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I was able to remove the Nissan Leaf battery using just jackstands and
3 jacks on a concrete pad without too much pain and anguish.
Writeup with pictures here:
http://www.summet.com/blog/2015/04/04/how-to-drop-a-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-without-an-auto-lift/
Short overview video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY8ZGOGYMQc
Wall of just the text follows.
Jay
How to drop a Nissan Leaf battery pack (without an auto lift)
Posted on April 4, 2015
NOTE: The battery pack has 400 volts inside of it. Be sure you know
what you are doing and have the proper protective equipment, as it can
kill you! It also weights 600lbs, so it can crush you!
I needed to remove the battery pack from my Salvage Nissan Leaf. The
2013-Nissan-LEAF-DG.pdf (Disassembly Guide) I found on the Nissan
website has good instructions, but they assume you have an auto-lift
(and custom battery moving system).
I didn’t want to purchase an auto lift, so I did it with the following
tools on my concrete driveway.
tools_used
Class 0 – 500 volt electrically insulating gloves. Necessary when
pulling the service disconnect, and the high voltage cables leading
from the battery to the motor and interior cabin heater.
3 jacks. One was a nice 3 ton low profile rapid pump jack with a
maximum lift of 19″. The other two were 2 ton cheap jacks with only a
13″ lift. I would have liked to have three of the high lift jacks, but
cost is always an issue. If cost isn’t an issue, just buy an auto
lift, it would make a lot of things easier.
Several scrap pieces of wood, used to space up the 2 ton jacks to
be able to reach the battery while the car was lifted 15″ above the
ground.
(not shown, still under the car: 4 jackstands)
10mm double ended wrench, and 10mm socket wrench, mostly for
removing bolts holding the aerodynamic covers to the bottom of the
battery.
Air compressor, and 1/2″ impact driver, with 18mm socket. Note
that Harbor Freight sells sets of impact sockets that skip from 17mm
to 19mm, you really need an 18mm. I got mine at NAPA for $7
18mm wrench, for eight of the bolts holding the battery to the
bottom of the car (potentially optional, if you use the impact driver
for everything.)
16mm wrench, for 4 bolts on the back of the battery.
Prybar – used to pop the plastic rivet things holding the
aerodynamic plastic plates under the battery.
Goggles – Eye protection, used all the time, but ESPECIALLY when
popping the plastic rivet things, which crack and fly with quite a bit
of force.
Leather gloves – used most of the time, especially when putting a
lot of pressure on wrenches!
Black electrical tape scissors – used to cover the exposed
terminals on the service disconnect, motor HV cable and cabin interior
heater connections on the battery.
Rubber Mallet – Used to bang on wrenches. Could also use a 16mm
impact socket with the impact driver.
Needle Nosed Pliers – Used only to pull the locking tab on the
interior cabin heater cable connector.
Safety first!
To make the battery less dangerous, I did two separate procedures
before removing it. First, I pulled up the service disconnect panel
(between the rear passengers foot wells), unscrewed the 10mm bolts
holding the metal cover down, and pulled the service disconnect from
the middle of the battery. This splits the battery into two ~200 volt
halves, instead of a single 400 volt whole. It also opens the circuit
to the high voltage cable connections.
service_disconnect_cover
service_disconnect_3_10mm_bolts
service_disconnect_plug
To remove it, you have to lift the back slightly (rotating it up),
press in a cache, and then finish lifting and rotating to a vertical
position, after which you can pull it out. I wore my 500 volt gloves
for this procedure.
service_disconnect_push_tab
service_disconnect_pulled
service_disconnect_rotated_all_the_way
After I pulled the service disconnect, I wrapped the socket with
electrical tape. The only way to make sure that nobody accidentally
puts the disconnect back in while you are not looking is to keep it in
your pocket. (I also bolted the cover back on.)
Note: The inverter portion of the motor unit has capacitors in it that
take a full 10 minutes to self discharge. So after you pull the
service disconnect, wait at least 10 minutes before doing any work on
the orange cables!
12v_accessory_battery
I also removed the connections to the 12 volt accessory battery. This
prevents the contractor in the battery from accidentally connecting,
hopefully keeping the high voltage terminals from being energized.
(However, when removing the connectors and covering with electrical
tape, I still wore my 500 volt gloves…)
Information about the battery:
The 2013 Nissan Leaf battery is 60.91 inches long, by 46.77 inches
wide, and 10.39 inches tall at the tallest point. The total weight is
606 lbs, and half of this weight is in the last 12 inches, so the
center of gravity of the
