(ET) Still working on my ET problems

["Roy Vanderhoef" <Roy Vanderhoef verizon net>]

Hi again all:

I am still working on problems on my ET15.  I have been preoccupied with
remodeling the house,  etc etc, and have not had a lot of time to spend
on the ET.  Heck with all the rain we have been having here in the DC
area I can barley keep up with mowing the Grass, with the neighbors gas
gosling JD.  While he spent over $4K on the JD gota love the fact that
it fires up every time he wants it.  

Any way if you recall I have a problem with my charger and my electric
supply to the drive motor.  I have not had a chance to even look at the
charger problem, but have looked at the motor supply problem.  Original
I could not get the top 3 speeds to work in forward, it would peg the
usage meter and slow down.  

Tom gave me an idea of where to look. I found that the Resistor card
apparently over heated and disordered one of the resistors and what
looks like a capacitor.  I have fixed that problem and now all the
forward speeds work, how ever now the Reveres speeds do not work.  

By the way Tom,  I apparently was measuring the voltage between the
wrong wires.  You had told me to measure it between 6 and 11.  I found a
wire marked 11 on the left (as you sit in the seat and look at the
board) circuit board, there are several wires on that board all in a
line but only the top 8 or so are numbered starting I think at 9, so I
made an assumption (wrong thing to do) that the lower numbers either
wore off or where not marked.  Counting back words on that board I
located what I thought would be the wire 6 you referred to, and measured
the voltage, that is where I got the original measurements I sent you.
Since then I found that on the resistor board you mentioned there are 6
wires marked 1 through 6.  measuring voltage between this wire 6 and the
wire 11 on the left circuit board I get the 36 volts and dropping in the
upper 3 speeds as you mentioned.  

As the resistor board you mentions dose not have 4 wirer wound 10A 20
Ohm resistors it has 4 white ceramic block resistors, one a litter
larger, and what looks like a black capacitor.  The larger resistor is
the only one marked and it is marked 15W 10 Ohm

Now to describe the reveres problem the best First when I move the speed
controller to the reveres area, the Reveres relay clicks and looks like
it is making good contact, Measuring the voltage between wire 6 and 11,
I have 0 volts in reveres speed 1, and 36 volts in reveres speed 2 and
3.  There are three silver things (I assume these are relays) on the
left behind the access panel below the dash. Each of these units have 2
large wires and 2 small wires.  As I select the reveres speed 1 through
3 I hear them click, first the top one with speed 1, then the middle
with S2, and finally the bottom with S3. With the speed select in
neutral there is no voltage reading between the little wires on any of
the silver things, as I select through the reveres speeds I see a 25
volts on the little wires as they click on.  With the transmission in
neutral the usage meter jumps to low yellow when selecting reveres speed
1 and to high yellow  with reveres speed 2, but the motor does not
start.  As I select reveres speed 3 the usage meter pegs the top side of
red and you hear and see the relay next to the reveres relay click in.
then about 50% of the time the motor will start and the usage meter will
drop to the mid yellow area. If the motor does not start it will soon
pop a circuit breaker, as both meters drop to zero and I lose all power.
After some time it will come back on.  If the motor starts I can slowly
back the Reveres speed off to Reveres 2 and then reveres 1 and get them
both to run, but once stopping the motor I am back to square one, and
trying to select reveres gives the same results.

Please help,  The grass is getting tall and one of those gas goslings
JDs are starting to look like a good solution. :-)

PS Steve if your offer to stop in and help fix this beast is still open,
I am ready to take you up on it.  Let me know I will work around your
schedule.