(ET) It's ALIVE!!!

["Christopher Zach" <czach computer org>]

What a day!

Went over to Eric's house this morning and picked up a set of batteries for
the E20. Drove them back to the house (8 6 volt batteries will make your 
van
tail-heavy) and unloaded them into the trailer.

The manual pages for the E20 showed the layout of the batteries and what
goes where for the connections. Had to guess on the lights and the PTO
though; my plan was to fire the PTO first (to see if it was slow or fast)
and that would tell me if the lights were safe.

Got the batteries in (tough job with the plastic bag thing and all) and
fixed the molex connector for the power supply. Wired everything up, closed
the lid, put it in reverse and hit the switch....

Nothing. Replaced the 30amp interlock fuse.

Nothing. Wiggled the accel pedal to make sure the speed was at the top
(zero). Hit the pedal...

*WHUMP*

Backwards the tractor went. Whee!!!

Let off on the pedal, still went backwards. Hmmmm.... Hit the brake, 
tractor
stopped instantly.

Looks like the pedal is sticking. Need to work on that.

Put it in forward and proceeded to drive it around the yard. The batteries
were low (they were stress-tested prior to my buying them) so I didn't go
far. Replaced the 20 amp light fuse, and the lights came on. Wow, they are
bright!

Drove it up to the front of the house and plugged it in. The thing doesn't
seem to turn off when I turn the knob back to zero, is this normal? The
needle went to the top of the green, barely into the white. Just checked it
now 30 minutes later, and it's about 3/4 the way up the white.

Questions:

1) Is the charger supposed to turn off when you twist the knob back to off?
Is it supposed to be able to spin all the way around (more than 360 
degrees)
in either direction?

2) How do you know if the charger timer motor is working?

3) Should I leave it plugged in all night? Can it blow up the batteries
(they are low now) by charging overnight?

4) I read a voltage of 42 volts when the batteries were disconnected at the
charger. Is this good, too high, or too low?

5) Is it always this much fun to drive it around the yard :-)

Thanks for all the help. The thing that amazes me the most is that after 
god
knows how many years, the tractor just started right up. Even the lights
work. Truly a high quality job on the part of GE....

Chris