Wiring up the Front Compartment

I finally got to work on the electric car again today. The next major task is wiring up the front compartment.


Here is the 9-in-1 wire for the AC kit pulled through the grommet between the passenger compartment and the fuel compartment. The 9-in-1 wire (encased in flexwrap) is going back into the passenger compartment to the dials and controls. The yellow and brown wire need to come out of the flexwrap so that we can connect them to circuits in the front luggage compartment. The instructions call for a "Y" connector which ElectroAuto didn't supply. I hacked my own together by using wire and three insulated male quick-connect crimps.

The blue wire also goes from the front luggage compartment into the passenger compartment. I replaced the single-space connector by using one male and one female crimp connector on the blue wire.


This is looking straight down into the fuel compartment on the drivers side. Here is the bundle of added wires tie-wrapped to the main wiring harness going into the front luggage compartment. Note the thick battery cable going through the lower grommet on the left to connect the front batteries to the rear of the vehicle.


And the bundle of wires coming into the front luggage compartment ready to be attached to other components.


Here's the front relay mount plate with the relays, terminal strip and fuse block bolted on. ElectroAuto provided a six-space terminal strip instead of a five-space, so I had to add another hole on the bottom to hold it.


Here's the wiring specified in the DC instructions (supposedly the same for AC) on the relay block. Be careful as some wires are 16 gauge and some are 10 gauge.


Another look at the wiring from the side to better see the connections to the relays.


Here is the front battery box with the relay mount plate bolted on and the retaining hardware for the accessory battery.

WARNING: the DC kit instructions call for 1/4"-20 x 1/2" bolts to hold on the DC-DC converter; however, the holes actually take 10-32 x 3/8" bolts instead. Please update your instructions.

I was a bit non-plussed when I realized that the holes for the relay mount plate didn't line up with the holes on the battery box. I had to drill them out to get the bolts to go in the receiving holes. The holes for the accessory battery mount fit just fine.

I didn't yet purchase the accessory battery or the required 10-32 x 3/8" bolts, so I'll go get those tomorrow and continue.

With the NEDRA races on August 17, I've got a solid artificial deadline to beat now. Onwards!