mvadventure
1 kW
- Joined
- May 2, 2007
- Messages
- 419
We've had a lot of rain here in N FL, a total of 6 1/2" at my house over two days. This means my sidewalks were wet and in a few cases underwater in the back yard. But, in times of rain it's necessary to check the lines on the boat frequently, rain or no rain, and my GS Moon three wheeled scooter is perfect. It's either that or walk and in the rain it's a long walk.
The scooter has made this trip hundreds of times and the only times of trouble are when the batteries need charged/replaced, a pair of BB 20 AH 12 volt that are well secured in what I "thought" was a water tight compartment.
Well the rain quit and it was hot this afternoon so I hopped on the scooter to go to the mailbox. No go. Only little flickers on the battery indicator and no power. I walked to the mailbox (no big deal, only a couple of hundred feet)
Setting up a bench on a couple of sawhorses I put the scooter up and looked at the batteries. All good. Next the connections. All good. So, I turned it on, set the drive wheel off the ground and everything worked! Easy fix so I put it back together, put in back on the ground, turned it on and rode about 50' when it quit and repeated the initial procedure. Naturally I said some bad words but not too many.
Back on the bench. This time the batteries came out, the body came off so I could access all the wiring and the controller and I started with a voltmeter. I kept getting inconsistent voltage. 24 volts one minute, six or eight volts the next. Sometimes the drive wheel would turn with very little power, sometimes strong, sometimes not at all.
I was flummoxed. It isn't supposed to be so hard figuring this out and the controller is a sealed unit that certainly looks waterproof. The connections to the motor were fine and the brushes looked good.
So, back to basics. I checked the fuse. No reason, it had to be working but I wanted to start at A and work to Z. The scooter has a AGC glass tube fuse. It was FULL OF WATER!!!!! Full. Nasty black water. Full. It shouldn't have been working but there was still some connection. I took the top off, drained the water out, blew it out with an air gun and put it back and everything worked like new!
Fortunately, as a boater, I have LOTS of fuses and stuff so I fired up my ebike drove it the 250' to the boat and got a new replacement AGC fuse. Now that everything is back together the scooter survived about a 500 yard test drive.
So, the whole purpose of this is to say that even though stuff is working, if it ain't working right it could still be the fuse. I've never, ever, seen anything like this before, especially with an AGC type fuse.
Mike
The scooter has made this trip hundreds of times and the only times of trouble are when the batteries need charged/replaced, a pair of BB 20 AH 12 volt that are well secured in what I "thought" was a water tight compartment.
Well the rain quit and it was hot this afternoon so I hopped on the scooter to go to the mailbox. No go. Only little flickers on the battery indicator and no power. I walked to the mailbox (no big deal, only a couple of hundred feet)
Setting up a bench on a couple of sawhorses I put the scooter up and looked at the batteries. All good. Next the connections. All good. So, I turned it on, set the drive wheel off the ground and everything worked! Easy fix so I put it back together, put in back on the ground, turned it on and rode about 50' when it quit and repeated the initial procedure. Naturally I said some bad words but not too many.
Back on the bench. This time the batteries came out, the body came off so I could access all the wiring and the controller and I started with a voltmeter. I kept getting inconsistent voltage. 24 volts one minute, six or eight volts the next. Sometimes the drive wheel would turn with very little power, sometimes strong, sometimes not at all.
I was flummoxed. It isn't supposed to be so hard figuring this out and the controller is a sealed unit that certainly looks waterproof. The connections to the motor were fine and the brushes looked good.
So, back to basics. I checked the fuse. No reason, it had to be working but I wanted to start at A and work to Z. The scooter has a AGC glass tube fuse. It was FULL OF WATER!!!!! Full. Nasty black water. Full. It shouldn't have been working but there was still some connection. I took the top off, drained the water out, blew it out with an air gun and put it back and everything worked like new!
Fortunately, as a boater, I have LOTS of fuses and stuff so I fired up my ebike drove it the 250' to the boat and got a new replacement AGC fuse. Now that everything is back together the scooter survived about a 500 yard test drive.
So, the whole purpose of this is to say that even though stuff is working, if it ain't working right it could still be the fuse. I've never, ever, seen anything like this before, especially with an AGC type fuse.
Mike
