Somewhere in this string there is mention of mouse damage to wiring. Even though you use a shed, when you get that baby running again you may want to use mothballs to keep them critters out. I glued a metal bandaid box at the base of the large panel under the steering wheel, the camphor odor pretty much fills the whole area. The engine bay of my suv, parked outside, is also mothballed. Jack
On Nov 23, 2009, at 5:53 PM, David Brandt wrote: That's one reason I wired mine from scratch, starting with appropriate fuses. The existing wiring and circuitry is at the end of it's lifespan. If it has been kept acid free, and under relatively mild temperatures, then sure, you can get many more years out of it, but most of these tractors were stored outside in all kinds of weather, with acid accumulating over time on the components, with the accompanying problems. It's just plain worn out. Chris, with your skills, you could make up your own controller, or at least simplify the circuitry. I'm not saying it's easy, (and who has the time?) but it does pay off in the end, by avoiding all this troubleshooting. Plus when something does go wrong, you pretty much know what the problem is. David Brandt --- On Sun, 11/22/09, Christopher Zach < cz alembic crystel com> wrote: From: Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>
Subject: Re: (ET) E20 down, only one speed forward
To: noaddress drmm net
Cc: Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Date: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 8:53 AM
David Roden wrote:
I stopped having these kind of problems - and
headaches with those flaky little connectors GE used on the
card edge - when I put a modern (well, late '90s era anyway)
transistor controller in my ET.
True, there is that option, and to be honest it makes the
Elec-Trak a lot more survivable than say my US Electricar
Prizm. If that controller fails either we fix it or you have
a large rock in your driveway.
That said, the thing that is annoying me about the
Elec-Trak is the same thing that annoys me about the Prizm:
Both controllers do not have proper fuses.
On the E20 there is a "fuse" for the controller circuitry,
however it's rating is much too high for the circuits on the
control boards. As a result if a component shorts you don't
blow the fuse, you blow traces and the like. Very annoying.
On the other hand this is a single-layer board, and is as
dull as dirt to fix. Assuming I can find out the part
numbers for the transistors.
That said, it looks like the smaller diodes are starting to
die. The bigger ones for the field control have all been
replaced, guess I need to get some smaller ones from Radio
shack now.
Chris
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