[DRIVING] 1998 Nissan Frontier Minitruck - LEAF 40kwh

[EVSwap]

Well my part of the project is winding down. Between Dave and I we put over 1000 miles on the truck since it showed up at my shop. Dave got stranded the other week and I had to go rescue him. The ignition fuse I was using to power the Resolve-EV kept blowing on us, there was a dead short somewhere in the circuit. Think it may have to do with the clutch switch/relay so I just bypassed the circuit and wired the fuse directly to the Resolve-EV. Other than that it's just been driving fine.

I did a video about my concluding thoughts on the build and lessons learned. Check it out!

[EVSwap]

Dave's truck is back in the shop for some upgrades. First thing is the brake booster. Vacuum pumps suck. Dave has a habit of riding the brake pedal which drains the vacuum reservoir and the pump can't keep up, then when he needs the brakes they are stiff. He drives without regen a lot which contributes but in the end we decided to just go with an iBooster. Should have done it from the start.

The next upgrade will be Chademo PDM and a Tesla S battery heater for cabin heating since the PTC I installed in the heatercore doesn't work that great.

I used a '22 Honda HR-V iBooster which has the same 60x80mm bolt pattern as the Frontier and a lot of other Japanese cars. I had to extend the studs with coupling nuts to reach through the firewall. I drilled out the holes so the coupling nuts could fit through the firewall and then bolted it up to the pedal box just like stock. I had to drill a new hole for the pin to pass through the pedal itself about 1cm back and then I could use the iBooster rod without modification.

Used the great write up on EVCreate of course: https://www.evcreate.com/installing-the-ibooster/

Used a Wilwood proprotioning valve for the rear circuit and a Wilwood risidual pressure valve for the rear since it is drum. I also used Made in USA S.U.R.&R. brake line and fittings. I bolted the Wilwood parts to the steel bracket protecting the booster which turned out really clean and keeps everything very stable.

Bleeding was pretty easy considering the amount of air in the system, did it myself with a 2x4 which took some time but was easy enough. Going to spend some time dialing in the proportioning valve on loose surfaces so Dave doesn't have any sketchy moments.

Never again will I use a vacuum pump!

He also put a cool rack with a big solar panel on it. We are working on a plan for the solar soon to make it useful. Dave thinks the aero drag is reduced with the panel now he thinks he's getting slightly better range than before.

Wilwood proportioning valve: https://amzn.to/4qTo33z
Wilwood 10psi risidual valve: https://amzn.to/4jGzUPZ
S.U.R.&R. brake line: https://amzn.to/4qQINsy
S.U.R.&R. brake fittings: https://amzn.to/4jBOcl7
M6 coupling nuts: https://amzn.to/49FEPMD
Ford Dot 4 LV brake fluid: https://amzn.to/45F49ky

[EVSwap]

Brakes are really good. Almost too good, it's really easy to lock up the fronts. I dialed in the prop valve in a dirt parking lot and by judging by the temperature of the rear brakes after a few hard stops.

Cruising on the highway at 65 mph on level ground it pulls about 25kw which I think is really good. I used it to go to the u-pull today and scored some goodies.

Got a LEAF PDM with Chademo from a 2015. The car was wrecked worse than any other LEAF I've seen, the inverter was cracked completely in half and I just pulled the PDM and half of it off the top haha. For $100 it's worth the risk.

Also wired up the auxiliary reverse lights and a 3rd brake light on the bed frame.

[jrbe]

I dialed in the prop valve in a dirt parking lot and by judging by the temperature of the rear brakes after a few hard stops.

Usually rear brake adjustment for normal driving is done in a turn with braking and then a panic turn with late brake application to see how bad it gets.

[EVSwap]

Usually rear brake adjustment for normal driving is done in a turn with braking and then a panic turn with late brake application to see how bad it gets.

Can you describe that process a bit more? Specifically about doing a turn while braking. I've not heard of that before.

For me the biggest concern is wet or icy roads where tires can lock up with very little braking force, that's why I test in a dirt parking lot.

[jrbe]

Theres the J-turn which you brake steady then turn. Theres also turn steady and brake gradually more and more, basically giving say 80% of grip to steering / 20% to braking and slowly increase braking as you turn. Also brake steady and turn more and more at different amounts of braking. Point is the front loses grip first so the rear doesn't come around from braking. Sometimes suspension quirks show up in different spots where you want less rear bias to be more predictable.
Then you can brake late after turning to see how predictable / snappy it is, sometimes this means a bit less rear braking to be a bit more predictable.

Packed dirt is likely best to set the bias, its about 75% the grip of pavement. It likely has a pressure reducing style bias adjuster so it should work out to less rear braking as grip goes down. But you can test on gravel and other slick surfaces.

And the flip side is if the rears are not doing their work the vehicle loses maybe 25-30% braking or more.

[EVSwap]

Thanks that's helpful. This vehicle has more weight on the rear so it can definitely use the rear brakes more. Doubly so if it's loaded. It has a brake bias valve on the rear axle that increases rear bias as the suspension lowers also. I'm not sure the prop valve is needed, I have it wound in almost full. This truck has a setup I've not seen before where the front brake lines are tied into the rear lines, and there is a 2nd circuit just for the rears. Hopefully it will snow soon so I can test it on ice. Not really looking for max performance just safety.

[EVSwap]

Good news! The unknown junkyard PDM that I pulled loose off a wrecked LEAF is 100% fully functional!

I was able to swap out the 2019 PDM and replace it with the junkyard 2015. The reason is because the Resolve-EV does not currently support 2019+ LEAF Chademo. Apparently the PDM manufacture was changed that year. There are workarounds but replacing the PDM with an earlier one is a direct swap.

Swapping PDMs is pretty easy. First make sure the car is off and remove the service disconnect. Take out all the small M6 bolts around the perimeter of the lid, then you need to use a couple screwdrivers to pry the lid up around the edge and break the sealant, then it will just come off. Once it's off undo all the high voltage and charge cables and let them fall down, then remove the 2 M8 bolts that connect the HV lugs from the inverter to the PDM, 6 M8 bolts around the underside that connect the housing to the inverter, and lift it off.

I was able to use the 2019 style lid on the earlier PDM which is great because it means we can keep the black plastic NISSAN cover which makes it look like factory.

Of course then I had to test the Chademo. I first tried Electrify America, no joy. Blink, didn't work. EV Connect, nope. Finally I tried EVgo and it actually worked! Not sure why the other stations didn't work but Chademo is notoriously unreliable. Now that I know it actually works, I will go back and try the others again.

I first just had the plug loose to test, then once I knew it worked I welded on supports to mount the plug behind the grill panel just like we already mounted the J1772 plug.

So cool!

[EVSwap]

I took it back to the Electrify America station since it has the biggest and bulkiest plug and made sure it fit, luckily it does.

[ianlighting]

Of course then I had to test the Chademo. I first tried Electrify America, no joy. Blink, didn't work. EV Connect, nope. Finally I tried EVgo and it actually worked! Not sure why the other stations didn't work but Chademo is notoriously unreliable. Now that I know it actually works, I will go back and try the others again.

I haven’t done extensive testing but I found on a couple of UK Chademo chargers, with the vehicle turned off, charging didn’t work. But with vehicle left on it did. I’ve assumed some handshaking isn’t waking the vehicle up quickly enough with certain chargers for Chademo to be enabled, but just guessing.

My home AC charging works 100% every time whether vehicle is on or off.

Also Resolve + 2015 Leaf (but later BMS / battery)

[EVSwap]

I haven’t done extensive testing but I found on a couple of UK Chademo chargers, with the vehicle turned off, charging didn’t work. But with vehicle left on it did. I’ve assumed some handshaking isn’t waking the vehicle up quickly enough with certain chargers for Chademo to be enabled, but just guessing.

My home AC charging works 100% every time whether vehicle is on or off.

Also Resolve + 2015 Leaf (but later BMS / battery)

I thought about trying that so thanks I'm going to try that now. I noticed when plugging in the Chademo the contactors close and everything wakes up but only for 5-10 seconds and then turns off, like you said it's probably just not long enough to activate the charger.

By chance, does the charger show your vehicle's SoC on screen or does it just show 0%?

[ianlighting]

By chance, does the charger show your vehicle's SoC on screen or does it just show 0%?

Good point. No, as you say, on the chargers I’ve mainly focussed on for testing (Shell, but I’m sure it’s just someone else’s tech with their branding on), I get 0% for battery SoC.

I do get kWh dispensed so far, and charge speed, but not how much is in my tank. Do you have any thoughts on that? It’s not really bugged me before, probably because I’ve been focussed on all the other stuff, plus Leaf Spy and the Resolve Oled. But now I’m interested in that lack of capacity data!