(ET) Hello Again

["Bob Murcek" <RMURCEK geisinger edu>]

Thanks for the welcome!
I'm still amazed there's so much going on with these.

My GE seems to have had a pretty hard life.  I think it spent most of its 
first life doing the expansive grounds around a local hospital, and then 
it got bought at auction by a yard tractor guy who didn't know what it was 
and left it outside for years.  

It was quite rusty and had some battery acid holes, and, when I took the 
main motor apart to figure out why the bearings were so rough I could 
plainly see that the poor thing had been under water at some point.  
(Cleaning and new bearings got the motor running, and luckily no water got 
into the transaxle.  I can't tell whether or not the controls were under.)

I took the body apart, wire brushed and sanded, treated it with Rustoleum 
Rust Reformer, and painted it with machinery enamel.  Also did this with 
the wheels.  I think it looks pretty cute.

Having had an experience with a small electric car with a resistance/step 
controller, I had intended to make a solid-state controller to provide 
smoother control more suitable for kids.  In the process of digging for 
design info, though, I came across a company in the UK that offered 
under-$200 controllers appropriate for something like this:
http://www.4qd.co.uk/prod/sco.html
so I did this instead.

My son and friends thought that the speed control was the best part of the 
tractor and wouldn't let me use a foot-pedal potentiometer, so I ended up 
adding small resisters to the speed control so that is simulated a 
potentiometer.  (I removed the small welded-on plate that blocked the top 
four positions, so it has seven forward speeds.)  Currently the ET is 
reversed with a big toggle switch, but when the weather gets nicer I 
really want the original speed control to reverse it.......