Re: (ET) help

["Max Hall" <maxmatic attbi com>]

Yeah, those card-edge connectors are quite dodgy. Trying to fix a weak
connection usually lands me in worse trouble, too...

http://www.maxmatic.com/


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Caplan" <scaplan mdtelephone com>
To: "Tickners" <tickners valinet com>; "ET Discussion List (E-mail)
(E-mail)" <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 4:03 PM
Subject: RE: (ET) help


> Fyi , I have had 3 e15's. Two of them had similar problems that were
caused by poor connections of the Molex connecter behind the panel under 
the
steering wheel coming from the speed control. Good luck.
> Steve
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tickners [mailto:tickners valinet com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 11:38 AM
> To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
> Subject: (ET) help
>
>
> My tractor just died while blowing snow. We got a ton and I didn't get 
> far
> at all before it died. I did some testing and initial R&R. My main
> disconnect was acting funny previously so I pulled that and cleaned it 
> up,
> works better now. The lift and PTO still work fine.
>
> What happens is when I put it in forward the L contactor just clicks. It
has
> 36V at the big lugs and when I put it in forward the small lugs get about
> 12-15V like the voltage supplied to the coil is rapidly switching. When 
> it
> first died it smelled hot and I stopped to check the blower motor and
drive
> motor with my hand. Then it would kind of edge forward in reverse and 
> edge
> in reverse in forward, now it does nothing. Since it's dead in my 
> driveway
> with about 16" of snow around it I tried jumping the L contactor coil 
> from
> the big lug to the small lug, just to see if I could get the thing to 
> move
> out of the way and it does the same thing, clicking. I thought maybe the
> contactor coil had partially shorted so I swapped the L contactor for the
2A
> contactor and it still does it.
>
> Now the fine print, I have an E15DA, and it seems like the wiring doesn't
> always match my shop manual. To compound that the PO had the reverse 
> relay
> die so he replaced that with a DPDT toggle, which has worked fine for the
> past 2 years. So to go in reverse you flip the toggle and push the speed
> control forward. Also, the brake switch and seat switch have been
bypassed,
> and he told me that he had disabled the 1st 2 speeds since he thought the
> resistors up front just wasted battery power. I agree and using low gear
on
> the transaxle works just fine, but I have never sat down and figured how
he
> did that.
>
> Thanks for any help
>