Missing Week And Elescalade Blues

My wife informed me last Thursday evening that she was going to Fort Lauderdale to graduate with her Doctorate Degree from Nova Southeast University. She was leaving Friday morning at 11:00. As it turns out, none of her daughters were going to be able to make this celebratory event. Sigh. So she guessed she would just go by her self....

So I wasn't here Friday. Or Saturday. Or Sunday until pretty late.

I'm back. Don't travel as well as I once did. But it was a good event and a big milestone for her. She teaches up at Southeast University here and I guess all the other girls had PHd degrees and she seemed to think it important.
Really she's always been there for me. Not sure why the graduation ceremony itself was important, but apparently it was to her.

The Elescalade is fighting us every step at this point. We're a bit behind on our updates. We've had the motor spinning for about three weeks but that's not the half of it.

First, we could not seem to get a TACH input IN to the two Soliton 1's. The sensor we had hard installed in the adapter plate would not produce a waveform when we hooked it up to the SOliton's 12v output, PGND, and TACH.

And it didn't appear to matter how we did it, one Soliton or two, which one, or what pull-up resistor we used.

So we got ANOTHER sensor, a couple of magnets and hooked it all up to the reluctor ring mounted on the front of the motor. We quickly just connected to switched 12v, frame and ran the signal to the Soliton and checked it. Sure enough, both Soliton's showed RPM on the inputs and at 2 pulses per turn, the right RPM at that.

So we mounted the magnets more permanently, built a proper bracket for the sensor, and i got some 4 wire shield thinking I was doing a good thing. Ran the three leads all the way up to the Soliton and again connected to 12v, PGND, and TACH.

It didn't work. We tried everything. One Soliton. The other SOliton. Both Solitons. 2 ppt, 4 ppt, 6 ppt. They did not recognize a signal.

So we got a THIRD sensor and hooked it up to 12v switched, frame, and ran just the signal to the SOlitons. Worked fine. We started to hard wire THIS one and I noticed that this was our last sensor on hand. STOP. Let' just mount it. Leave it on 12v and frame.

And that seemed to take care of it. I would guess that the Soliton's are eating our sensors. But I don't know how or why. And since I'm having difficulty getting anything to show the same symptoms twice this week....

We got the motors to where when we went to IGNITION, they would light up and cycle contractors and all looked good. Then when we went to START, the 12v START signal wired into input 1 would in fact cause the two motors to spin up and then settle back to idle at about 450 rpm. Both are idling. Both are pulling current. Total amp draw on the pack at idle is 11 amps with no air conditioning.

But the tachometer on the instrument panel didn't budge. So we played with the MAP sensor input and the CAM position sensor input. Finally, the crankshaft position sensor, which reads the reluctor ring, was 1/16 from the teeth. A 1/32 too far apparently. I wobbled it around and suddenly we got a shaky tach signal. After playing with the mounting for an hour or so, and getting it so close it almost made noises as the teeth passed, we got a tach signal.

Sounds like a good thing. Except the ECU got a tach signal as well. So when we would step on the throttle, it would slam the throttle position plate back to idle quite forcefully.

I'm no longer doing anything intelligently. Just hooking up wires to various things trying to get a symptom to change. IF I set the %1 output to MOTOR CURRENT, routed it through a 750 ohm resistor, and fed it as a manifold pressure signal (MAP) we could start, idle and run the RPM up and down about three times, then it quits and forcibly sets up back to idle.

The MAP signal is a 0.8vdc to 4.5vdc signal representing vacuum in the manifold of course. At idle, it should be 0.8vdc and wide open it should be 4.5vdc. Vacuum looks like a nearly linear function of RPM, but all of our RPM was pulse signals and not many pulses per rotation at that.

MOTOR CURRENT works at the bottom when you are turning up. But once you get to 2400 rpm or so, the current drops off and so the voltage. So we are higher RPM with lower manifold pressure indicated. THE ECU notes the discrepancy and shuts us down hard.

The throttle position signal actually starts too high. We run from about 2.0v to 4.3v out of the TPS and we are using that successfully for the throttle input to the SOliton's. The opamp puts out plenty of current. But we start at mid range for the MAP signal. So this doesn't work at all.

I fear if we get this part playing, then it will want the MAF signal. Etc. etc.

I'll try to put together some video this week.

Oh, the Helwig brushes are in and on the web site store. We're adding NordLock washers to the kit. They're pretty nice actually. Mylar sleeves. Four leads. We've got 12 sets for the Warp 9 and 12 sets for the Warp 11 and it takes awhile to get them in. These are the H60 Redtop split brushes made famous by Tim Catellier and the Catellier effect. First come. First shipped. When they're gone, it's a good three weeks to get any more.

Also, I see NO reason to discuss why I think you might want a fire extinguisher for your eCobra or other conversion. Why bring those things up at all. In any event, I found a cool 2 1/2 lb ABC perfect for those late night Interstate shoulder cookouts. It's chrome and comes with bracket. Rated for automotive.

Jack Rickard