I have on 02 Gem 4 seater I have been upgrading for a couple years now. New gel batteries, ball joints, disc brakes, 14 inch wheels, got the recall done on the converter.
Today a friend was driving it and it died. I went to help push it back and noticed a strong burning smell from the front end, also noticed it was not wanting to roll unless I had my foot on the accelerator. I also noticed a drop of oil near where the motor meets the gear box. I charged it to 100% pushed the pedal and get a strange screeching/whining sound and no movement. What do you think?
Sounds like your motor got Warsaw Packed.
Any error codes?
Tough to push is not good for controller, batteries(range) and motor.
Lack of propulsion sounds like brushes. When was the last time you had your motor serviced? Check for voltage on the A1 and A2 wires when pedal is pressed down.
No error codes. I haven’t serviced the motor since I’ve owned it about 3 years.
Went to check voltage this morning and it’s working. Jacked it up and spun the wheels and sounds like the brakes are dragging. I pressed the brake pedal and the brakes did not release. I pulled up on the pedal and it released but still dragging. I’m going to remove the lower dash to check for anything obvious, but if you guys have any ideas? Bad master cylinder?
00-04 cars (maybe even 05) had an issue with the brake pedal sagging and not fully coming up. Depending on how this is adjusted it may not be releasing pressure. The factory eventually figured this out and installed a spring to help out. It may not be your solution, but it is a place to start. For now, rig up bungee to pull up on the pedal. At least your brake lights will go off as they should.
But yeah, brakes sometimes always drag a little. At least you should pull off your drums to see what is going on in there. There may be just a bunch of dust hanging things up, or maybe your pad linings have come off your shoes and causing havoc.
The brakes are disc, so no dust build up. It was the the brake safety switch sticking. I took the pedal assembly apart and lubed all pivots and cleaned the the switch with contact cleaner polished the rust off then lubed. It now works as it should.
Now I have to address the seal that is leaking at the motor. Any recommendations on a source for that. I should probably service or upgrade the motor soon. I was planning on getting the MM. I’d like to get this goin 30 at some point. Not sure this motor can handle it though.
Thanks for your input.
Ah- I missed that. Then yes, disc will always rub just a little bit as per their design.
Send a message to @Old_Houseboater and see if he has any or he might have a source for your gearbox input shaft seal.
I think you should get into and check out the brushes of your motor. (guessing you have a stock GE5 short motor). It bothers me that yesterday your cart wouldn’t move but you heard some funny noises out of the front of the car. And today it works again?
That “strange screeching/whining sound” may have been the high frequency pulses coming out of your motor controller. If they had no where to go then the next time it fails it might damage your controller.
All classic GEMs are subject to the rear brakes hanging up. Typically it’s the lever arm right above the rear axle that the parking brake cable pulls on which sticks, but I’ve seen the shoes get get bound up too due to lack of maintenance.
2002 DOESNT have seal. I sell an input shaft kit that includes shaft, bearings, seal and rubber bumpe… If your old shaft is serviceable I sell a full contact seal bearing that replaces the Koyo which is no longer available. rodneyadiehl@aol.com
Rodney can get you a better refurb motor that’s as good as a new D&D (or R$F if you like marked up D&Ds) for way less, although short GE motors can do it, just don’t do it for long runs as they don’t take well to abuse. @dougl got his up to those speeds for a few years before the motor went. Your big problem, which Doug had eliminated from his GEM, was the 500lbs of extra ballast.
Those lead batteries are your biggest problem. Not only are they heavy, they can’t hold the sustained draw as long. @Inwo is working on or maybe has available already some Li-Ion drop in batteries for the 00-04 years. 84V and 80 pounds will be like shoving a JATO pack up your GEMs ass.
For an 00-04 and 05, normally I’d just tell you to put a claymore under it, douse the cart with gasoline and Styrofoam, light it on fire with a marine rocket flare, then shoot it as many times as you can before all your guns run out of bullets and for the finale, and pull the trip cord on the mine. But… since you already bought the disc brakes… I will warn you that those years are money pits and no matter what you do, or how much you spend, you will still be stuck with shyt steering and shytter suspension, and a rear axle swing arm that is prone to cracking. You can pour $4-5k into it, but in the end, it’ll only suck less.
So i can follow fully, what does D&D stand for? I assume its a comparible motor to the ones R4F sell? Are you saying that getting a D&D motor is an upgraded motor compared to stock where more HP is available?
D&D Motor Systems makes the motors that R$F sells with a markup.
So you’re basically paying $200 for controller programming by going to R4F.
Irony…
Dave will sell you a cable to talk to your controller for less than that and if you hunt around, the GE Sentry software can be found for little to no yen. Then you can tweak away and customize your settings to your driving anytime you want. The default R$F changes to the parameters are known, it’s nothing special for the technically inclined.
And, you get to keep your controller the whole time. Yep., You can drive while you wait. Amazeballs!
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I really want to know and learn more about programming. I emailed Rodney about motor.
I just emailed you about motor info. Thanks for your help. I also want to learn about programming.
Programming is easy. Only like 25 parameters. You just have to read the GE manual to understand them. Only about 6 typically you would change.
Also, if it’s a T2 you don’t need a MM. You can raise the speed limit in the controller. (I don’t know about the T1 never worked on one)
You need to pull your dash to get the model number of the controller. Last? digits will be T1 or T2. They use different cables
And a windows notebook.
cool. What is the program that is used?
Also, are you saying MM as in Magic Magnet or something else? I dont know much about them either really. I hear its a work around to programming.
Any recommendations of where/who to get the motor serviced by? I have 3 Gems and I’d like to service all of them (Pacific Beach, San Diego).