battery packing

This week Victor and I have been working hard and putting overtime on getting the new batteries packed to be installed into the front battery box.  Aside this week Victor and I also were changing the back callipers on the school van.  Victor and I also changed tiers on Rays truck.

Front Bumper and Wiring.

These past couple of days I spent my time in class cutting poleaxe glass to fit in the front bumper to act as air damns. I got the measurement of the hole that was going to be covered by tracing it onto cardboard then cutting the cardboard to size and then transferring that to the poleaxe glass sheet. The first couple that I did weren't great but it got way easier as I did more. After getting them cut to size we used a black silicone seam sealer to hold them in place and make it an air tight fit.The next day I spray painted the glass so that it was a clean look and wasn't blotchy. As you can see above the painters tape gave me a straight edge that I had to follow so that it had the best and cleanest look possible.  

After that I worked on finding the bad connection in the front left hand light. It ended up just being a bad connection with the ground connector so I got it fixed up pretty quick. I got all the wiring re wrapped and put back in the plastic tubing to make sure that it wouldn't come apart over time with weather wear.

This week I have been working on adding metal to cover the cracks in the floor in the back so far I have two cut out of four and one secured. I have also been working on putting the battery packs together with Dathan. To day I was putting new brake callipers, break disc and pads on the school van.

This week I secured the charger port to the car. I also started to attach a cover for the back which will be welled to the car. I was also testing the batteries voltages through out the pacts, and we charged the packs for the first time with the charge port.  

This week I continued working on getting the batteries into packs of 5 and then I connected the 45 batteries to recharge them.  I am waiting for the new straps for the pack of 5s so I have little to do this week but to float around and give a hand when someone needs it.

Constructing the battery box

After deciding on the amount of new batteries we need somewhere to put those new batteries and so I have taken on the job of constructing the new rear battery box. The box is constructed with one inch angle iron and is cut so they sit flush as you can see below. Once the frame is constructed we will fit aluminum sheeting to cover the bottom and side holes followed by half inch sheets of insulation to keep the batteries at a more consistent temperature. In the diagram below you can see how the angle iron is cut so they sit flush and you can also see a rough layout of the box.

Last week I worked on finish installing the power steering control.  We had a little bit of a hard time to find a place to put it we finally ended up putting it on the it beside the air control.  Another thing I did was put all the lose wires into bundles so the wires aren't able to get damaged easily and put all the inter covers on.  The last thing for the week I started on making packs of 5 of batteries for the new battery compartment.  Since we don't have any connectors for 5 packs so I had to make the connectors.  To make them I had one end pre-made for getting the other end bent and drilled the holes the put the boults through to attached to hold the batteries in place.

I have been working on implementing the mag switch for the fuel door, I have added aground near the inertia switch, I got ride of some useless warning lights in the cab. I have installed the socket of in the fuel door and the wires associated with it.