Since the last post the 2 cells in my battery pack that were suspect have officially died. I have remove them from the connections but kept them on the end of the pack to prevent the other batteries moving. I then disconnected the charger output and opened the case. Carefully with the power on, I adjusted the output voltage to the new lower voltage now that I was down to 36 cells. Put it all back together and all was working fine again. I have been using the car now for a while, but at first it was very low on acceleration even in 1st gear. After trying lots of different settings, I ran the optimization routine and then the power level was a lot better and the acceleration was good in 1st gear. Having less power than the old DC motor and controller was something I now getting used to. I have noticed that with just basic regen for throttle lift off, I am using much less capacity and I reckon the power usage is around 300 Wh/mile.
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So now I'm up and running again I've switch my attention back to the air suspension. First I mounted the tank in the space where the old lead acid batteries used to be, then the compressor just under the left headlamp. I had to fabricate some brackets for this and I found that when I went to put the tank back after fitting the compressor, there was no room to fit an elbow on the end, so I made some brackets to move it over by 65mm.
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With the tank and compressor in place, the next job was to mount the valve block. When I tried to connect the air pie from the tank filter, it was difficult and was a tight bend to get across by the tank. I made some new brackets and raised it up about 50mm.
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Next job was to wire it all up and make the air connections from the tank to the valve bock and the compressor to the tank. I ran the usb cable through to the inside of the car and threaded the motor controller usb cable through at the same time. on the front you can see the remote controller (wired). I could operate each valve successfully once the pressure in the tank had built up. I also tried my mobile phone app and that worked too. I noticed the pressure was dropping slowly, so I put some leak indicator on all the joints and found bubbles at the junction of the pressure switch and the adaptor for the tank. I took it apart and put some PTFE tape around the threads and fitted all back together, problem solved. I pressurized the system and watched the pressure drop again, but then it stabilized. I shall check it again in the morning. Next job is to run the pipes to each corner of the car and then fit the new air struts. These were adapted specifically for the Ford Probe so they should go straight on. Will need to drill some holes in the inner wings to run the pipes through unless I can loop them under as there are plastic wheel arch liners.
