RE: (ET) It's almost done (and other famous last words)

["Humphrey, Timothy" <HumphreyT neads ang af mil>]

Yes, that is correct. 

The line disconnect does NOT break up the pack. It breaks the connection
from the B2 positive and the charger, as well as the shunt for the ammeter 
-
which then connects to all of the rest of the tractor.

Connect your external charger to B2+ and B5-. Leave the disconnect,
disconnected.(your onboard voltmeter will be disabled also.) 

Stay Charged!

Hump

> -----Original Message-----
> From: D Howell [mailto:dervatl yahoo com]
> Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 11:24 PM
> To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
> Subject: (ET) It's almost done (and other famous last words)
> 
> 
> It's been about 6 weeks now that the elderly I-5 has
> been torn apart, stipped, POR-15'ed, painted, and
> reassembled.  I still haven't put the hood on or the
> seat, but the main parts are all there.  I reinstalled
> the batterys today, using the new plastic liners I got
> from Bill.  I'm not sure how good my batterys are
> going be since I got them in a poor state of charge
> and I'm sure they were that way for a long time.  I
> charged them while they were out using a golf cart
> charger.  I guess time will tell.  
> 
> The electronics seem to be in good shape.  I took it
> for a spin around the house and down the street for a
> bit.  Cruise control works great as does everything
> else electric.  (That's a good thing, especially on
> this tractor!)  The only casualty was the wires going
> to my headlights.  One side was touching those big
> bands that heat up above the charger.  Melted them
> together.  I knew something was up when my dash light
> came on whenever I pressed the throtttle.  I fixed the
> problem, but now my headlights don't come on although
> the dash light does.  Maybe the bulbs blew.
> 
> While the tractor was torn down, I adjusted the brake.
>  The adjustment seemed to work.  It stops fairly well
> now.  When I first brought it home and rolled it off
> the trailor, it was an exciting moment to push the
> brake and nothing happens.  
> 
> After the initial tear down, I made a list of parts
> and sent an order to Bill.  I bought about $124.00
> worth of parts.  A major part of that order was the
> diode assembly and the capacitor.  I knew the charger
> didn't work when I bought it.  Looking at it I noticed
> right away the capacitor had blown off the top.  So, I
> ordered everything I thought might be wrong with it to
> get in back working.  The bad news is that subsequent
> testing (with the new parts installed) has shown that
> the transformer is bad too.  I found one locally here
> for $30 although I'm not sure when the guy is going to
> actually locate it.  He's retired and gone back to
> school, but is in the "finals" mode.  Said he'd call
> me when he had time to look for it.
> 
> In the meantime, I'm going to try and use my golf cart
> charger.  This brings me to a most important question.
>  I'm going to hook this charger up externally to the
> batterys.  Which batterys do I hook to?  Without
> knowing the internal wiring, I'm a bit hesitant to
> just hunt the right voltage and start charging.  My
> intial testing shows 37 volts between the negative on
> B-5 and the positive on B-2.  Is that the correct
> hookup for an external charger?  I seem to get the
> same voltage between these two terminals regardless of
> whether or not the disconnect switch is engaged or
> not.  Would this make sense?
> 
> Thanks for any replys.  I really appreciate all the
> help the board has given me already.
> 
> Darryl Howell
> Smyrna GA
>