RE: (ET) help

["Jeff Tickner" <JeffT softlanding com>]

I want to thank everyone for all your help. I spent some time with the tractor on Sunday going through it more carefully, both rewarding and frustrating. I tried to follow everyone's advice. Never found any definitive answers, but I found some more questions.

Jim. I did find loose connections on the front resistors, and they do seem to warm up pretty good when operating the speed control so I believe they are being used. I'm not positive since the A1 and A2 contactors don't seem to be engaging as I would expect them to. There also seems to be quite a few wires going from the L contactor, from the switched big lug, but the schematic and "wiring diagram" just show the one going to the A1 contactor. Besides that one I have 2 other big ones and 2 small ones. I'm wondering if this is a modification?

I also tested the field voltage at the P3/J3 connector per the manual as suggested. The manual says test wires 62 and 22. I don't have a 62, just a 22 and that does have 36 volts after the connector. I did also pull apart and clean up the plugs, the speed control and the motor harness. I also found a loose wire on the speed control on the FW1 switch, but that may have broken when I was messing around with the wires. Does anyone with a late E15 know what the other field voltage wire is?

I did also hose down the edge connectors with DeoxIt and wiggled them a bit (http://www.caig.com/descript/deoxit.htm). I was afraid to actually pull the connectors and replug them. I was looking at my current wiring and it seems like all the loose wires relate to the reverse relay. 

I was testing in various spots and seeing a big voltage drop when operating the speed control, and then it stopped dropping in voltage, just the normal sag from 36V+ to 36V-!! So I played with it some more, finally decided I had found a bad connection and it had just decided to make a good connection. 

So I started using it to blow snow and it worked fine. While operating it I paid attention to what was happening, I'm getting 3  speeds and the resistors upfront are generating enough heat to melt snow on the grill. The draw on the pack still seems greater then it has in the past, well down into the red zone on the fuel meter and the load on the main disconnect seems very high. It also smelled hot, but the drive motor didn't even seem warm. Once again I have some bad spots on my disconnect disc that I will need to clean up, I guess from when I was playing with it when I had the problem and getting arcs. I have to twist the handle a bit to get a good connection. I'm wondering if this is where the hot smell is coming from. I think I read on this list of a better design available, mine is the copper disc that rests on the 2 brass bolt heads when engaged. What is the new design like?

I use the DeoxIt quite a bit on my tractor, I originally bought it for my 78 VW Camper's fuel injection system, based on others experiences. Get a lot of gremlins from 20+ year old push on connectors.

Thanks again. 

Jeff Tickner
Technical Support
800-545-9485, Ext 536
SoftLanding Systems