The wire attached to my Bare Bonz fuse panel was too short to reach my battery way in the back of the Ghia, so they sent me some more cable and a nice power junction box.
Sadly, there’s no good place to put the junction box along the route. There’s an OK place (under the driver’s side back seat) but I couldn’t find any good mounting points.
So I bought another junction box and will put one in the back and one in the front, just exactly the right distance apart for a single run of cable. This will be handy later, as the junction boxes have screw terminals for the attachment of power wires for high-current add-ons like power windows or air conditioners or 120vac inverters. There’s one junction near the rear electronics and one near the front electronics.
Tonight I installed the rear junction box, along with a 60amp fuse holder (no fusible links in THIS vehicle) and also a ground terminal strip. I’m running a separate ground system, and I’m going to replicate the +12v run with a terminal strip at each end.
Why a separate ground? I don’t want to have to troubleshoot any wacky grounding problems. Besides, electronics projects don’t use the project box for distributing power, and this is just a great big electronics project.
Well, one more.
I’m about done with my internship at Spaceport America (I built them some fancy Excel spreadsheets) and there’s about a month between now and the start of school. Let’s see how far I can get on the electric car in one month.
The remaining excuse is that I’m still missing the Zilla motor controller. Kind of like missing your carburetor on a regular car — it’s the component that controls the flow of energy to the motor.
I’ve begun rebuilding the 12V wiring in the car, which was such a mess that I pulled most of it out. I bought a new harness and fuse panel kit called the Bare Bonz from Ron Francis Wiring. I like it a lot. So far the fuse panel is mounted. I have all the parts needed to extend heavy-gauge wire from the rear (where the battery is located) and the front (where the fuse panel lives). I’m also going to put in a separate grounding system. This car will be complicated enough without having to troubleshoot wacky ground problems. I’m going to wire it like an electronics project — which, in fact, it is.
I’ve been ordering lots of goodies from Ryan at EV Source. I’ve got contactors (giant relays), tools of all descriptions, a small radiator to keep the controller cool, a PakTrakr battery monitoring system, etc. I still need to acquire a DC/DC converter, which will take the place of a gas car’s alternator and keep the 12V battery charged.
I’m kicking around ideas for the electronics box in the rear of the car. It will be a water resistant enclosure for the expensive electronics in engine compartment. Being a VW, the comparment is open to the rain from above and road splash from below. I want a see-through panel on the front so I can show off the bits that make it go.
So anyway I wanted to tell all my readers what I’m up to, so I have some accountability 
Wish me luck and egg me on!
Recent Comments