly will need to disconnect the different sections at least into 2-12 module units and 1-24 module.

I think the other smaller sections would be tougher to handle as units. Once you remove the bolts that hold them in place I think that the only thing keeping them together are the bus bars bolted to the terminals. I would be afraid the the terminals could get damaged if you didn't keep it all tight together while moving it around. Once you lift them up a bit you could put the connecting bolts back through and and nut on the other side to hold it all together. I would probably still disconnect the 4 stack from the 8 stack since there is just a bus bar connecting those together.

I am re-configuring, but I may use some of the support and plastic bus bar covers even with a different configuration.

I don't think the BMS will be usable, but the wiring should be. You could probably just splice something else into the existing wires.
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WolfTronix said:
I am reusing everything, bus bars, BMS wiring, BMS, contactors, temp sensors, heaters, etc...

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/leaf-module-based-150v-65ah-battery-181490.html

Not sure why others don't, but most likely space constraints.
Click to expand...
Hey Wolf, are those bus bars sufficient for the higher amps you will probably run with the new configurations? I got 1/4 inch copper because I am going with somewhere between 120 and 144 volts and will need higher amps than the 360 volt system would have used. I am going to use the old bus bars for the parallel connections (going with 3p) where there should be little current flow.
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WolfTronix
PAK65 said:
Hey Wolf, are those bus bars sufficient for the higher amps you will probably run with the new configurations? I got 1/4 inch copper because I am going with somewhere between 120 and 144 volts and will need higher amps than the 360 volt system would have used. I am going to use the old bus bars for the parallel connections (going with 3p) where there should be little current flow.
Click to expand...
Should be more than enough... The fuse in the Leaf is 225A, but it can handle much more for shorter periods of time...

I will have 4 stacks in parallel, so even with 225A limit, that would be 900A total.

Each AMC320 motor controller can draw a max of 280A, and I have two, so max current is 560A + 40A-ish for the heater, power steering, air con (yes, you need to run both the AC and heater for defogging), DC-DC converter, etc...

So I would say max 600A for about 10 seconds or so it takes to get to 75MPH (should be less time, due to lighter lithium, vs. lead).

Thus, only two stacks as pictured in parallel (using the Leaf bus bars) would be enough, even with worse case. ;)
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H
In my mind I was seeing something like this. The larger battery pack looked to be about 32" x 15" and the two smaller ones combined would be roughly the same I think. Laid out like this could you use the green area for the main disconnect and the main wiring adapter? It would be roughly 32" x 36" at most. Just really heavy at 600+ lbs.

Turned sideways it looks like it would fit nicely in a small pick-up truck. Or depending on your engine bay layout the larger one could go in the trunk and the two smaller ones under the hood leaving the green area for the motor?

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Looks doable.

I think it is actually only about 400 lbs. Each battery module is 8.4 lbs and there are 48 of them. The rest of that weight is the metal case that the batteries are in. Even with bus bars and wiring you are probably at about 450 lbs. at most.
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Duncan
4
Hi Guys
I couldn't fit all of a Volt pack in my Device
The complete unit is 7 x 2Kwhr modules and 2 x 1Kwhr modules
I fitted 6 x 2Kwhr modules and 2 x 1Kwhr modules

I drilled out the spot welds holding the clamp arrangement to the T shaped floor bit and welded them to two 20 x 20 tubes

It made a nice compact rectangular pack that just fitted

The final picture is of the pack standing on end so that I could get all of the air out of the cooling system

I'm using the standard fuse/disconnect and the bus bars that came with it - my controller is set to 1200amps - I haven't blown anything yet

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Hate to say this but a volt battery on a dolly looks very intriguing.
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A
The reason I had to disassemble the Leaf pack was to run my home inverter which has a max voltage of 65 volts


Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
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