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Re: (ET) E15 moves after 10 years?
I can't match that story, but I did bring an E15 back to operating
condition today.
My E12 with plow and E15 with snowthrower both stopped working the same
day back in late February dealing with the aftermath of what turned out
to be the second last major snow storm of the season. (I did not enjoy
the last storm of the season at all.)
Both died at the bottom of the driveway. It's enough of a grade that it
takes two hearty folks working hard to push them up to the garage for
repairs. It's been a busy few months since, and I only got seriously
looking at getting back in operation for this coming winter (and with
sub-freezing weather expected tonight, that could be coming any time
now). Anyway, I put the E15 in the garage that day, and it has stayed
there until today.
When I had time over the past few months, I checked main connections and
a couple of other things without success. I opened the back panel for
the dash, and eventually found a centre tab on one of the reed relays
(not the forward-reverse relay) had broken off embedded in the quick
disconnect. Fiddled with that and put the connectors on the other side
of the 2-pole relay. Success. Machine moved under its own power. Took
it down the driveway to tow the E12 up to the garage. Unpleasant day
outside, so very disappointed when the E15 stopped operating again once
it was positioned to tow the E12. Went back inside, changed to dry gear,
and went out again to reopen the back panel again. Everything looked
fine, reseated all the connectors again on the reed relay, and figured I
would see if anything had changed. Worked fine. Closed things up again
and towed the E12 to the garage and unhooked. Went to move the E15
again, and no go. Opened things up, all looks good, but relay doesn't
seem to be opening and closing. Try powering up, and it works. Closed
it up and moved it to the side so there's room to work on the E12.
I don't trust self-healing tractors, I'm worried this one will leave me
stranded, and the open up and close again trick won't be any fun me in
mid-winter, even if the E15 is having a good time at my expense.
All best,
On 2023-10-22 5:09 p.m., Chris Zach via Elec-trak wrote:
So my E15 burned down the BB600 pack of 30 cells about a decade ago and
pretty much sat in my yard. Cause of death was the timer not stopping
the charge (broke) and over a weekend the charger dried out the cells
then went into thermal runaway and fused the batteries.
Last year I pulled out the old pack, put 30 spares into it, but it
wasn't running. And so I dragged it to a corner of the yard with the E20
and left it. This fall I decided to see if anything would work so I went
out this weekend and did a LOT of troubleshooting.
The problems:
The F3 fuse was not making contact. Cleaned up the fuse holder with a
brass brush, put fuse in, had power across the fuse.
Brake switch is shot. Bypassed it with a wire nut for now. Brakes are
totally frozen anyway.
With that I got power with key on to pins 1 with PTO off and 2 with PTO
on. Bonus, the PTO contactor clicked in, so I know seat switch
(bypassed) and key switch are working. Good.
Checked pin 6, nothing. Put tractor in speed 1, still nothing. Start
switch connector fell off, removed throttle, cleaned everything, used a
bit of tuner cleaner for lube, put it together, motor spins! But badly.
Tightened up armature bolts and CB1 lugs, tightened up the tension on
the two belts (yes this E15 has a 2 belt sheave and transmission. It's
smaller than an E20 motor so it's not a motor swap) fired it up and the
tractor moved forward. Even better putting it in reverse causes it to
move backwards.
Can't steer, so got out the grease gun and lubed the steering joints.
Steers with great difficulty but it's getting better slowly.
Still only running in speed 1 till I advance the throttle far forward
then field weakening comes on. I'm guessing 1a and 2a coils are not
working, may be a problem with the IC board. Need to check that out.
One rear tire flat, filled it, will see if it holds. One front tire
good, one the sidewall dry rotted so need to replace that.
Overall it's kind of a mess, but at least things seem to be sort of
working. Going to have to figure out why 1a/2a are down (is 4 to 10
closing? 11 to 13?) but I'll work on that next weekend.
Need to think about what to do. I guess I could get a diode assembly,
fix the wreck of a charger that came out of my E20 and put it in this
one. I would so much prefer a big 60 amp constant voltage charger though
to give 3 strings of NiCDs a proper charging...
Poor old thing. I got it like 20 years ago from a guy who had it rotting
in the woods behind his house. Part of the frame had disintegrated at
the rear transmission lug so I welded angle iron and basically build a
new frame. It will never mount a rear accessory but the tow bar is
intact....
Still, it continues to run and I don't have the heart to scrap it. :-)
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Darryl McMahon
Freelance Project Manager (sustainable systems)
Do not mistake patience for weakness, nor action for strategy.
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