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As you are building your own battery pack, would it not be better to build or purchase a BMS tailored to the new battery pack?

Using a BMS that's not designed for the pack and battery chemistry seems like a recipe for failure/firey doom to me.

I don't know enough about electrical systems and BMS modules to figure all that out. But according to others earlier in this thread, the battery chemistry, voltage and AH rating are all identical to the original Mollicells, so it should have been a straight swap.

Zero did eventually get back to me, saying they don't support non-stock modifications, and suggested I refer my questions to the message boards like this one. So...the can has been kicked down the road, as expected. If anyone knows someone (or some shop) in the California SF Bay area that does this kind of modification, I'd love to get that information. At this point, I've given up and I'm ready to turn it over to someone who actually knows what they're doing, which isn't me.

Thank you a ton foot that;  it's exactly what i was looking for.  It sounds pretty daunting to me,  buy i forwarded it to someone i know who has worked on ZEV scooters to see what he thinks.

I've searched for writeups and videos about the process,  but can't seem to find any other than the one thread on this forum.  If you can direct me to any other resources,  I'd be grateful.

Did you do this process yourself?  Are you happy with the results?

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I did the conversion with help from a friend who was a maintenance tech for a photo lab for 20 years. It took us 10 hours, being very careful to measure twice and connect once. But after all that, the BMS wouldn't operate with the new Leaf cells. The pack is built correctly, and would work fine if I bypass the BMS, but I;d really like to have the BMS for safety, since the built-in charger is pretty powerful, and without the BMS monitoring, the cells could charge unevenly and overheat, even to the point of being dangerous. Another guy I met with a 2009 Zero X helped me understand how to bypass the BMS, but to be safe, that means buying a less-powerful charger to make sure none of the cells overheat and catch fire. For now, though, I'm still trying to get in touch with Luke, the battery guru up at Zero, to get some help figuring out how to reset the stock BMS to accept the new battery pack. No answer yet, and for that matter, no answer from Zero's tech support after three weeks and two emails. I'd have been OK with a simply 'No, we can't help you with your non-stock set-up, but instead I got no answer at all. Not sure how that is supposed to keep people stoked on them, but whatever...

Bottom line, if you don't mind taking the time to figure out the particulars, it can be done. I still need to post all my pictures from the swap. I took lots.

Yeah. All I can do is pull the battery back out, break it down and see, but I don't think it's a comm issue. All the connectors look great, and all are hooked up to the same ones they were before. I guess I might have to try contacting Zero if I can't find the problem, and see if they can diagnose the problem.

What is the sequence of beeps?

Three long beeps, repeating. It only does it when I turn on the system, and doesn't stop until I turn it off. Also, when I took it off the charger later (with the key in the off position), I got another series of beeps. It was 5 short and then 4 long. Didn't seem to charge at all, either. It still has the same 54.3v it did before the 4 hours of charging. But the charger lights indicate 80% charge (absorption phase), so it might be in trickle charge mode.

Thanks for the quick reply. It does sound like it will be way easier to stick with 7 Leaf cell packs, so the BMS system can still be used with one wire for each cell pack. And 20 to 40 miles will work fine for me.

You mentioned that the mollicells are rated at 300 cycles to 80%. Do you know what the cycle rating is for the Leaf batteries? I couldn't find that anywhere.

Now I just need to find myself an owner's manual for this thing. Zero never put them up on the web as PDfs, it seems. Odd, since the digital files surely exist, and it would have taken 30 seconds to export a PDF and ten more minutes to post a link on the site.