It looks like all the problems related to this GEM instant throttle disconnects were due to poor 72V input to the 12V converter. I would drive down the street and hit a bump, or not, and throttle/acceleration would stop which sent everyone in the vehicle forward in their seats. I just pulled my foot from the pedal and re-engaged throttle and it would be back accelerating. I thought it was the throttle pedal and replaced the switch, tested the POT and cleaned the connectors but that had little effect. Later I put the GEM on blocks and found I could trigger the throttle cut-out by wiggling the wire harness leading to the 12V converter and thought it might be a broken/intermittent 12V wire to the speed controller.
I put off digging into this because I thought I had to remove not only the top dashboard(easy) but also the lower dash and frame. I felt silly when I figured out the lower dash cover just needs 4 easy to access crews removed and it pulls out after angled and 2 thick tabs are pulled from the firewall area. SOOO easy. Once I pulled the 72V power connector from the converter it was obvious the problem was the whole 12V power was dropping out due to so little metal-to-metal contact in the connector sockets. I filed down 2 thick upholstery staples to act as pin removal tool and cleaned out the sealant, sprayed contact cleaner on connectors and pins and worked them a bunch of times to further clean the contacts and reassembled. Worked great the last 3 times I had the GEM out before I found out my battery charger had failed.
The connector was full of sealant…
