(ET) Elec-trak back online

[Christopher Zach <czach computer org>]

Well, the grass is finally growing a bit, so time to mow it.

I took the E20 out this weekend and looked it over. The mower deck has 
the obligatory one-dead-motor of course; this one looks like the brushes 
are sticking. That's ok; I need to replace the bearings on it anyway 
($100 over at the motor rebuild shop).

With my spare tall motor on it the deck is running well. Need to sharpen 
the blades; I might remove those next year and store them inside. Other 
than that I noticed the tractor was not dropping the FW at high loads. 
Turns out the relay contacts were pitted on the dropout relay, and it 
was always out of the circuit (ie: resistors in). Fixed that however now 
the relay doesn't seem to pull in at all. Looks like more board 4 
problems. I should just replace that.

Also the current sensing shunt for that whole thing keeps getting hot, 
even with the FW circuit disabled. The bolts are not hot, nor the wires 
going to it. Maybe the copper plate is just bad or something; are those 
supposed to get that hot? I'm about ready to just bypass it with a #6 
wire and forget about field weakening for awhile.

Chris