Corrosion or sealant in these connectors

[flypigs]

Hi all,

Ty rode his 12.5 about a week ago with no issues. Today we went to ride, and I found no lights on the throttle, and no power. I thought maybe the charger hadn't been fully seated, and reconnected it, but the charger remained green, and no power came to the throttle.

Things I've done:

Checked the main fuse above the battery which was good

Checked voltage across both batteries (~12v) and the two together ~24

Tried to check resistance across the key switch,( which I was suspect of) I expected to find no current with switch off, and no resistance with switch on, but I couldn't get any current in either position. I then tried jumping the two connectors (eliminating the switch), but still had no power.

Next target was the throttle assmby. When I traced those wires, they branched to two black connectors that did not want to come apart. Then I noticed some white goo on both pairs of connectors. After fiddling with both of them I got them apart, and both were filled with more of the soft white stuff.

Questions:

Is that corrosion, or something that was put in to keep water out?

If it's corrosion, what can I do to clean it out of the female side of each connector?

Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you have other ideas.

Pete

[dombush]

Hi

fear not, that is almost certainly Lithium grease (or similar) put into the connector to waterproof it.

It could be that there is too much causing a very bad connection.... but i doubt it.

I think you are going to have to look elsewhere.

Dom

[flypigs]

Thanks Dom.

This thing is beating me up (but I am definitely not an electrical engineer). I pulled the cover off my other son's 36v model to compare and diagnose, but they have more dissimilar parts than identical. I tried swapping out throttle assemblies, but neither assembly would show power on either bike, so I think they are wired differently. (I also know that was probably a bad idea)

I'm starting to suspect either the relay box or the controller. Is it a bad idea to "jump" the 12v power that passes through the relay? I think that would just power the throttle, and not send the motor turning at full throttle.

But, if jumping it works, I still don't know if the relay is bad, or the controller isn't sending the message for the relay to connect (turn on?).

Parts are cheap enough, that if I have to, I can order several, but still a $100 is a $100.

Any other ideas?

And again, thanks in advance.

Pete

[flypigs]

98% resolved. After several calls to Mike B at tech support, we were pretty confident that the relay was bad. He had me pull the cover off the relay and move the copper "flapper" to make contact, and when I did, the lights came on and the motor would turn w/ the throttle.

I was pretty happy, and I buttoned it up with a piece of plastic wedged to keep the contacts connected so my boy could ride in the front yard. As soon as I announced "I think it's fixed enough to ride", I demonstrated by twisting the throttle while the bike was on a stand. After 10 seconds, the motor slowed down and stopped. The lights remained on, but no power.

Pretty disappointing, and I was starting to have that feeling that I would need to buy an entire set of electrics for some weird gremlin.

Later in the day I called Steve (current US distributer) to ask about an entire wiring harness. They don't sell the whole kit, but he offerred to sell me all the parts I wanted, and said he would accept any parts back that I didn't need. That's good service. Finally, before I ordered everything, he asked me what the tech support guy had done for me, and I repeated the steps. He asked about the potentiometer, which I had not done any testing of - 10 minutes later, I disconnected it, and had success! The throttle was live, lights were on, and bike had full power!

So somehow, I had the relay and the potentiometer go bad at the same time, OR, while diagnosing the relay, I did something that affected the potentiometer.

While I wait for the parts to arrive, I wired in a heavy duty on-off switch in place of the relay, and have Ty riding around at full power, which by the way seems a lot faster than when the potentiometer is dialed to full speed. I think that even at full speed, it does something to cut down the power.

Thanks for being a sounding board,

Pete