I chose a piece of 2 x 1 x 1/8 channel to mount the pump to the rear side of the left battery box.  To do this, I bolted the channel to the battery box and attached a pair of formed loops made of perforated steel near the bottom of the channel.  I lined the loops with foam weatherstrip material and snuggly clamped the motor into these two loops.  This provided a stable, noise and vibration isolated mounting for the pump.

The metric adapter and the new pressure hose I bought connected the pressure side of the pump line.  The low pressure side now had a slight problem:  The hose off the old pump was 3/8 inch inside diameter, and the hose to fit the new pump was just shy of 1/2.  I had already bought a length of hose to fit the new pump, but had no way to connect the two hoses.

I machined a barbed fitting with a 3/8 diameter on one end and 1/2 on the other.  Now I can connect the two hoses together and finish the connection to the pump.  This worked out well, as the original hose was too short to reach the new fitting.

Update of 5/22/10

The pump has been working quite well, but recently it has become noisy!  It sounds like there is something loose inside the pump causing an erratic clicking and rattling sound.  There may be truly something wrong inside the pump, or it may be poor mounting allowing the pump to contact parts of the truck.  It is really hard to tell.  There is very little clearance around the pump, and my very soft isolating foam also allows quite a lot of pump movement.

To solve this problem once and for all, I decided to remove the pump and disassemble it to verify the condition of all the internal paarts.  When I replace it I plan to use a different, more constrictive mounting system.

Switches

I mounted two switches on a blank dash panel.  The top switch will be used to select one of two different sets of data within the controller.  I will have an economy
mode which limits my driving current to 350 amps, and a performance mode which will allow up to 500 amps.

The bottom switch is used for this project and allows the power steering pump to be turned off.  The pump will only run when the ignition is on, this switch will allow me to turn it off when the ignition is on.

My first drive through the city was very successful.  It was a pleasure to be able to easily turn the wheel even while standing still.  On the road, the steering was a little firmer than before, but it was well within my comfort zone.  Parking in the parking lots was a pure joy!  I found that the truck handles very well on the road with the pump turned off.  A normal corner is a little tight, but easily done without the pump.  Of course with the pump on, all turns are very easy.

It may just be wishful thinking, but I swear the truck now has better performance!

8/8/09    I connected the MODE switch to the controller and connected my laptop to change the program.  I set the Economy mode to a max of 350 amps and the Performance mode to a max of 500 amps.  This is 50 amps higher than the single program I have been using to date.  I have found that it is very difficult to limit my amperage when climbing a grade.  The Economy mode should help.

I took it for a test drive and all is well.  350 amps is fine for normal driving.  I don't start out quite as fast, but still keep up with most other cars.  If I need a burst that is beyond the 350 amps, I flick the switch and can feel the immediate boost in performance.

Additional Batteries

I have been somewhat disappointed with the range of my truck.  All my initial calculations, both my own and those of experienced vendors indicated I should get a 40 mile range using an 80% discharge of the batteries.  In reality, I have not gotten much over 25.  I think it would meet my expectations fairly closely if I lived in a flat, level area.  Unfortunately Prescott is very hilly.  I seem to be always driving up hill or down hill, never level.

In an attempt to overcome the problem of the hills, I have decided to add 4 batteries to my system, changing from a 120 volt system to a 144 volt system.  A major obstacle is where to put the batteries.  I hve looked at re-packaging all my equipment under the hood, but cannot see where to add more than a couple of batteries.  There really is no more room under the truck bed.  

What I decided makes the most sense at this time is to build a box in the front of the bed with the 4 batteries in it.  I would use my engine hoist to remove this box when I want to tip up my bed to service the batteries under it.  After sketching out a couple of possible form factors I realized I alread have just such a box!  It is the aluminum tool box that came with the truck.  Some quick measurements showed that there is plenty of room for the batteries plus extra space for tools.

This tool box attaches to the top of the bed rails just behind the cab.  It has a door on each end with a non-opening area about 8 inches wide in the center between the doors.

The truck came with a very nice aluminum tool box, shown here just after purchasing the truck. Each end has a separate door which is held open by a gas spring, and which can be latched and locked closed. Here you can see the wide gas spring mounting bracket that extends down into the box and would prevent a battery from being mounted below it.

I examined several possible battery arrangements within this box.

   1.  I could put two batteries in each end of the box toward the center, just clearing the gas spring brackets.  This would leave about 5 inches of tool storage room at each end, and a large usless area in the center.

  2.  I could modify the gas spring mounting and place the batteries in the very center of the box.  This would leave a lot of room for tools, but would make access to the batteries very hard.

  3.  I could mount the batteries in the right side of the box and make the lid removeable for easy battery access.  This would leave the entire left and center portions of the box available for tools, groceries, etc.

I decided on the third option.  By mounting the batteries anywhere from as far left as possible to all the way right, the center of gravity of these batteries is only about 12 to 18 inches off center.  I like keeping things balanced, but when I drive, my weight is farther off center than the batteries and the two would balance out.  I'll determine the exact location of the batteries within this half of the box later.

The finished box is again mounted on the truck.  Except for the 4 bolts on the center cover, the box looks original. There is now no gas spring on the right lid.  I will either use a prop bar, or mount the gas spring on one edge for that lid. The left lid operates as it did originally.

Charging Meter Box Revisions

As I reported earlier, I built a meter box to monitor my battery charging.  This box included an AC ammeter, a DC voltmeter, and a DC ammeter.  At a later date, I included the prescaler for my E-meter, noting from the schematics that I had most of my needed connections already in that box.  After carefully reading exactly how the manufacturer wanted the wiring done, I discovered that I really had only one wire and had to run all the rest from the dash area to the box.  The prescaler is used to allow  the meter which is usually used with a 12 volt system to work with up to a 500 volt system.

Recently a minor disaster happened.  I am not sure just what happened, but one meter did not light up and another remained lit, but blank.  I don't know if a nearby lightning strike, or a power line surge, or what other occurance took them out, but something did.  I later found out that one DC to DC converter and two meters were all bad.  I decided it was time to re-build this box.

The first thing I did was to order new meters and DC to DC converters.  This time I ordered LED meters as opposed to my original LCD ones.  They may be more tolerant (or less) but they are different.

I then removed the prescaler from the box and mounted it under the dashboard like I should have in the first place.  The wiring runs are much cleaner now.  I was able to connect to the same electrical signal that I had in the meter box under the dash, so no wires are needed to the back now for this circuit.  This change was allowed by the very specific manufacturer's instructions describing the exact connection point they wanted for each wire.

When I charge the batteries at home, I plug into a 230 volt outlet.  Away from home, I can plug into any 115 volt source.  The power supply I use must provide full output in either case.  I had originally used two power supplies in series to get my 12 volrts DC.  These have worked well, but I have since found a supply with both +12 and +5 volt outputs with a 100 to 240 volt input range that I will use.  This supply is rated at 2 amps output on each voltage, so will have plenty of capacity to power a vent fan for the batteries I mount in the toolbox.  This fan will only be needed during charging, so this supply will work fine.

Another small change I made was to use PVC solvent cement to glue thin PVC spacers to one end of each meter cutout.  The size I made the cutouts left the meters loose enough that they could easily be bumped out of their mounting.  These shims corrected that after I machined them to the exact size I want.

September 25, 2009   It took about two weeks for the meters to arrive from China.  Once they did, it took only a few hours to finish wiring the meter box and to install it in the truck.  Of course since it had already been installed there, everything lined up and installation was fairly easy.