Ive been working on the electrical system for awhile and im confused in a few parts. One of my main questions is what parts are needed. i know im going to a controller, kill switch, and fuse, but Im very much baffeled. This is my first car and any help is accepted.

You pretty much got it down. Controller, 1-2 kill switches depending on how you mount it or them, fuse, Batteries always help, your going to need a throttle ( i see many people using thumb throttles-in my opinion they are better because when you hit bumps you have more control over your hands then your feet.) Last off i highly recommend a meter of some sort. This helps you keep track of the power you have spent during the race weather it be an amp meter or one of clouds famous amp/hour meters. Keep up the good work bud :)

There si a pretty good picture on page 24 of the rulebook showing a basic electrical system. You pretty well have it figured out, just need to work out the specifics. Aaron

Heres a noob question; whats the difference between a controller and a throttle? I know where to generally look for parts, I just dont know what model of parts i need such as what type of controller and motor. I am very new to this.

-- Edited by Ryan Fauser on Thursday 13th of May 2010 08:52:27 PM

The throttle is typically a 0to 5K or 5K to 0 pot which send a signal to the logic circuit in the contoller which in turn tells the power circuit to provide more or less voltage as determined by the pot setting . Sounds like mud to me but that is the story.

throttle:http: //www.cloudelectric.com/category_s/72.htm controller: http://www.cloudelectric.com/category_s/5.htm I am not recomending the ones I posted, just examples

Some popular controllers names used on most cars in the norhtwest are Curtis and Alltrax.  I have a Alltrax in my car #59, and the schools car #51 has a Alltrax.  The schools original car has a Curtis controller.

I teach Auto Tech so we have access to a lot of parts.
We use two digital volt ohm meters, $25-30 each, from one of our auto parts stores to keep track of volts and amps.
Volts hook up is self evident.  The other meeter is hooked up to a shunt and we set the meter to milivolts and it gives you AMPS.
Once the drivers understands amp draw equals draining down the batteries they learn how to get the most out of the batteries.  

To save money since we have so many cars our multi meters come from Harbor Freight. You can buy them on sale (nearly always) for around $3 each and they work OK. Each one is a little different readings but close enough to give the students an idea of usage. Again one for volts and one for amps. You can buy a 100 amp 100 mv shunt for around $25 at many EV supply places.