New Battery Rack is Done

I didn't post much last week because I didn't work much last week. At least not on the car. 60 hours at work kind of steals all your time. And much of your will to live. But that's all behind us now and I'm back to working on the car!

The battery rack that will be mounted over the motor is done!


In this shot the part nearest the front of the picture will mount closest to the fire wall. I've placed a couple batteries in it so you can get a sense of scale. You might have noticed a slight rise in the cross beam the batteries rest on. There was no way to mount them straight across because the motor was in the way. Those cross members have a five centimeter rise from the edge to the center of the rack.

I also worked out the throttle assembly which is mount on the left side of the rack. Here's a shot of the left side.

I need to build some sort of enclosure for the throttle pedal to keep the dust and water off of it. On the opposite side, I need to mount the shunt for the Link-10 meter. That should be pretty easy, it should bolt straight to the new frame with out any problems.

I've built the rack big enough that I'll still have room to use some of the clamps that came with the batteries so compress them together, helping to prevent them from swelling (as one astute reader pointed out). I may need to address that issue for the batteries in the trunk box at some point as well.

Perhaps the best news is that I've realized I will be able to use the existing front battery tray the way it is, with only some minor modifications. When looking at my measurements of the space from before, I neglected to take into account that they included the white plastic boxes the batteries were originally mounted in. Well, I won't be using those boxes which means I gain 1/4 of an inch. Along with moving the front rack back by about an inch, I'll have about 1.25" between the top of the battery strap and the hood. In fact, I will be able to put the sound deadening cushion that was affixed to the bottom side of the hood back on, with room to spare.

But the best thing about that is that I don't have to re-figure and rebuild the brace that holds the power steering pump, which is suspended below that rack. I was at a loss for how I was going to handle that, but now I don't have to at all. It just means I'll be back on the road that much sooner.