1971 GMCe Lexus GS450H BMW 530e Tesla Model S Electruck [Upgrade]

[Gregski]

And for gods sake observe the no. 1 rule: DO NOT CONVERT THE RUST BUCKET!

Heh, seriously, do select the car that is visually appealing to you as you will look at it immobile for a long time .

um...

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[Gregski]

alright, so that concludes version 1.0 of the project aka "Don't Get It Right, Just Get It Running" and now we start to do some improvements and fine tuning, ie Version 1.1

[ you know I am a table fiend ]

Component / Feature	Version 1.0	Version 1.1
VCU Code	as is	non implemented sections removed
VCU Wire Harness	All pins wired up	thinned out to the minimum (shift solenoids deleted)
VCU placement	Free Range	Mounted
Wire Harnesses	Exposed	Loomed
EV Fuse Panel	Free Range	Mounted
Gauges	none / laptop / tablet	Stock / Aftermarket digitial gauges integrated
Charging	standard 120v wall outlet	240v clothes dryer plug
Oil Pump Speed	Static 35% speed	Variable based on torque

[Gregski]

so the truck was running and driving great (I mean even the eye balled wheel alignment was on point) so it was time to mess with it

we begin with shuffling a few things around on the EV Fuse block, and providing reasons for it / justifications

1. straight away we learned that the Red "We're Charging" LED has to be wired to the 5 Pin Charger Off relay or else it will just remain on even in Driving Mode (since on these old Chevy trucks the Accessories stay on as part of the Ignition Key On mode)

II. The Toyota Prius Electronic Power Assist Steering - EPAS, has no business living on the EV Fuse Block and is just taking up valuable space. Think about it, you can implement this wonderful stand alone fully self contained setup on a regular Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle. So we will re wire it to the stock OEM GM fugly fuse block.

C. The BMW 530e Safety Box ie Contactor Box needs to be moved to the Key On side, not because we can't drive with it on the Accessory side, no the Drive Mode is fine, it's the charging through it that we suspect damaged the unobtainable 15 OHM OEM resistor and caused us much grief. Yes, BMW does charge through the Safety Box I'm sure, but until it is fully reverse engineered we will remove it out of the equation and hard wire the charger directly to the battery (safety third!)

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

And for gods sake observe the no. 1 rule: DO NOT CONVERT THE RUST BUCKET!

Oh where's the fun in that?

Don't you too want to risk a trip to the hospital every time you climb into/out of/around your project car? No? Just me? ok then....

[arber333]

Oh where's the fun in that?

Don't you too want to risk a trip to the hospital every time you climb into/out of/around your project car? No? Just me? ok then....

True! Mazda MX-3 from 1992 is going along just fine while 406c pug has all sorts of small problems. I guess it is complexity.
But as i am getting older its getting harder to slide out of sports car seats. And transmission backlash is awfull... In that respect pug is a winner.

MX-3 is a rust bucket but interestingly OEM metal on it wont rust... as it was made in Hiroshima.

[Gregski]

not EV related just friggen cool

I literally found this shell in the driver side A pillar vent, my buddy seems to think it rolled off the dash and fell in there, it's an old caliber probably fired by John Wayne himself, so when life gives you lemmons...

[Proton]

I can give you more of those if you want. LOL.... I have plenty.

[Gregski]

I can give you more of those if you want. LOL.... I have plenty.

W-W Super 270 Win

The .270 Winchester is a rifle cartridge developed by Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1923

[Proton]

ok, not that one but I have 308, but I like the idea and I want to copy it somewhere i my car too.

[Gregski]

so sorta related to EV's we're going with stock(ish) aftermarket gauges. I had to get a new gauge bezel simply because the GM liked to use 5" gauges and the aftermarket offers more choices in the 3" so we needed smaller holes

I live for the box inside a box moments

well she looks money in the hallway

[Gregski]

lets try her on for size, the bubbly curves are still growing on me, would prefer the more sleek symmetrical copy of the glovebox like the OEM

AutoMeter 2142

[Gregski]

LESSONS LEARNED: One Must Be Johnny On The Spot!

I felt this in my gut, since with two kids in college every dollar counts:

[Gregski]

so I first discovered these Intellitronix digital gauges on Summit , not sure if folks in Europe shop Summit I doubt it but in the states they are sort of the COSTCO of aftermarket parts meaning they sometimes rebrand products as their own, think Kirkland brand. so anywho they were offering these gauges under their Summit name, and that usually means they are decent

I have now ran these gauges in two of my trucks and I safely certify them as: "Just OK" and here's why:
- the quality is hit or miss, mostly they won't fall apart on you and won't be crooked, etc
- some models only increment in 100s so the last two zeros on the Tach are just hard coded and never change from zero, this is a PIA if you want to fine tune a vehicle, you will never see it idle at 650 it will either show 600 or 700

[Gregski]

another late night...

[Gregski]

buy a Chevy they said, you'll be able to get parts at Walmart

um, no... ha ha, had to go to three different parts houses for a box of silly headlight adjustment screw nuts, but at least we got to drive the Electruck !!!

[Gregski]

but I think it was worth it, as she now finally has all four eyes

[Gregski]

you know the vehicle is lighter than stock post EV conversion when you are forced to remove alignment shims to eliminate positive camber

Say What?

At some point smarter people than me decided that having car wheels be straight up and down wasn't complicated enuff and invented lean, but to be cool they called it "Camber" then they went further down the complexity rabbit hole and decided that "Positive Camber" is bad, and "Negative Camber" is good (in some cases, it all depends)

some say it's for stability, I know it's for street credit and the cool factor, anyway here in the Colonies we rely on old tech so in order to make the top of our truck [sorry] pick up wheels to go from leaning outward at the top to leaning inward at the top we have to remove these funny opened on one end metal washers (add more to create Positive Camber, remove them to get Negative Camber) which sit between the upper control arms and the frame of the truck

[Gregski]

yesterday was a Good Day

BevMo 3.0 miles

What did I look for in a custom center console when I picked it out at random ??? hmmmm

How much ice can it hold !!!

[Gregski]

Range Test #3 - didn't quite hit 35 miles and I babied the hell out of it, No Freeway driving at all, mostly residential and kept it under 45 miles per hour, gentle and took me well over an hour

so I am calling this the 30 mile battery pack, and NO I aint saying run a 9 kWh battery back, of course it is too small, but you know what for a quick install for a Proof of Concept it is absolutely brilliant and makes for a functioning "One Errand At A Time Truck" aka the OEAaTT

"hey dad, can we go to Subway?" yes kid, no problem, "hey honey can we also go to Target?" tomorrow baby, tomorrow, ha ha

[Gregski]

[AMP3R]

Could you floor it and record a video 0-60?

[Alibro]

She Said What.jpg


IMG_E7739.JPG

Would NEVER happen in our house! Shes terrified of driving my Auto FFS
So the idea of driving a car with gears but no clutch would blow her mind.

[Gregski]

Could you floor it and record a video 0-60?

stop reading my mind, I just need to remove the last of the alignment shims since I still have .50° of positive camber and the specs on these trucks called for negative camber, stay tuned

[Gregski]

Would NEVER happen in our house! Shes terrified of driving my Auto FFS
So the idea of driving a car with gears but no clutch would blow her mind.

[Gregski]

TOP SPEED TEST #1

82.7 MPH

so took her on the Highway for the first time and OH MY GAWD she drove like a dream, effortless! I just jumped on, on one entrance and did not stay on too long cause I had no idea how far she could go on speeds upwards of 65 MPH, but she did fine. Keep in mind she has no side windows yet and that creates drag, and I didn't fully commit on this first test, so this is just a start. Also only running on one motor in that Lexus GS450h transmission aka MG2, we are not sending any torque commands to the smaller motor aka MG1 at this time, this is on purpose.

My truck Specs:
215/65 R17 tires
3.73 rear differential

Speed tests should be performed on a closed course / private road.

Update from Me in the Future: I did NOT have my torque set to Max on this test, I forgot about that!

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