RE: (ET) Sure {"-{

["Chris Tromley" <chris_t microtrac com>]

wombat wrote:

> I just found our yesterday that I've got a short to chassis, had a
> wrench on the 36 volt plus battery terminal, touched the frame and got a
> spark - OOPS.  Now the joy of finding it.

Interesting.

Just yesterday I had an arc & spark event.  My seat switch had been acting
flaky, sometimes cutting off power even with me sitting squarely in the 
seat
(at times when it was *really* inconvenient).  Turns out the spring/post
arrangement that lifts the seat was bent, allowing the seat to depress too
far.  It looks like the seat switch doesn't like having its plunger forced
in flush with the body, and it ruptured its innards.

Anyway, I pulled the switch and bypassed it to get me going.  In the course
of doing that, one of the switch leads touched the chassis, vaporized the
connector and blew a 20 A fuse.  This is a New Idea EGT-150.  Is
*everything* supposed to be isolated from the chassis, or only the high-amp
traction stuff?  Is the control circuitry referenced to chassis ground, or
do I need to find a ground fault?

Chris

P.S.  It was rather handy being able to move the tractor without climbing 
on
and sitting in the seat.  It was also very clear that doing so could easily
lead to unexpected results ranging from hysterically embarrassing to quite
tragic.  Gotta get a new switch.

P.P.S.  Actually the spring/post arrangement for the seat didn't fail, the
sheet metal of the battery box that supports it got bent.  It should be an
easy fix to straighten it and tack a piece of angle steel in place to 
better
support it.  You might want to check and see if yours is headed in the same
direction.