

Copyright Malcolm Faed. Images and text may only be copied with the permission of the author. This blog includes personal things of interest including electric vehicle conversion. I have documented the conversion of a petrol (gas) powered vehicle to Electric. http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1149. The blog now documents the conversion of a BMW E30 to electric.
From left
Daniel Sailer - Ripperton Racing
Jon Eggenhuizen - Catavolt. Ridden by Jason Morris
Chris Jones
Toy Soldiers
Diplomats meet
And enter discourse
But can’t agree
On a Trojan Horse
While greedy capitalists
Flock like birds
And war with bombs
Instead of words
But do we know
The worlds for lease
And the contract expires
In hand with peace.
By Graham Boyles.
I arranged a visit the bike and determine the fault.
The top of the rear block was removed and some evidence of heating and corrosion was visible on one of the cells.
Leaky cell and voltage - temperature sensors
The cell had overheated, the plastic frame the cell sits in was melted, and the pressure relief valve on the top of the cell had released causing some corrosion and crystallisation of electrolyte around the top of the cell. We verified the cell had failed electrically also. It measured only 32mV.
There are temperature and voltage sensing elements screwed to some of the battery terminals. These were numbered with a marker on each sense board and also on the cells they were removed from to ensure they were replaced in the correct locations. Each sense board was wrapped in insulation tape to prevent them accidently touching the battery terminals once removed.
I proceed to replace the 3 cells in a string of 9. Each ½ layer of cells is bound in steel a binding strap to prevent the cells swelling during charging and discharging.
An interesting point is that each cell is electrically insulated from the next by plastic spacers.
Reassembling the pack consisted of reversing the disassembly process. Extra care was taken to double check visually and with a volt meter that each 9 / 8 cell bank was reassembled correctly and the temperature and battery voltage monitoring sensors were installed in the correct locations.
All interconnects and battery terminals that had been removed were tightened to a specified to torque of 10Nm.
After reassembly the owner took the bike for a ride and came back with a memorable grin. The bike performed better than it had for a long time.
The final task for the owner is to deep discharge the pack 5 times to condition the batteries and ensure longevity of the new batteries. This procedure is recommended by Vectrix to remove any ‘memory’ effect in the batteries in order that they can provide the maximum usable capacity.
Not that I condone grafiti at all however I quite liked this stylised face drawn on the bus seat thismorning.