(ET) Controller repair on the E20

[Christopher Zach <czach greensleeves crystel com>]

Well, mowed the lawn with the E20 today and it's performance is simply 
getting worse and worse. Going up hills the meter is pegged; even 
driving around seems to peg the ammeter. Still, the battery monitors 
show no problems with the batteries, so it's elsewhere.

After driving it I checked somee temps. The bottom right contactor 
(armature) was extremely hot to the touch; looks like it's shot. Also 
the wires on top of the metal strip shunt were cooking.

So I started with the strip shunt. Took off the bolts, and looked at the 
wires. They have 1/0 crimps on them, and the crimped ends literally 
*FELL OFF* the top ones. Hm.

Cleaned up the wires and re-attached with a pair of screw-down 8 gauge 
wire lugs. Put the washer, then the two bolts, then the strip of copper, 
then two more bolts. Now the tractor runs "better" lower indicated current.

However after running that shunt gets *HOT*. As in very hot to the 
touch. The bolts and wires are fine; just the shunt is hot. Is this normal?

My guess is the limit is now that contactor. Does anyone have a spare 
set of the linked contactors? If not I suppose I'll just take it out and 
turn it upside down (thus putting the "bad" contactor in the reverse 
circuit) but I'd rather replace it properly. Also how should one 
re-torque the bolts for all these lugs? Too lose and I would assume 
there would be serious heat issues.

Chris