Big update time!
Today was the day to get the capacitor bank installed, and everything all buttoned up. The control panel and all the other bells and whistles (DC/DC converter, high voltage monitor wires, coolant for motor/controller, power steering fluid, windshield wiper fluid, etc.) we all taken care of. One thing I had to do in order to make sure the coolant system was leak-free was to remove the inductive charging unit:
It was just extra weight anyway, and came off pretty easily. I had convinced the folks who run the university's garage that I needed to use the lift, and this morning
Eric Cardwell (we met at a meeting for EVA/DC where I gave a presentation about the EV-1 conversion project last winter) came by and we got things rolling. Once the car was pushed to the lift area, we loaded the capacitor tray onto a lift table and wheeled it over there. This little table ended up being quite handy.
Eric worked the heavy (4/0) cable, which will be run to the generator, up from the tray and back into the trunk via a couple of holes punched in the frame. The second image below shows the lift table being used to line up the tray with the car's cavity.
We eventually got it into place and we worked pretty hard for over an hour getting everything mostly aligned. We re-installed the bolts into the tray and secured it into place. The air shields still need to go on, but that can wait.
Eric won the "who can make the floor cleaner by picking up all the dirt on your clothes" contest.
All that work deserved a reward, so we had to charge it up and take a test drive. The charging area is now the trunk.
Driving was quiet and smooth - what an experience! We ran about 8 laps around the garage before parking and discharging the caps the rest of the way.
[youtube]aWOvSTCuzus[/youtube]