(ET) It moves!

[Kelly Williams <kelfy yahoo com>]

Ha!  The E12M that was pulled out of the woods - it's
alive!  Thanks go to Harold Zimmerman, who was sure it
could be made to go, and elec-trak.org, keeper of
those invaluable manuals and schematics, and this
list, whose discussions, past and present, I've been
studying like crazy.  Pretty much everything I've run
into has already been talked about, and conversations
among people who are "doing" is help that you can
never get from a manual.

First I got the charger cleaned up & going, then went
over the controller, then started working my way
through the drive switches and relays.  All relays
click when they should and I can now drive back and
forth on the power cord!  I can't really say how the
relays & switches will do under full current, but it's
very encouraging.

And here's some empirical data on running on the
charger.  When I first brought it back to life, I was
getting 42.5 volts, well within spec (40 to 44v,
p.1-25 of the General Information manual).  I
proceeded to run the motor quite a bit, hot-wired from
the charger.  (I plugged the charger into a Powerstat
so I could bring the voltage up slowly).  With the
motor running, I could use a file and sandpaper to
grind rust off the motor drive sheave, then the
transmission input sheave, then the brake disk.  That
all worked fine.  But now, when checking the charger I
get - surprise! - 39.5 volts.  The same 39.5 volts
that I hear people talking about when the capacitor is
shot.

So it seems clear that I ruined the capacitor by
running the motor (although the motor didn't seem to
care).  Now, I don't know how weak the capacitor was
to start with, but I'm guessing that drawing this kind
of current from the charger is pretty much asking for
that kind of trouble.

So I'll get the capacitor out of the parts tractor and
see how it looks.  And then it's on to the mower deck!

By the way, I'm pleased with the simplicity of this
machine.  Nothing "sand-based" - just relays &
switches.  A multimeter & some wrenches, penetrating
oil & sandpaper was about all it needed.  Oh, and a
bunch of time & patience.  :-)

Kelly Williams
Mount Joy, PA

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