Is there a way to override the speed governor on my 2001 e825?
Yes, but it requires you to either buy a programming kit and cable or buy/borrow the GE-specific hand-controller programmer. Or you could send your GE T1 or T2 controller to someone for reprogramming.
What I did (since I’m an old computer nerd) is buy the programming kit with the appropriate cable and use my laptop PC to reprogram my controller. With the stock motor and new batteries I was able to get the 2002 GEM eL (long-bed) to go 29-30 on level ground and regen slowing on downhill runs at 34 or 35 MPH.
On the lighter e4 you might get more speed as I think the gearing is slightly different. The eL was made for hauling stuff and may be geared differently. You don’t want to over-speed the stock motor too much as it’s not designed for higher RPMs and could cause it to fail if pushed too hard.
I’ve got some programming values for mine that could help you get started. I bought my programming kit here from Robert Meyers at Forklift Electronics.
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15370]Or you could send your GE T1 or T2 controller to someone for reprogramming.
.[/QUOTE]
I’ve got the R4F big motor and 14" wheels in my 2002 825-4, and just recently got around to sending my controller off to R4F for reprogramming. It does hit 35+, and attacks the hills nicely (I live on a steep street and a steeper driveway), but since the reprogramming, it does something puzzling: Going uphill, it will occasionally cut out and show me a “code 11”. If I let up on the accelerator and step down again, it clears up, but sometimes I’ve come to a stop at mid-hill. My drive is steep enough that it won’t go from a dead stop and I have to roll back down and hit it at about 5+.
Is this some motor protection they programmed in, or just an coincidental intermittent in the accelerator pedal? I haven’t called R4F yet.
Bill Butler
2002 GEM
2001 Ford Ranger
1967 Piper Arrow
-11 is a speed sensor problem. Look at the wiring and the magnet as well as the pickup itself on the end of the motor.
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15548]-11 is a speed sensor problem. Look at the wiring and the magnet as well as the pickup itself on the end of the motor.[/QUOTE]
Thanks. I’ll get on it tomorrow and report back.
Bill
Oops - Code -11 is NOT the speed sensor; it’s the accelerator pedal micro-switch open when it’s supposed to be closed. Inside the pedal there’s a micro-switch which tells the controller it’s at the zero-throttle position as well as the potentiometer that signals the amount of throttle applied. If that micro-switch is intermittent it will cause the -11 as it’s not making contact when the throttle is depressed while the potentiometer indicates above zero-throttle.
The throttle assembly can be disassembled and the switch replaced or cleaned. In your case, it doesn’t do it at a stop so it’s probably not a jammed pedal (the usual cause) so it would have to be either a wiring problem or the micro-switch itself that’s failed.
Sorry for the bum steer I gave you last night.
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15555]Oops - Code -11
Sorry for the bum steer I gave you last night.[/QUOTE]
's okay, I hadn’t done anything yet. I’ve just lost speed indication; can that be related or just coincidental?
I bought a used 2002 4 seater it does about 37 mph it has larger tires It does feel like the governor is kicking in around 37 sometimes if I let of the pedal a little bit it will hit optimal speed. I not sure if it is governored or not is there a way to find out before I buy a programer kit? I too am a computer geek love to play with electronics.
Thanks for the help!!
Unless the tires are off a tractor-trailer, it MUST have been reprogrammed to get to that speed. The built-in governed speed is 25 MPH and putting on the biggest tires that will fit should only gain you 2-3 MPH without hitting the governor (and it will STILL show 25 MPH on the gauge).
No i just put the tires on and I get about two mph more since I put them on the gauge shows 25-36 mph but I used a gps to get real speed. I haven’t looked but the paper work showed a replaced motor in 2007 so I was wondering if it was reaching that speed because of larger motor. It just gives you a bogged down feeling when it gets toward 35 and if you let of the pedal ever so slightly it actually goes a bit faster. Thank you for you reply,
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15555]Oops - Code -11 is NOT the speed sensor; it’s the accelerator pedal micro-switch open…If that micro-switch is intermittent it will cause the -11 as it’s not making contact when the throttle is depressed while the potentiometer indicates above zero-throttle.
The throttle assembly can be disassembled and the switch replaced or cleaned.[/QUOTE]
Okay, I did check the resistance of both switches and they seemed normal (which could be true with an intermittent, of course) and I opened up the pedal box and shot some contact cleaner around in there. 
Spurious code 11s and interruptions have stopped. I mentioned that I lost speedo at about the same time, and sure enough, there was a broken wire on the motor sensor. After drilling out the factory-stripped #10 tork screws I installed a $65 replacement.
NOW…I have a distinct lack of acceleration and power. Top speed is 25 on the level and I’m taking my steep hill at 12 vice previous 17 or so. (I have the R4F motor 14" wheels and programming).
Obviously, using the "Troubleshooters’ First Law: “Undo the last thing you did”, I suspect the pedal. Is there some adjustment in there I screwed up? 
Unless the motor’s magnet has been changed to one with less poles or your controller has been reprogrammed, you’re only going to see 25 MPH top speed and maybe 28 downhill. If the speedo works now and the regenerative braking kicks in at an indicated 27 or 28 (or when off the pedal downhill) then it’s working normally.
I suspect your speed sensor was bad and that allowed the controller to over-speed as you’d reported. Now you need to reprogram the controller or fool it with the special 6-pole magnet.
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15797]Unless the motor’s magnet has been changed to one with less poles or your controller has been reprogrammed, you’re only going to see 25 MPH top speed and maybe 28 downhill. Now you need to reprogram the controller or fool it with the special 6-pole magnet.[/QUOTE]
Uh…R4F reprogrammed the controller after I installed their after-market motor and I was getting indications up to 35–now low speeds and less torque. If I was getting re-gen, I couldn’t sense that on the downhills. What am I not understanding?
Depending on the controller version it could have a thermal sensor which needs to by bypassed by shorting the 2 wires together. If this connection is open, the car will go in turtle-mode.
Is your speedo working again?
Bob
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15799]Depending on the controller version it could have a thermal sensor which needs to by bypassed by shorting the 2 wires together. If this connection is open, the car will go in turtle-mode.
Is your speedo working again?
Bob[/QUOTE]
Speedo began working fine just as soon as I replaced the external sensor, and the interruptions followed by -11 codes ceased. Does the controller somehow correlate power demanded–at the pedal with speed produced and shut down in the event of a perceived excessive disparity?
Don’t understand about the thermal sensor. And I may not have been clear, I now have less speed, less torque and climbing power than I had before the speedo failure, which was caused by a broken wire.
The controller monitors motor speed, throttle position, battery voltage and current as well as motor temperature and adjusts output duty-cycle accordingly. On the Ride-4-Fun motor there’s no thermal sensor. The older GEM’s like my 2002 don’t have a temperature sensor on the motor either but the thermal sensor INPUT is still there on the controller. Its two leads need to be shorted together to bypass the thermal limit function of the controller (according to Ride-4-Fun). Sentry (or the hand-held programmer) will tell you if it’s in thermal limit mode.
You probably still have some sort of electrical problem that you’re not going to be able to troubleshoot very well without diagnostics. Do you have the GE controller manual for your particular motor controller? The GE SX controller has a number of inputs/outputs which can be monitored with either the hand-held programmer or a laptop with a serial port and GE Sentry software.
With the manual and the pinouts you may be able to find what’s going wrong with a meter by back-probing the big connector on the top of the controller. I’m beginning to think that’s where I’m going to find my particular ‘no speedometer’ problem too. I just haven’t had a chance yet.
If you have trouble finding the manual, let us know. Depending on which model controller you have, one of us will probably have that file we could send you.
There’s a gentleman on these forums who has the diagnostic tools he will loan to members. I, personally, felt that it was worth the money to purchase the GE Sentry programming kit, rather than borrowing the programmer, and I’ve more than gotten my money’s worth out of it already.
You can monitor the status of all the switches and voltage/current being sent to the motor and input to the controller while running the drive-train. This will tell you what’s going on in many cases when there’s no other way of detecting a problem. It does require a laptop with a serial connector though.
[QUOTE=bob.peloquin;15803] On the Ride-4-Fun motor there’s no thermal sensor. The older GEM’s like my 2002 don’t have a temperature sensor on the motor either but the thermal sensor INPUT is still there on the controller. Its two leads need to be shorted together to bypass the thermal limit function of the controller (according to Ride-4-Fun). [/QUOTE]
My original motor was a 2002, and surely R4F would have checked this when re-programming my controller, no?
The car behaves exactly as though I’m only getting partial pedal travel, but I opened the accelerator box, and everything seems to move stop-to-stop, and I even drove it with the lid off to make sure the little nylon “wedgie” moved fully.
Wringing out the circuitry of the controller is beyond my tech-savvy level which stalls out just above continuity checks with a cheap multimeter. 
I may send it back to R4F for diagnosis.
I took my pedal apart (trick was finding out how - Answer: Push in the hinge pins left and right and the top lifts off); cleaned the contacts on the microswitch and that cleared the -11 error for me.
Yes. That’s one of the first things I did, including checking voltages at the various contacts. Didn’t fix the interruptions, which were generating the (valid) -11 codes. But when I replaced the broken speedo sensor, the interruptions and the resulting -11 codes cleared up.
But for some unfathomable reason, I lost power, and it now performs about like a stock GEM, even though it has the “hot” R4F motor and 14 inch wheels.
Curious, no?
Very curious. It’s these types of problems that would make me want to acquire my own ability to program the controller. I think you can buy what you’d need for a couple of hundred dollars. That way you could check the controller programming on your own. Of course if the controller is “fried”, that wouldn’t help much.
Good luck and please let us know what you find.
Al