Control Box Pt. 4

I wired one of the contactors (with precharge) and the controller to the car's 12V auxiliary system. I haven't seen my new controller in action yet and wanted to see it spin the wheels. There were many loose wires underneath the hood that were disconnected when the engine was removed. I didn't know what they went to, but I used a multimeter to test which ones gave me 12V supply when the key was turned to the on position.


The car wired...


I jacked up the rear end so the tires could spin freely, put the key in the car, turned it to on, and gave it some "gas". The contactor clicked, but the wheels wouldn't spin. I did notice the voltmeter I had installed inside the car showed only 8V with the controller hooked up to the 12V line under the hood. I tried a different 12V line for the controller and the voltmeter showed a much healthier 11V.

What's interesting is I've had the meter show under 10V below (due to loose battery connections), and the radio wouldn't work - probably due to low voltage protection. With the controller installed at 8V the radio still worked though. Unfortunately the car's electrical system is such a mess I can't trace back where those 12V lines originate from.

The 12V + from the auxiliary battery...


A random 30A fuse... Is that the fusebox?


I'm not even going to try...


I'm disappointed that I couldn't get a low speed test done with the controller, but this has convinced me that I need to build a secondary fuse box/system for the car. I'll leave what's existing that works alone, but all my new components will run off the new fuse box.