We have a 2005 GEM e4, rebuilt controller and ride-4-fun blue motor.
My wife was out with the kiddos coming back home while crossing a major street, and the GEM died on her. She said everything had been running fine, but mid-way through crossing the motor stopped.
Once we got the GEM to a safe location, I started troubleshooting. Tried a reset of the breaker for a few min, still no go.
Turning the key on all 12V comes up fine, lights, dash, etc.
Pressing the accelerator, I get the familiar “clunk” but no motion
If I press the accelerator down for a bit, Error 81 will come up.
I checked the wiring to the speed magnet and it seems to be fine, cleaned all contacts with a contact cleaner and reassembled…still no dice.
When I had to push the GEM out of the road, I noticed the speed sensor did begin to register some motion, so I am assuming that means the magnet is good…but I would be happy to be proved wrong.
No other error codes have been thrown to my knowledge. Any ideas as to what my next steps should be to test this out?
If you pop off the speed sensor and the magnet looks good then there’s little chance that’s the problem. I had the same problem you did and when I replaced the speed sensor it fixed the problem. Look around on eBay and amazon for a cheap replacement instead of the expensive ones retailers are selling. I think I paid in the neighborhood of $15 for mine and it works fine. Also there is a way to test the speed sensor it I forget exactly how.
It will run without the speed sensor. Suspect the motor. Ohm it out.
I believe that most motor issues will throw their own code. Ie. open armature. But not sure. If motor doesn’t even try to run, code 81 may be first to show. Try pushing the car while pressing pedal to see if it throws another code or motor sparks badly.
I am leaning towards motor now too. I checked the magnet, it looks fine and all contacts were clean. When I pushed the cart a bit I tried pressing the accelerator again and it started lurching forward a bit and then stopping. The motor sounded like hell. I am not going to do that again as I don’t want it to possibly fry the controller.
Is this still the preferred method for Ohming the motor? (I have never done it) I found in another thread from @Old_Houseboater
A1 TO A2 should show a few ohms
F1 TO F2 should show a few ohms
ALL THE ABOVE TO CASE should show nothing
F’s TO A’s should show nothing.
ANY DEAD SHORTS motor is toast.
All tests with motor disconnected from control.
Odd that it was running fine, and then just completely crapped out while in motion.
Your right on your summary. How ever your armature reading could be right and you can still have problems. You are a hundred percent right parking it until you can get it repaired. Also because you didn’t continue to drive it you may not need commutator machining. Is It a GE or RFF motor?
ALL THE ABOVE TO CASE should show nothing
When meter is set to ohms it bounces a bit, however, when I have it set to continuity, I get tone. F1 to Case (tone and 004)
Yes it is, and you already paid for the controller. I don’t know what a motor will set you back. There are some used ones floating around.
Ideally the conversion would come before spending a dear amount on repairs.
check your battery cable connections…if they are even a little loose you will experience the problems you are describing…I know it sounds simple, but they tend to rattle loose and can sometime be as simple as cleaning and tightening…
Looks like you might need a new seal on there and check/change what is left of your oil too.
What does the other end of the motor look like? (brushes, comm)
Once you get the armature out of there it might be interesting to check all your readings again (mainly against case/ground) just to see what broke down.
Yeah, I am definitely going to replace the seal, and I am fearing it is going to be dry inside there. I want to clean this up if I am going to be putting some cash into it.
Right now I am planning on going down the AC conversion route (Thanks to @Inwo and @MikeKC !)
Kit Includes:
New Sevcon Gen4 AC Controller
New AC 8Kw motor
Controller Programming (per your specs) - re-tuning if needed
PCB board to use factory GEM switches, wiring harnesses
This includes all shipping including the motor, Controller and PCB.
The motor will come Dave the rest from me.
There might be a slight delay of a week or so on the PCB and harness as I need to build more we are sold out at the moment. I am sure Dave will ship the motor pretty quickly.
I emailed them a few times about technical questions and they were very helpful and quick to respond. Ride 4 Fun simply wanted me to buy another new motor. Turns out at the time, I just had a loose connection that D&D was able to diagnose over the phone for free.
I emailed them a few times about technical questions and they were very helpful and quick to respond. Ride 4 Fun simply wanted me to buy another new motor. Turns out at the time, I just had a loose connection that D&D was able to diagnose over the phone for free.
Wow, good to know, if you get a chance can you please shoot me over their contact info: I plan on keeping my Gem as long as I’m around.
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