We have had a slight setback in getting our Citicar running for
school. Once all the batteries had been installed and the wires hooked
up, we felt it was time to see if everything worked. With a flip of
the key the voltmeter came up and some other dash lights.
Upon releasing the parking brake, a blue spark came from the
center tower of the speed control. Lots of smoke followed and I'm now
glad none of the batteries blew up. In the height of the excitement we
used a fire extinguisher, which happens to leave a nice corrosive
powder on everything.
We removed the contactor and found that two wires were burned and
one set of points welded together.
In the manual I read:
On some early production vehicles, the ground wire was made of 16 guage
wire. This wire could melt during the charge cycle and cause the
controller harness to short. The complete low power controller harness
would have to be remade.
This seems to describe what happened to us. We haven't used the
charger but if the previous owner had, maybe he left a surprise for us!
Now we are looking to replace the points that were welded
together. This seems to be the only evidence of the incident other
than the black soot on some parts. Picture of what we need is at :
If you can help us out, it'd be appreciated!
Ross, Matt, and Jeremy
dconrad@...
