Hey guys and gals. I’ve been using this forum for a while for research on what to buy and to help me with small issues ive had with my gem.
In May I plugged in my GEM and left my Florida house to head up north. When I got back my GEM was dead! battery charger wouldn’t come on due to batteries being to low, charged them and got the charger working. All batteries are over 12.4V but it will not move. The BDC only lights up for a few seconds when the battery switch is first turned on but after that its completely blank. Anything 12V works just fine the buzzer works when you place the e brake down but the weird part is the e brake buzzer will buzz weather the key switch is on or off?
Do you have a Volt meter to check what either the total( ~72V ) voltage is at the charger or sum up all the voltages on the batteries when the key is turned on and brake released?
It could be one or more of the batteries isn’t holding a charge. it could also be one of the relays got stuck but my money is on a battery or two not holding a charge and the 72V ends up being in the 50s or 60s with even a slight drain.
BTW, the 12V will probably keep putting out 12 V as long as there some charge in the batteries. There’s probably a spec somewhere which says how low a voltage it can have for the input before it starts dropping the 12V output.
If all the batteries test good even under load and you are not seeing the sum of those battery voltages at the charger then there’s a problem between the batteries and the charger. I don’t have a schematic handy but I’m thinking with all the clicking I keep hearing, there is probably a weak or burned relay in the middle causing the problem.
It’s probably your relay if your accessories are working when you turn the key switch. First make sure that you had the dc/dc converter recall performed, you should not have a green PWB which was recalled.
An easy way to test this is to jump the +72v side of the relay by connecting the constant +72v white wire to the controller key on power grey/white wire making sure the master disconnect switch is off first. Then when you turn on the master disconnect the controller should turn on bypassing the key switch (note your accessories will not turn on while testing this).