Plugging the Heater Tube Holes

August 3, 2011 - It's been a few weeks since my last post and I have to admit, I have been rather lazy of late. I have been waiting on a couple of items to come in, like the somewhat expensive chrome trim for the windshield and windows from AutoAtlanta that hold the new rubber seals from 914rubber.com. Also, I just received the heater tube plugs from CAPlugs which is what this blog is about.

I had been searching for some CAPlugs which is what ElectroAutomotive suggested using to plug the 914 heater tube ends. I found some distributors but they all looked like they wanted to do high volume sales. I e-mailed the EVDL without much luck except getting the same list I had previously "Googled". After a couple of weeks, I received an e-mail from Stephen Kocsis of CAPlugs.com who kindly offered to send some samples of what I needed. The CAPug.com catalog is overwhelming to say the least; they must have over a thousand different plastic products to choose from. However, I did find the two different sizes CAPlugs that I needed and e-mailed them off to Stephen. About a week later, I received six of the CAPlugs that were exactly what I needed.

You're probably wondering why I need to plug the heater tube holes. I'm using the heater tubes to connect the front battery pack to the rear back battery pack via heavy 2/0 cables. I'm also routing wires from the distributed charger to the rear pack via the heater tube. The CAPlugs not only prevent the cables/wires from chaffing on the metal tube hole edge's and prevent any water from entering the tubes and causing rust corrosion, but also give a nice finishing touch as well.

There are a total of six heater tube holes: two in the engine compartment, two in the passenger compartment, and two in the front trunk compartment that leads to the passenger compartment.

Here are pics showing the left engine compartment heater tube CAPlugs:













The right heater tube is mostly covered by the controller and thereby can't show its use. Here are some pics of the passenger heater tube CAPlugs:













Only one of the right passenger heater tube:





And finally some pics of the front trunk heater holes. Theese holes were a liitle too large for the CAPlug that I thought would fit there. So, I used some 5/16" ID fuel hose split down the center and siliconed the hose around the opening so the CAPlug would fit nice and tight.

Here's the right side:





And the left side. Notice the distributed charger wires coming up from the rear pack. I have five 12V battery packs in the rear. Each 12V pack needs two wires to charge for a total of 10 wires. Also a large 10gauge black wire that will connect an on-board charger to the most negative point of the pack.