Changes Made To My Parts Mounting Bed

I made some changes to the way my parts were arranged on the Lexan plastic mounting bed for the digital distribution block and in-line breaker switch. I was somewhat concerned before about how close one of the ports on the distribution block was sitting to the top cap of the shocks assembly. I thought there might be a slight chance of some arcing possibly happening so I rearranged the layout of my parts, I think this is much better now anyways.

Mounting Bed For Breaker Switch And Digital Power Distribution Block

Although not pictured here I made a cardboard template first to see that my design was going to fit into the engine bay well before cutting it out of Lexan plastic. This stuff is pretty high heat so it took a while with the heat gun to be able to soften up the plastic enough to bend my tabs to the shape you see in the picture above (right).

 Once my shape was made I took it out to the garage for a test fit as I wanted to make sure it was still going to line up good and that with the hood down I would still have room onto of the mounting bed to place my breaker switch and digital power distribution block.

I had to get a little crafty with my digital camera and Gorilla Pod. I taped my digital power distribution block down to my Lexan mounting bed, my breaker switch I had already screwed into place on the bed. I set the timer on my camera and placed it inside of the engine bay pointing at my mounting bed and closed the hood down and waited until the camera took a picture (top right). As you can see there is just enough room for both my mounting bed and the parts I have attached. Once satisfied that this was going to work well I took the parts back inside of my work room and drilled the holes for the distribution block and screwed that onto my Lexan plastic mounting bed.

The final step for this little project now will be to hook up the ground wire for the digital power distribution block and swap out the in-line 100 amp fuse's wires and run them to the 100 amp breaker switch that I have mounted onto my Lexan plastic mounting bed. I should be able to bolt this directly onto the existing bolts protruding from the cap over the shocks, I just need 2 more of the same type of nuts and a couple of washers and that should secure my mounting bed down nicely. 

Voice Projection Unit Diagram Modified To Include Fused Power Distribution Block

I modified my wiring diagram for the Power Button for K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit. This new diagram includes both the in-line fuse holder at the battery to protect the Fused Power Distribution Block and Fused Power Distribution Block. The block I am using takes "Blade" type fuses but any type of fuse block will work. For now I will be just using a 10 Gauge (AWG) Power Wire from the battery to my 12 Position Fused Distribution Block as I don't really see the stuff I will hook into it being too heavy on Amps. If at a later time it looks like I will need to beef up the power cable then I can swap it out for something like a nice fat 4 Gauge (AWG) but for now with ONLY the Voice Projection Unit hooked up the 10 Gauge is plenty for now. But I do have some 4 Gauge on order just in case ;)

On an additional note one of the reasons I have placed, or I should say "will be placing" an in-line fused breaker at the battery rated for 100 Amps is that for one thing it's just shy of the 105 Amps Max. that the Fused Distribution Block can handle, plus I will be able to use it's breaker switch to cut off power going to that Fuse Block. So essentially any things that I have that are run by that particular fuse block I can enable or disable right at the battery. My thought is that this would be good for car shows where let's say I wanted some of K.I.T.T.s functions to be disabled, like sirens, smoke screens, grappling hook.... just for arguments sake lets say, you know the kind of stuff that you would not want anyone at a car show to trigger accidentally. ;)

Power Distribution Block

I picked up a Bussmann Ganged Fuse Panel with 12 Positions for all the extra gadgets that are being added into my K.I.T.T. I figured this extra Power Distribution Block will be good inside of the car on the passenger side under the dash, preferably somewhere convenient to get to unlike the "Convenience Centre" on the drivers side lol. I've never hooked up one of these before so I'm looking into what gauge wire is best to use for this type of thing, the fatter the better is my guess. I think it also needs and in line fuse close to the battery as well just to protect the panel, not sure though as I say I've never done this before so I'm trying to find some good information on the best and proper way to install this panel into the car, gotta be safe with power so information is a good thing. ;)