Defiantly a group effort here 
Mike/ on the Contactor. The buzz comming fro
The Contactor didnāt go away when we adjusted the voltage. I brought a old used one I had taken out of a 2002. We threw it in and that fixed the problem. I would like to get him a brand new one now that we know it was not a soft wear or programming thing. Where can I get a new Contactor.
Thanks
The Re-Gen was set at 30% I found 50% was how I like it. You almost always didnt need to use the brakes. And the transition from FULL regen to coasting & then back into
Power is super smooth.
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Here is the latest. I got a Black plastic box from amazon at Mikes recommendation. I would order the same box but 1 or 2 inches taller.
I used liqued Tape on the back and from side of the PC board for good luck and then I placed the PC board in the black box and back on top of the controller
Here is the finished product
I also moved the Encoder wires from Ontop of the phase wires and ran them away from the high current (blue) phase wires
Always amazed at your workmanship and tools.
Thanks Dave for all the Equipment Motor & S-4 Controller & Help with DVT soft wear.
Thanks to Mike for the āGolden Fileā that file seems to work well In this car. I might try it on my 2016
I still have the Battery Disconnect & to Strap the Ram Horn. Keep in mind this whole install was done in the driveway of Kens house. It might have gone a bit faster and smoother if it was in my Gem car workshop but for what it was the install went smooth with Basic tools.
Iāll keep updating the thread as I finish up the job. Ken wants a GPS speedo and a few other odds and ends
@grantwest
Dude, so glad this worked out for you. I think that proves our AC Conversion is ready for prime time !!!
Aloha,
I am new to the site and have been reading through this topic and have talked myself into needing to do an AC conversion.
Do you guys have a kit for the 2002 e825 cars?
Curious what the guys come back with on this oneā¦
I put an ac kit in my 2000 back in the day and it ran pretty well. The 8kw motor (which isnāt available anymore) wouldnāt fit and the 5kw (which is more readily available) will fit. I had some cavitation issues but those have been worked out now with controller programming. I also had some controller overheat issues with the controller being mounted under the dash. That could be easily fixed.
While the AC system was awesome, it was still an early gem and the rest of the car was crappy. I spent 1k working on the suspension and never got it right. Replaced brakes with disks, had to deal with rear frame issues, etc, etc.
After dumping serious $$$, I decided the experiment was over with my 2000, I was committed to having a GEM, sold it, bought a 2016, put in a high voltage lithium system and 8kw motorā¦ the car drives awesome.
Could you get a 5kw AC motor kit running in a 2002? Yes. Should you? My vote is noā¦
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I do have a couple 5kw motors.
I canāt recommend putting money into an early gem.
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But its so much fun to piss on an electric fence. The tingle up your dickhole just makes ypu feel alive.
@Golf.Aloha if you teally want to keep the early model, youāre better off getting a d&d blue motor, lithium packs and having ypir controller tuned. For lithium packs, dont fall for the bullchit lifepo4 ones that look like the deep cycle batteries. Get a proper lithium pack. @LithiumGods has some that drop in over the motor on the 00-04s.
Or burn the car and get something newer if you really must have ac
15kw motors have shipped. No longer just a dream.
Sorry for late responsesā¦busy day job
This is all great advice to hearā¦
I am new to the Gem car and have been reading so many of the great topics about this car.
Here is a little background on this car and what was making think to upgradeā¦
This car had been sitting for about 2 years after getting shipped to Hawaii because the previous owner let the batteries freeze back in Utah before shipping.
He didnāt want to spend the money for new ones so he just gave me the car.
I needed a project and a bottomless pit, to dump money in ā¦ HA HA 
I decided to, lift the car 9"ā¦put 27" tires on it, and build a 26s LiFeP04 battery pack for itā¦(14 cells in the front, and 12 in the back)ā¦
Still having issues with my Daly 26s 500A smart bms not liking when the contactors engageā¦it has caused 2 of them to just stop working all together after the first engagement ā¦and my latest one goes into safe modeā¦
I use the bms to charge the car and then just monitor the cells during use until I can figure out why the Daly bms canāt handle the contactor engaging.
After getting all this done I was starting to run tests and it seemed to be doing ok.
Brakes on this car were horrible so after reading some of the posts and watching some of the videos on disk brakes I decided to install a setā¦much better and a must have!
I wasnāt getting any regen braking, and after doing to reading on the forum I decided to buy a programmer and try to get it to work with the T1 controllerā¦
I was able to get it to sorta workā¦it would regen brake from full speed (33-35 mph) down to about 16 mph, but would not work below that speed, and havenāt been able to figure out a way to make it work. I was able to get the plug braking to work for when I go down my steep driveway (25-35% grade), but as soon as I touch the accelerator pedal it disengages and wonāt reengage until I come to a complete stop.
After doing several test runs I was climbing my steep driveway ( car didnāt like to climb the hill at all and would not start again on the hill if stopped.) when I heard a kind of pop and hissing sound ā¦ kind of sounded like when a capacitor blows.
After this happened there seems to be no torque to the motor at all.
The car will not even think about going up my hill without stalling out.
This is what has brought me to thinking I need to upgrade the motor & Controller, and to also seek advice/opinions of the members here.
I would like a little more speedā¦like 40-45 mph would be fantastic, but I really need way more torque.
After looking into available conversion kits, I contacted Navitas to see what kind of conversion kits they had, but they referred me to Flight Systems.
Flight systems didnāt have an easy plug and play conversion, but had a system that would work($1900 plus shipping)ā¦but would require basically redoing the stock wiring harness
Reading on the forums about the conversions is what brought me here and what seemed to be a better option.
JarJarJava,
I had looked at the D&D motors and was thinking that it would be the way to go, but was thinking that I would need a new controller too?..motor $1000, and new controller $400-$600?..
I got thinking that for only a few hundred more I could have the best of both worlds (down the bottomless rabbit hole again).
Looking at prices of DC motors vs AC conversions got me curios of what you all thought about it conversion kits?
Do you think a D&D torque and speed motor is the best option for this car?
Dc motor suck. In general. Inefficient and wound rotor with brushes canāt handle high rpm.
Also lfp batteries not a good choice, but they do work and are very low cost.
Not much to say about Daly bms. I donāt know of any bms that can work with a split pack. No way to compensate for the high resistance series connection.
How do you change settings in the Daly? It is tripping on short circuit. Only with throttle press, or when key/p2 is powered.
A member has an 8kw motor for sale but motor choices are limited in early gems.
See if the 12.5" long 15kw motor will fit. Mikekc built wiring kits in the past. I may talk him into it again.
These motors are much higher cost so the kit will be about $2500-$3000. Vs the $1750 for the previous 8kw kits.
Mike may know gear ratio, I would expect 50-60 mph.
We can program a non-suicide mode. Safe speed on that car is about 30mph. Imo
2002 will probably have a 10.35 gearbox in it (which is not great for hills,
but those 27" tires are KILLING any sort of accel/ hill climb ability you might have had left. You need to keep an eye out for a gearbox with 12.44 gear set.
You might want to take a moment and pull your motor and give it a quick look. It may be that you blew one if the brush wires off. This would account for it still working but with the loss in power.
I think if you popped something in the controller it would fail startup and not work at all.
Itās hard coded to cut off somewhere around that speed.
Plug braking is very hard on the motor and even more so on the controller. Youāre basically pushing close to max current through everything (lock rotor) and lot of heat and stress.
On the 00-04 suspension design, that kind of speed, even more so with the lift you installed, is going to be dangerous.
No, you can use your stock controller, if itās not fried from the plug braking and trying to push redneck special tires around.
JarJarJava,
Thanks for the information!
I will change the Plug Braking setting back to stock.
I agree that the stock suspension was junk.
I lifted the car and added the larger tires to work better for the country area of Hawaii that I live in.
When I lifted it, I installed upgraded adjustable shocks that are for UTVās, and installed spacers to make the stance wider.
With all these changes it made the car feel very stable at the higher speed.
Is there a way to test the controller to see if the loss in torque is a problem with the controller?
Another question on the D&D motorsā¦do these work well without overheating for distance of 10-15 miles at a time?
Thanks again for all the advise!
AssyRequired,
Thanks for the info!
I missed your post before I replied to JarJarJava asking if there is a way to test the controller.
From the code on the top of the gearbox I believe I do have the 10.35 gears.
Of course. You canāt overheat a D&D motor. They are not thermally protected.
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