Hi. New to forum and EVs. My young son and I are working to build a functional GEM as part of a project to learn about electric vehicles. We acquired through a good friend the body of a 2005 E2 that was in rough shape. We’ve cleaned it up, dealt with rust issues, and put on new brakes. We have an older DeltaQ Quiq charger (model 912-7200), and we are now looking to buy, but especially to learn, all the “go” parts: 1) a controller, 2) a motor, 3) batteries, and perhaps 4) a dc-to-dc converter. We are looking for help to learn from others who are more experienced.
Which controller should we purchase? T3/T4? What source?
Ride4Fun motor seems to be what most are using for a new motor purchase?
Lithium batteries seem interesting, but perhaps new and untested in GEMs relative to FLA/AGM?
One of our goals is to work toward getting the GEM to make a 16mile round trip on fairly level ground.
You have a 2005 therefore you are stuck with a T3 controller. The T4 is a much better unit how ever it wont work on a 2005. I tried twice and couldn’t make it work.
Thanks, Rodney. Useful info. By “won’t work” I understand you to mean that using anything other than a T3 controller (eg. T4, Alltrax) on a 2005 would mean that we would lose the steering column readout and perhaps need a different wiring harness?
Hi Rodney,
You are helping me currently with Motor issues, sending mine to you after the holidays to get repaired. I happened to come across this post about the T3 and T4 controllers on a 2005. I bought my 2005 used from someone and just realized that I have a T4 in it. What issues were you coming across or error codes were you getting when trying to get the T4 to work on a 2005? I by no means have any expertise in the GEM world but want to know what else I might be getting into once I do get my motor repaired. To give you my history on here (dealing with INWO originally) I bought a used 2005 GEM 4 seater that had no batteries in it. I bought brand new batteries for it and installed them, the cart had no error codes displayed and the cart would move forward but very slowly. A few days later tried to get the cart to go again but this time no movement, no clunk noise and an error code 21 popped up on the display. After making a few calls I was referred to FSIP which I then shipped them my controller, they rebuilt it stating that a few things were loose and or not working right. Got the controller back still got the error 21 code doing a few voltage and ohm checks that INWO informed me to do I decided to ship the controller back to FSIP to have them re-check it again, they did another bench test everything was fine shipped it back to me and still error 21 code. I then was told that maybe the throttle assembly was not working so I bought a brand new one from a Chrysler dealership in FL, installed and still error 21. I sent my cart to a local golf cart shop they couldn’t find any issues that would cause the error 21 so they mentioned to replace the wire harness, they also tested both of my throttle pedals (new one and the old one) and found out that my old peddle was still working. I found a used harness installed it and got a error 4 code found out that I had to ground PIN 13, grounded that PIN and then had issues with my E-brake light staying on the display found out that issue was just low brake fluid, filled that up and now no errors at all and no brake display issue that’s when I found out my motor had issues where I am at now just waiting to send you the motor. Now I see you post about T4 controllers in a 2005 and so I am now worried even with a repaired motor I am still going to have issues because of the T4 controller that is in my cart. Sorry that was a long story, I have been through a lot.
You said grounded pin 13 If you grounded it to the frame that’s WRONG It goes from pin 13 to BATTERY minus. This should get you going. GEM control functions are NOT grounded to frame
Sorry that’s what I meant. Pin 13 to battery -. So now there are no error codes, but my concern now is that this 2005 GEM was sold to me with a T4 controller and from one of your older posts you stated that a 2005 can not work with a T4 controller. Besides getting the motor repaired from you am I looking at having to get a T3 controller even though I am not getting any error codes right now?