A Million Loose Ends
Along with continuing to work on assembling the battery monitor modules (Update soon—) I spent some time today taking care of a few issues that needed to be addressed on the Miata. First I replaced the tangle of inline ATC fuse holders as seen above with a much tidier marine/RV ATC fuse block I purchased from EV Source. It is much less of a hack job, and I noticed the branch circuits were seeming to operate with less effects of voltage sag after I got rid of that unholy mess of butt crimps. Now it looks like this:
Heh, in case you were wondering, VAC is the power brake vacuum pump, BLO is for the marine bilge blowers I installed in place of the heat/vent/AC system, POP is for the electric trunk popper I installed, H2OPMP is for the Zilla watercooling pump. I added a wire for it later on. The blue supply wire originally powered the heater blower and is attached to a 35 amp resettable breaker in the fuse box on the driver’s side. This fuse block is only energized when the keyswitch is in the “ignition” position.
I was in such a hurry to get the interior of the car back together after having it apart for so long when I was working on the mid-position battery rack that I neglected to run wires for the various things that would need to be wired front/back. I had been dreading it, but it actually didn’t end up being too bad to run the data cable for the rear PakTrakr remote and two Cat 5 cables out from under the parcel shelf through the “fuel tank bulkhead”, under the center console and out through the firewall. I’ll need one Cat 5 line for the BattRegs, and I included an extra- I can imagine reasons I might like to have some more wires front/back- and would rather not have to run more. Like if I get around to installing a fuel-filler-open interlock circuit.
Blue = Cat 5, Gray = PakTrakr, Red = Power for vac. pump and trunk popper.
Finally, I think it’s worth noting something I came up with recently- It seemed like a good idea to sheild the lug terminals on the motor for safety- but I don’t have any well-fitting rubber boots for those lugs- I had seen photos of someone’s EV project where they had slathered every electrical connection on it with thick silicone caulk- I caught wind of this DAP ‘temporary’ caulk- called “Seal and Peel”, meant to be used for weatherstripping. I bought a tube at my local hardware store and applied it to the motor terminals.
As you can see, it’s crystal clear, and was pretty easy to work with and sculpt around the terminal. It does not adhere strongly (by design) and while I haven’t tried removing it from these terminals, I’m sure it will be easier than traditional silicone sealant would be. And, it’s vanilla scented!