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.

Dash, Part II

I managed to extract the gauge body from the dashboard tonight. Here is the front:

And here is the back - interesting "printed circuit on plastic" technology it has going:


To make room for the depth of the gauges, I had to do some hackery. First, I removed the three clips from the middle (these connected to the fuel gauge). Next, I used a hot knife to remove the surrounds from the former water and oil warning lights:


And here it is - all fitting nicely:


The light at the lower left is the former "fuel low" warning light. I think I'll repurpose it to be the "charge not complete" light. The light at the lower right is the former battery light. It will be repurposed to mean, "ignition key is turned on." There are five empty slots on the light panel to the left. I will use one of them to mean, "the charger is plugged in, so you can't go anywhere" light.

Dash, Part I

This week I also started work on the dashboard. I need to rip just about the whole thing out to remove the old heater core and install the new ceramic heaters. So, I started disassembling it, removing the dash surround:


and the gauge bezel:


I needed to find a place for these three gauges (from left to right - the 12V voltmeter, the 12V ammeter, and the 200-400V voltmeter):


Also, for the ammeter:


Note that this ammeter does not use a typical shunt. Rather, it uses a Hall-effect sensor, which is much safer at the high 312V potential that the Electrojeep has:

The last thing I needed to find a place for on the dash was the fancy combo switch that Azure provided:


I used a hot knife (basically, a blade on a soldering iron) to enlarge the holes where the water temp warning light and oil pressure warning light had been:


I then used a hole saw to cut a circle in the old gas gauge - this holds the 200-400V voltmeter. I also used the hot knife to cut holes in the surround for the Hall-effect ammeter and the combo switch. Here it all is, test-fit in place:


Still to do on the dash:

• Make room on the gauge backing for those deep gauges
• Route 12V wiring from engine compartment to dash
• Enlarge the holes behind the ammeter and the combo switch so the surround fits again
• Finish disassembling the dash so I can get at the heater core
• Reassemble everything
• Profit!