(ET) Need a crash course in basic electric vehical 101

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

Hi every body, I think I am in serious need of a crash course in Basic
Electric Vehicle 101.  My daughter has a little power wheels 4 wheeler
that is not working.  I thought it should be pretty simple to trouble
shoot, simply with a 12 volt battery charger and a MM.  The wire is as
follows.

There are two motors, both wired to turn the same direction when you
step on the accelerator. There is a accelerator pedal and a
forward/Reveres lever.  No on/off switch.  Using the charger I can get
both motors to run in both directions by simply jumping the charger to
the motor feed wirers and reversing them for the other direction.  That
is about all I can tell you.  I do not understand how the accelerator or
the directional lever is suppose to work and how to trouble shoot it.  I
can tell you this the directional lever has two 6 lead plugs going to
it, both motor have both of the leads in these 2 plugs.  The accelerator
has a single plug with 3 wires, two wires come from the 2 plugs on the
directional control and the other is a jump from one of the wires with a
resistor in the jump.

I have a second vehicle for the other daughter, that is working.  I
swapped out the directional lever, with no luck,  I "kind of" swapped
out the accelerator switch with no luck.  I say "Kind of the resistor is
wired in to the wiring harness of the vehicle, The wire on the resistor
on the bad car broke, so I swapped the switch and then jumped the wire
to the good resistor.