Wall charger install: top feed plate wires loose?

[Padelford]

I just finished installing the 80 amp wall charger in my carport. It’s on a 50 A circuit with a NEMA 14-50 outlet that I have been using with my mobile charger. I used the top power feed plate with its own interconnect wires to the charger.

I noticed that the interconnect wires seem to swivel side-to-side in the plate junction block even though their anchor screws seemed to be very tight. Is that normal?

The charger seems to be working, but the charge rate is a bit low. It is chilly here, so perhaps the battery being cold isn’t charging as fast.

Thanks!

 

[ShawnA]

Hi Padelford,

You are running the new charger at 40 Amps right?
This is the proper setting with a 50 Amp breaker.
Are you using an appliance cord to feed the 80 Amp charger
plugged into the 14-50?

If you are using the short wires that are supplied with the top feed plate
they are quite flexible. They should have ferrules on both ends to keep all
of the wire strands together.
They are unusually flexible and as long as the ferrules are fully inserted
and properly clamped you should be OK.

Shawn

 

[Padelford]

Thanks for the response. I was concerned about the rotation of the Tesla-supplied cables connected to the terminal block. I haven’t seen that before.

I’m using a 50 A NEMA 14-50 appliance cord, and the charger is set for 40 A operation.

 

[ShawnA]

Hi Padelford,

Everything sounds OK. Good luck with your new charging setup.

Shawn

 

[Padelford]

One more question: when I plug in the new charger to my vehicle, the receptacle ring goes orange, and I have to juggle the plug up and down slightly to hear the latch click and charging start. I looked carefully at the new plug and the one on my mobile charger, and I can’t find any quantitative difference between the two, particularly around the locking slot, the distance between the slot and the plug end, and the dimensions of the slot.

Any idea what can be done about the need for jiggling the new plug?