2002 DOA in San Diego after pothole hit

Uh-oh…

I think that was the recalled recall fix DC-DC…

Wow- I will save that for my library. I have never seen one of those!
I’ve heard rumors, but people swear they have seen bigfoot too!

I’m guessing this functions the same as the old pwb? Does it do both flavors of the 12v? (switched and unswitched)?

Two guys at CartMart in Vista insisted there was no recall on that but they said if I brought it up and paid them to do an evaluation they’d let me know if anything needed fixing…

So - something that the early cars did on cold powerup was the Display lit up for about 10 secs when B+ was reconnected.

Does yours still do this?

It slices, it dices it’s a timer, chews your food for you and shits for you too. Yup, and it’s probably just the original bare PCA thrown in a metal box and potted. It’s shown in their erata for the mechanics on how to do the “recall” and specifically pictured to show the unit to be removed for the recall… This is what blows me away and I sent Cart Mart the document and page and pictures of my unit but they would not replace it. This was when I was having glitches while driving and it turned out to be the 72V power input wires on the right right side. they put sealant on all the connectors and got sealant into the 72V connector so there was hardly any metal to metal contact and eventually there was enough oxidation that any bump would break the metal/metal contact and my controller would reset while I was driving. Code -11 IIRC.

Here is what the DC-DC should have been switched with AFAIK.


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nope, display not longer does anything. and the PWB is sending the buzzer commands no matter if I have the key ON or OFF. The buzzer part started after I initially had the GEM go dead after the pothole and I manually pushed/activated the Contactor. Drive switch was in Neutral and I think the key was ON and when I pushed in the Contactor the GEM tried to move forward then stopped and the buzzer went ON and has been buzzing ever since.

Yup, I’ve seen pics of lots of those and read the HowTo install the recall which shows that type of Converter installed. The recall also installs a delay timer unit and I think some other relay since that finned thing is just a 72V - 12VDC converter and the original did other functions.

The buzzer part started after I initially and I manually pushed/activated the Contactor.

I’ve been chewing on that and I haven’t figured out what it means. I think it is a clue, but the ping pong ball is still popping around up there.

  • Does the buzz go away when P-brake is lifted? If not let’s have a look at that switch.

  • It’s almost like you blew a fuse. Have you checked up front? Let me pull up that diagram.

I will look at the back of the display since I have the column open and the dash off and dropped.
B- is wired to the top of the controller(BIG wire) but I wonder if there are other B- signals needed on the controller input pins. @Erniea15 said he has a T2 and that a T2 has the same 3 row connector as the T1 just the display connector is different. I will go get his T2 if he’s around today.

The buzzer doesn’t change with any P-brake position change. But normal operation is the display will turn on and it will throw out a buzzer if the P-brake is up but I don’t get any display. The P-Brake cover is off and there are 3 wires and it seems the switch is functional albeit with a bit of corrosion on the spade connectors.

It might be best to focus/go one direction at a time.
Let’s probe the display for power and see if we can get that working.

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I cleaned the P-brake connectors with De-oxIT-D5 and ohmed it out. seems to work fine.

I also pulled each DC fuse and ohmed them out and they are all fine.

Did not find 5v on the display connector. Should be +5 on P1 and GND on P4…

My notes say there should be +5v to run the display.
I was going to have you probe the controller side.

How about the main fuse that’s hanging out in the area around the contactor and DC-DC?

Just making my way back down the coast from Huntington beach 1/2 marathon… Not sure why I do this to myself… :slight_smile:

I have a stupid amount of spare parts for a legacy GEM sitting around. Let me put a care package together

-T2 controller

  • unused DC to DC recall kit (you should probably just install this and we’ll figure something out. It’s pretty straight forward to install)
  • contactor?
  • Display?

What else could it be? I have a bunch of spare gear sitting around.

Byron and I talked and did some testing and the controller is not putting out 5V for the display nor 12V for the throttle pedal. So something broke inside the controller. It’s got 80V on P1 and with the key on it has 80V on P2 and there’s B- and even 80V on the main B+(after contactor) which is charged by pre-charge circuit.

All the stuff on the PWB/Converter seem to work( 12V, brake lights, turn signals, wipers, etc ) so it would seem that the PWB is ok.

Probably fine to make a box of parts though just in case. Just having my lunch now and when finished I will remove the controller and first listen for anything rattling around and 2nd try to open to see what it looks like inside.

Main fuse looks/acts just fine but I have not ohmed it out but measuring 80V on P1/P2 would seem to indicate the main fuse is A-OK.

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Yes, Power at B+ and B- with MC open (so it is getting power from P1).
Power at P2 when key on.
No +5v out to BDI
No +5v to pedal
No +12 to tach

Continuous buzzer with Brake Up/down- Key on/off. Brake Switch verified functional with meter.

It sure sounds like there is something odd going on inside this controller. What are we missing?

The fact that the controller sounds like a baby rattle when shaken?