(ET) ok, not the fusible link

[Michael S Briggs <msbriggs alberti unh edu>]

Found a post from Wombat in the archives saying where the fusible link is 
- just a wire going across two terminals on the Power Disconnect. Ok, so 
the fusible link is fine, so it's apparnetly something else.
	Based on the wisps of smoke that came up around the speed lever, 
it seems reasonable to suspect something underneath it may have blown. 
There's that big ol relay down underneath there - but that's just the PTO 
contactor. Unless it's failure mode is creating a short across the 
batteries, I can't see that being the problem, since it's not just the PTO 
that's not working - nothing is.
	I suppose the smoke could have come from something in the speed 
control itself, but that shouldn't cause the no power at all problem (at 
least from looking at the schematics, I don't think it should).
	From looking at the Troubleshooting sketch schematic for the E-15 
in the manual, and just looking at what might result in the fuel level 
gauge not seeing squat, the only things between the fuel level gauge and 
the batteries (so the only things that keep it from reading batt voltage) 
are:
1. Power Use gauge - checked it with the multimeter, it's fine.
2. 20 Amp fuse 3 - it blew initially, I replaced it with 20 amp light fuse 
for the moment.
3. Wire 13 goes from that fuse to the PTO coil (is this the PTO contactor? 
Or some other coil?), but you don't seem to need to have a connection 
THROUGH the coil for the fuel gauge, since line 13 comes off of that same 
connection point on the terminal, and continues to the fuel gauge - on the 
negative side of it.
4. Line 5 comes off the + side of the fuel gauge, goes to fuse 2 (the lift 
fuse, but doesn't go through it, just connects to one end of it, and 
continues on from that same connection point), continues to the L 
contactor, but not through it, and to circuit breaker 1. Hm, haven't 
checked that yet - isn't that the main circuit breaker on the back of the 
panel that has the forward/reverse relay and such on it? I pressed it to 
reset in case it was the issue, but it seemed to be fine. I'll check again 
in a  minute just in case.
5. Power Disconnect, which presumably doesn't itself fail in any way - 
I'll check though.
6. Fusible link - fine.
7. And then to the + side of the pack.

So, presumably something in there is failed. I'll head back out with my 
multimeter and trace the line all around.
	This is kinda fun, albeit somewhat frustrating, since I had other 
things I wanted to do.

Mike

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Michael S. Briggs
UNH Physics Department
(603) 862-2828
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