I recrntly Bought a Ford Think 2 seater, been in storage for about 1 yr, took it home and charged the batteries individually until the onboard charger would come on, charged batteries completely battery icon has all bars, battery charger icon will not go off, keeps charging. Will drive and run for about 300-400’ will only go 11 mph then will finally die like batteries are not charged, but battery icon still has all bars or maybe one missing, can let sit 5-10 minutes without charging and it will run for about 20-50’ at about 5-6mph even at this time the system is still showing 72-79volts I even checked The volts while driving 67-76 volts batteries are Motorcraft without the dates on them, seller said they were not old but…??? After riding it there are no components that are hot or even warm, surly it can be the batteries? Volts are all showing good, speed sensor? Or ???
What is the voltage while driving and holding the accel pedal all the way down? Sounds like a bad battery or bad connection. You can also hook up your volt meter to one battery at a time while driving and looking at the voltage. A bad battery or connection will drop much more underload. You can also check the voltage at the motor controller underload. The controller is located just in front of the motor which is in the back. The battery input cables on the controller are on the drivers side. The rear cable is positive and the front negative. Can’t see the speed sensor causing your problem.
All batteries read 12-13volts.
Even after it dies, the system still reads 72+ volts.
The icon even reads fully charged or 1 bar missing.
After it dies you can let it sit for few minutes and it’ll go again but only 5-6mph and not for long (there again icon shows lots of charge left)
I didnt Think you could check each battery while running? Don’t that have to be disconnected from one another?
I’m fixing to check volts on controller and I’ll post what I find out.
Just jacked the reared up off the ground, Icon shows fully charged batteries, I checked the Volts on each battery with no load, 12-12 all 6 batteries. Pushed the gas pedal system read 76-82 for just a few seconds then started to go down to 60’s the 50’s rear tires slowed down, at top Volts it was doing 26mph smell acid also. Gonna charge it up a bit then check volts on controller.
Couldn’t check voltage on the controller as it was “Plastic dipped”?
Hopefully you can see the picture.
Well then i started Checking connections and found one of the motor connections rusty, so i tried To unbolt it and it broke (Picture) I cleaned that connection and just had it sitting on the broken bolt, cart ran better then it did so maybe i found The problem but also caused another problem, question now can i solder that connection on their?
Here’s my number if it’s easier to explain 979-331-4756
I would replace the broken bolt. You could take it to someone who repairs electric motors if you’re not comfortable taking it apart.
I hate to tell you that the controller and motor is the early version (D1 controller and 4 H.P motor) and Ford replaced most of them under Warranty with a 6 H.P motor and a D2 controller because of problems.
The chargers were upgraded under warranty as well but since the motor and controller was never done I wouldn’t be surprised if the charger wasn’t either 
That is shrink tubing on the cables. It is easily removed with a razor blade but I wouldn’t mess with it unless you are removing the controller. They used two pieces of shrink tubing and only the bigger pieces need to be removed.
Revdoc55…
Welcome to the “dark-side”… Sorry to hear of your trouble.
From what you describe it sounds as if you have a few problems. David is quite knowledgeable and a good resource.
I dunno how handy you are or how much you wanna play or invest in this puppy… but it can be a great cart if you “invest” wisely and do the work yourself.
From what you said initially, I think you have at least one battery that is failing under load, meaning it is possibly shorted internally only when there is a current demand.
I have a Harbor Freight Load Tester ($20 bucks?) that will simulate a load on the battery and you can see if it holds steady at no less than 10.5 volts for 15 seconds. You can remove each battery and take them to an “Auto Zone” (type) store and they can do the same test for you.
Secondly, that busted terminal could have added to the problem as it possibly was a bad connection and drew much more current than normal. Jacking it up and having it freewheel seemed to indicate all was OK, but it certainly was not under a load. I think that even supports my theory even more.
Anyway, it certainly couldn’t hurt to load test each battery and if they do check out, then you have at least eliminated them as a possible cause.
Lastly, I’m in the SoCal area and found a cart shop near me with about 6 “junk” TH!NKs that I have used as a parts resource. He seems very reasonable as well compared to the eBay folks. Let me know if I can be of any help.
Tony
I fixed the stud bolt, I found my Problem to be one battery is bad, looking for a reconditioned battery now.
So now the next problem, I ended up having to buy all 6 batteries, I bought refurbished ones, runs great but batteries run down quick, something drawing the batteries down??
I get Like 12-18 miles pedal to the metal though
Wow I would be happy with that. I’m guessing you get more miles is because you have the 4 H.P motor instead of the 6
Yes I have the 4hp I did test the yesterday with only going 11-13mph seems to work a lot better, thanks for all the help.
Well now I need a Used 4.0 motor, anyone have one for sale?
eBay is probably your best bet.
Sold the cart:joy:
got my money back out of it.
David, I went through the manual that you sent and began troubleshooting my Ford Think. Well the battery pack seems fine but the 10amp fuse keeps blowing, so I guess my cluster is shot! Do you have a rebuilder or source for a new one to recommend? I found a guy, Bob the Cluster guy that says he will rebuild and upgrade for $450. Have you any knowledge of him?
Thanks for your assistance!
Also, I inspected the Cluster and can’t find any apparent damage, maybe something else??
Make sure you’re using high voltage fuses. Regular automotive fuses will not work. Unplug the cluster and see if the fuse blows. Contact bob and he will tell you what to test. He is very helpful and knowledgeable. He and electron in motions are the only two I would let rebuild a Think cluster.
What’s considered high voltage? The fuse says 250v. I don’t think I have the original to compare to. I see that 600v and 1000v are available on line.
Yes 250v is what you should be using. So unplug the cluster and see if it still blows the fuse. Also see if the cluster has already been rebuilt with an aftermarket external dc/dc converter. If it has the converter may be bad and that may need replacing. This is what bob does as the factory clusters have the dc/dc converter built into the cluster and the heat from that is one of the biggest reasons the clusters have so many problems. If you go onto eBay and search Ford Think cluster you will see a B1 cluster upgrade and it shows the aftermarket dc/dc converter in the pictures.
Hi David,
I hope you can help me. I’ve been working on my elderly neighbors 2002 Ford Think Neighbor. I replaced the batteries with a wet cell.
I’m unable to reprogram the instrument cluster for the different batteries.
If I let it sit, it will move in reverse and then will drive forward for less that 10 feet.
Any suggestions? Also, I’m looking for someone in Georgia that could troubleshoot this vehicle.