Heater, I

I've been a little lax on the blogging lately - some computer problems on the main family computer slowed me down. All solved now (with a new dual-core processor as well), so, back to blogging.

A couple of weeks ago, I did some major work on the heater. The Jeep's original heater used engine coolant run through a heater core to create the heat. Since the electric motor does not have coolant, a different solution was needed.

As mentioned previously, I obtained two 400V, 1000W ceramic heaters from MorElectric. I also got some high-heat wire, a ceramic terminal block, and ceramic insulation (think fiberglass, but ceramic instead of glass). After extracting the heater core (which was non-trivial - most of the dash needed to be removed) I built a metal box to hold the two heaters, trying to keep it close to the size of the original heater core:



Next, I installed the ceramic insulation. I was careful to wear gloves, eye protection, and a dust mask while doing this - I don't relish the thought of ceramic silicosis...


Nearly done - I installed the ceramic terminal block, hooked up the wires from the heater cores and the new high-temperature 10-gauge wires:


And here it is next to the original heater core:


I test-fit it into the heater box. Not finally installed yet - I'll take some pix and blog it later:


People might notice that I did the heater substantially earlier than I did on the Volt914. The reason is that I need to have the front rack out to access the mounting bolts for the blower box. Much easier before everything is put in place.