Water Repellant Ideas?

[fifthmass]

Guys,

I had my first ebike breakdown in 4,500 miles. I hit a few puddles from melting snow here in New England and after 5 miles or so I lost power abruptly. With the wheel off the ground the motor would turn the wheel at about 10 mph max with a very jerky vibration. I pulled the 5-pin hall connector apart and saw the inside was wet. I dried it as best I could and things partially improved but still could not get solid power.

Had to ride 5 miles with 408 motor cogging torque & 25 lbs battery into a 30 mph headwind back home ( :x :x )

I let things dry out overnight and today everything was normal during a short test ride.

I would like to carry a small can of spray compound that could repel small amounts of water off of electronics. In the old days I used WD40 to dry wet ignition wires in my car and that worked pretty well. Any ideas for a spray for ebike electronics, wiring connectors, etc? I could try WD40 but am curious if there may some product specifically intended for this purpose.

Thanks for any ideas.

regards,
Bill

 

[geetarboy]

Seems like you've had good luck for "4500 miles." I would try to make your hall connector waterproof, or lenghten your wire to put it in a place where it is protected. All my connection are inside a waterproof bag suspended inside my triangle. Or,if you spray some WD-40 in the connectors before you snap them together, it might keep it from shorting out in the same situation??? That's my idea - for whatever it's worth.

 

[morph999]

di-electric grease ?

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

di-electric grease ?

Bingo. I was thinking the same thing as morph .... I should get a tube of that stuff and seal the connectors.

Also I wrap the "loom" of wires at the top of the seat-post tube with the connectors high as I can get them, and wrap the group with an old bike inner-tube split down the middle, and I have had no issues with water although I regularly ride in the rain.

I spiral the tube from the bottom to top (controller at the bottom with the rubber tube over-lapping where all the wires go into the controller) and make a flap over the top which I then have velcro straps taken from knee & elbow pads I have bought for pennies at goodwill, wrapped around them to keep the wires secure and water resistant.

 

[Harold in CR]

When I was a Lineman for a power company, we would use a spray can of "Char-Kote". Spray it on the rubber sleeves and glove liners. It would break up the surface tension of the rain, running in streams down your gloves and arms. It works kinda like Rain-X. We would have a blue "Halo" glow, and traffic would stop at night, thinking we were being electrocuted.

Might Google up some wording, to see what is available today. This stuff worked very well on 4800 Volt Delta system.

 

[itselectric]

a 10 cent Balloon will do the job to seal the connector, here in the video at 4:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7kYZlL6zUY

Crimson talks about using balloon to cover the connector, no w40, no grease, just balloon. He has been using this setup in the video in 2009, and 2010 winter in all kind of weather. He just came in to our shop for maintenance, when we open the balloon to access the wire, it look perfectly brand new. We didn't have to remove grease, etc.. So this simple trick proof it works.

And if you want to go crazy, I didn't have time to edit the video to describe the whole process, but we also water proofed the motor, here is the proof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYunKZ4aACg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wDT3t_Cy4o

We have to fix all kind of water damage, so we started to research what really works.

 

[Grinhill]

I used to own an old Mini, and dreaded driving in torrential rain because I knew the motor would cut out at an inopportune time - the distributor was mounted just behind the radiator grille.

A fellow Mini owner then showed me a solution for this. Take a rubber glove, cut tiny holes in each finger, then fit over the distrubutor & leads (one for coil lead, one for each cylinder).

Problem solved

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Wonderful Idea on the ditsy! I'm going to get some of the heavy duty rubber gloves and use it on the ditsy in my Brat!



Oh and I love the balloon idea too! I haven't had any trouble with connectors getting wet, but the balloon idea is great, I'm thinking I will get one of the extra large "punch ball" balloons to cover up the "loom" of extra wire and the bulk of connectors I have just above my controller. 8)

 

[Canis Lupus]

Good thread. I like the balloon idea. Thanks.

Also, like the underwater motor video.

 

[biohazardman]

I just trashed all the original connectors and used bullet connectors and heat shrink anywhere they might get wet. No sealant of any kind on my bike but the batteries and throttle are in a water resistant bag, the controller under the seat and the motor wires loop down before they enter the axle. I don't have the 4500 miles yet but 700+ on this bike and 3K on the other with plenty of riding in the rain and not the hint of a problem as yet.