1984 Jeep CJ-7 full electric conversion

[4x4 EVC]

Hello All,

BigWalt suggested I start a stand alone thread about my 1984 Jeep CJ-7 full electric conversion instead of hijacking someone else's posting..

He knows and it's pretty clear in the descriptions that I'm NOT a Scrambler owner - I never had that much cash when I was younger to get one and now that I have money, they are VERY expensive so, I'll continue to admire them from afar.

In an effort to not dilute or otherwise offset the visitors to the two respective sites, JeepFourm and CJ-8.com AND not to reproduce the entire 3 year / 700++ posts journey thread on this site, I'll suggest that you guys take a look at the JeepForum thread for my build here (https://www.jeepforum.com/threads/jeep-cj-7-ev-conversion.4455457/) that was started way back in 2021.

BUT, to spur conversation here and not to mis-use BigWalt's generous offer, PLEASE post all questions here, in this thread.

Perhaps, in this format: if you have a questions or comments that refers to that thread, just refer the Post Number - I'm pretty sure those are unique identifiers. And / or, add a link so we can find the post if you think it's important.

I would be so cool if you could simply use the Quote feature from one forum and past it in another forum to do most of this heavy lifting but, alas, we live on a perfect world spinning on an angle, can't have everything align...

Here's the YouTube videos that go with it, I've tried to take a bunch and need to do more but at the moment, I've got a 5 page punch-list that punching me blow the belt at the moment - I should have all this little crap fixed and back silently zipping around the Valley in about a week. Videos: https://youtube.com/@4x4evc-yr1dt?si=-2Sx3NNghVDi2FQi .

Hope you guys like it.

- Patrick

First night drive - so quite!

 

[bigwalton]

That is a cool video... Might be worth recapping at least a little bit of the setup you went with here. As we learned the hard way with CJOffroad, redundancy isn't a bad thing.

 

[FLCJ8]

Here are a couple links to the build...

 

[4x4 EVC]

BigWalt - I officially hate you - a montage of post COVID poor personaly grooming (lack of haircuts...) PLUS a sampling of my ugly shirt collection - I guess COVID really did change us all in mysterious ways....

UPDATE:

The ToDo list marches on - this is a brand new layout for the Inverter:

This is a big improvement on many fronts:

• All parts mounted to independent 1/4" aluminum plate - helpful in heatsink and assembly of Tech Box
• All Bus Bars are 1-1/8" wide X 1/8" Thick
• Consolidated HV Bus Bar to be InLine with Inverter Bus Bars - eliminating 4 components, 4 jumper cables, 2 mini-bus-bars
• Offset Inverter Bus Bars to allow airflow over Inverter and eliminate close contact with Inverter body.
• Re-configured layout to tighten up space needed for assembly and allowing more room for HV Motor Connects (70mm2 / 2/0 awg cables)
• Moved DC/DC Fuse to be included as part of Inverter Assembly (new name!)
• Shortened Precharge cable (the small cable that runs from the Bus Bar to the Inverter)

Other stuff:
- replaced all the Instrument Cluster bulbs with LEDs

(no clue why I'm showing you the back of the Cluster as it that'll prove I replaced all the lamps with LED - good shot though)

• Attached R1 harness to Transmission and TC (Reverse and 4-Wheel indicator lamp) w/ re-looming.
• Attached C241 to P-Valve (Brake Warning cable harness) w/ re-looming.
• Figured out most of the full Cooling plumbing, kinda'
• Received Leak Detectors - to be put in all Battery Boxes with connectors that can be hooked up to indicator lights on the dash.

I should have the new motor mount girdle and aluminum-ized Intermediate Battery Box back from the welders this week then all back together and off I go - again.

- Patrick

 

[4x4 EVC]

That is a cool video... Might be worth recapping at least a little bit of the setup you went with here. As we learned the hard way with CJOffroad, redundancy isn't a bad thing.

God, just what I need, yet another rabbit hole to suck up all my time - please, before I make ANY mistakes here, what happened at CJOffroad?

Yes, agree, I'll try to do a wrap up or perhaps I should call it a 'catch-up' summary of where I came from and where I'm at - good point.

 

[4x4 EVC]

I'll do a write summery, promise.

Here's a quick visual of some of the the work I have to complete this week AND it give those that are thinking about this a bit of design insight as to where things go.

I'm leaving the Outriggers in plywood for now, not 100% sure I love them and I would LOVE to move the 12v SLAB battery under the OBC (On Board Charger - the charger that's for the pack batteries. The DC/DC charger is what converts High Voltage to a digestible 14-16v DC to charge the 12v battery, the DC/DC becomes the kinda' alternator, if you will.).

The area in front of the motor is where I'm stuffing the cooling pump, 12v battery, collection of Titanic memorabilia and other bric-a-brac. We'll see.

 

[4x4 EVC]

Mo' Battery Boxes -

Back at the welders - Intermediate Battery Box time.

A few steps:

I can't get over these welds - Terry the Welder kills it AGAIN!!

Looks like a box!

 

[Mancunian]

Hello All,

BigWalt suggested I start a stand alone thread about my 1984 Jeep CJ-7 full electric conversion instead of hijacking someone else's posting..

He knows and it's pretty clear in the descriptions that I'm NOT a Scrambler owner - I never had that much cash when I was younger to get one and now that I have money, they are VERY expensive so, I'll continue to admire them from afar.

In an effort to not dilute or otherwise offset the visitors to the two respective sites, JeepFourm and CJ-8.com AND not to reproduce the entire 3 year / 700++ posts journey thread on this site, I'll suggest that you guys take a look at the JeepForum thread for my build here (https://www.jeepforum.com/threads/jeep-cj-7-ev-conversion.4455457/) that was started way back in 2021.

BUT, to spur conversation here and not to mis-use BigWalt's generous offer, PLEASE post all questions here, in this thread.

Perhaps, in this format: if you have a questions or comments that refers to that thread, just refer the Post Number - I'm pretty sure those are unique identifiers. And / or, add a link so we can find the post if you think it's important.

I would be so cool if you could simply use the Quote feature from one forum and past it in another forum to do most of this heavy lifting but, alas, we live on a perfect world spinning on an angle, can't have everything align...

Here's the YouTube videos that go with it, I've tried to take a bunch and need to do more but at the moment, I've got a 5 page punch-list that punching me blow the belt at the moment - I should have all this little crap fixed and back silently zipping around the Valley in about a week. Videos: https://youtube.com/@4x4evc-yr1dt?si=-2Sx3NNghVDi2FQi .

Hope you guys like it.

- Patrick

First night drive - so quite!

Excellent - that' s lot of hard work i'm sure, thankyou for sharing!

 

[4x4 EVC]

Here's how it's shapping up resting where it goes san-battery module - looks good to me.

 

[4x4 EVC]

Friday update:
Okeydokey - take a peek at the full MCA (Motor Cradle Assembly) installed (sans motor):

Another angle:

I mean, it looks like someone MADE those motor mounts, you know, someone other then me.

Front Drive Shaft Clearance - I feel like I'm MORE then safe here (he said knowing it will come back and bite him in the *** in no time). I've built in a 2" PAST bumper stop to Dif. safety - should be good.

Ground Clearance - I'm in love with the clearance! I'm 7.5" above the ICE Oil Pan bottom!!

One more shot because, well, it's free:

I should have everything back in by the end of the weekend, hopefully tearing around the Valley, all silent and shit, scaring children and hobos alike with my brick-like-stealthiness - well, I mean as stealthy as a 40-year-old buck of rattly bolts can be.

- Patrick

 

[4x4 EVC]

New Inverter to Motor HV cable arrangement, this will finalize a full 70mm2 (the 'metric' version of 2/0 awg) cable for the entire system. Because I'm using the Hyper9HV motor that lives between ~130 and 188v's, we have to use thicker HV cables then the Tesla that uses 50mm2 (1/0 awg) cable (Mean Ol' Mr. Ohm will have it no other way!). So, less volts means more amps which means a bigger pipe, so the analogy goes.

Anyway, cool stuff in tackling my never ending 5 page ToDo list post the first PoC drive.

You might also notice I've still got plywood in there - yes, I know, I know.

That's the Tech Box, it contains all the goodies to make this thing fly around - Inverter, BMS, LV-JB (Low Voltage Junction Box), 12v fuse connections, all stuffed into that box to make assembly / service / upgrades much easier for both the customer and installer. It has around 24 egress point - glands, holes, openings, etc., so, rather then commit to aluminum YET, I'm trying to finalize where all the connective wiring will end up and finalize each sides openings. Once done, I'll make a stab at the first non-plywood version of it.

I was hoping to have it all back and driving by the weekend's end but got side tracked by stupid life stuff.

Marching on....

 

[bigwalton]

God, just what I need, yet another rabbit hole to suck up all my time - please, before I make ANY mistakes here, what happened at CJOffroad?

CJOffroad.com was THE bible for people doing 4.0L swaps into CJs (or anything else.) It had the most amazing technical details and build threads. I got 90% of what I used to swap my 4.0 in there.

Then it up and disappeared one day. SO MUCH knowledge gone when someone shut down the site/server. It's just sickening to think about.

 

[4x4 EVC]

CJOffroad.com was THE bible for people doing 4.0L swaps into CJs (or anything else.) It had the most amazing technical details and build threads. I got 90% of what I used to swap my 4.0 in there.

Then it up and disappeared one day. SO MUCH knowledge gone when someone shut down the site/server. It's just sickening to think about.

OH, man, that sucks.

Has anybody attempted to reach out, you know, in a 'let's save the knowledge' way?

It's one of my greatest fears about the reliance on technology, at the flip of a switch, all that knowledge can be gone like a distant fart in the wind.

I just checked JeepForum for any leads for CJOffroad and found a great archive link here: http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090313035411/http://cjoffroad.com/forums/default.asp

God love the waybackmachine!

Thanks for the heads up BigWalt - I'll take the caution to heart.

 

[FLCJ8]

OH, man, that sucks.

Has anybody attempted to reach out, you know, in a 'let's save the knowledge' way?

It's one of my greatest fears about the reliance on technology, at the flip of a switch, all that knowledge can be gone like a distant fart in the wind.

I just checked JeepForum for any leads for CJOffroad and found a great archive link here: http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090313035411/http://cjoffroad.com/forums/default.asp

God love the waybackmachine!

Thanks for the heads up BigWalt - I'll take the caution to heart.

If only it was that easy...
it takes you far enough to see all that was lost.

 

[4x4 EVC]

If only it was that easy...
it takes you far enough to see all that was lost.

Yep, very sad to have lost such a technical resource. Did you see the mention of Hesco?

That's the company that had a guy working there who's name was Benny - he was the guy that Jeep gave a couple brand new late CJ-7s to and all of Mopar's parts he needed and tasked him with making the MPI kit for older Jeeps - he worked there!!!

I haven't heard that company name in over a decade - wow!

 

[FLCJ8]

In an effort to not dilute or otherwise offset the visitors to the two respective sites, JeepFourm and CJ-8.com AND not to reproduce the entire 3 year / 700++ posts journey thread on this site, I'll suggest that you guys take a look at the JeepForum thread for my build here (https://www.jeepforum.com/threads/jeep-cj-7-ev-conversion.4455457/) that was started way back in 2021.

Well, I've caught up to your latest post. Very impressive build.

One question, (for now)...

Do you have a resource for the Tesla battery modules?

With all the work you did to accommodate them - arguably the most intensive part of the design - it would suck to have to modify boxes, buss bars, wiring, cooling lines, etc.

 

[4x4 EVC]

Well, I've caught up to your latest post. Very impressive build.

One question, (for now)...

Do you have a resource for the Tesla battery modules?

With all the work you did to accommodate them - arguably the most intensive part of the design - it would suck to have to modify boxes, buss bars, wiring, cooling lines, etc.

Do you mean: can I buy Tesla Module S batteries modules AT quantity?

Or are you asking me if my repower kit is modular enough to accept changes to the battery boxes to accommodate different vendor battery modules?

Yes and hopefully.

I've got a great source for buying them, at least enough to last me about a year or 2. In that time, I'll have a set of custom battery modules that will give me better us of all the spaces in the Jeep and, because of that, more kWh which equals longer range [insert image of man doing the Jazz hands thingy here...].

And, to the second part, I can handle Tesla Model X modules next and probably only on the YJ, TJ and up (wider frames then the CJs), they have more kWh so that would be a boost in range again (hopefully).

All that being said, battery changes are going to be a thing for the next 5 or so years as the market continues to change rapidly - hopefully, we in the EVC market, makers and buyers, will benefit from all the yummy parts from wrecks and the like.

 

[4x4 EVC]

Quick dusk video - zoom zoom, all this speed and all this quiet - I love the quiet, can't get over it. As you can tell, it's driving is perfect, every thing about this every day makes me happy:

 

[Truck]

Very nice. Seems like it is coming together well. I like the CJ electronic speedo.

 

[timo439]

What does your throttle map look like? I havent pulled mine in awhile but its fairly tame. Once I hit a certain part of the map, the jeep takes off like someone hit it with Nitrous. If I wanted to, with an aggresive map, I could probably get 0-60 in 8 seconds but I am not that confident in the builder yet.