I screwed something up

timmyjane

Over the last few days I decided to do some clean up and a few "upgrades". Well now the cart wont go.

First I added a lift and new tires. Looks good but cant imagine this caused any problems.

I had previously upgraded all wires to 2 AWG except the 3 wires that run from the forward reverse lever to the motor. I got all may parts together and built the wires. They were crimped and soldered as much as I could get soldered.

While I was doing the wires I decided to take a look at the switch and see if I could beef it up to handle the amperage that the 500A controller was allowing to pass.

Then I decided to take a look at the motor and rebuild as necessary. In a second thread a member pointed out the the comm looked a little rough.

So I chucked it up
And cleaned it up.

After the clean up I see that there are little pieces of debris in between the copper and wonder if that is a problem?

I put everything back together and gave it some throttle and got almost nothing. The cart tried to move but had 0 power. It rolled maybe 1" at full throttle.

I suspected the motor so I took it back off and apart to inspect and found a burn.

I cleaned that up and thought that I had found a brush that was stuck and possibly not making contact. You could see evidence of arching on the surface of the brushes that was the culprit.

Put everything back together and still got nothing. Pulled the motor again and this time there was not burning or arching. Everything looks OK.

The controller gives me no errors.

In retrospect I should have done one thing at a time to make sure the cart was working after every step but I didn't and now I'm stuck with a Flintstone cart.

I do show cart voltage through the F&R switch and when I place the Neg lead of my meter on the M- of the controller it slowly ramps up voltage as the peddle is depressed so I assume that is working correctly too.

Can anyone point me to where I should start troubleshooting next?

Thanks.

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BGW

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Volt_Ampere

You need to clean between the segments on the commutator after turning it. If they are copper, it will short out between segments.

timmyjane

I just got cleaned up and was thinking about it in the shower. I don't know squat about electric motors but it started making sense to me that the little pieces between the segments would cause a problem. I didn't realize that the commutator was copper when I chucked it up. If I ever turn another I think I will use plumbers sand paper to clean it up and not a cutting tool.

I guess its time to break out the dremel, or is the a better suggestion?

crash test dummy

oh crap ..... now i got that thought in my head

timmyjane

Haha, well that's embarrassing. If I'd a known I was going to be photoed and put on the net I would have shaved first.

Volt_Ampere

I would not use a dremel at least at first. I would find a sharp tool that you can drag between the copper segments to clean them up. There is an insulating material between them that you do not want to remove much of - just remove the copper that should not be in the slots.

270Handiman

A set of dental picks should do the job

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece...set-93514.html

Volt_Ampere

Dental pick may be too pointy. You want something that is just about the width of the slot. You don't want to remove much of the insulating material - just the copper shavings. You want to eliminate any smearing of the copper due to the turning. You want well defined edges of the segments and no debris in the slots. Start with a good brush.

Clemsoncartguy

Try a feeler gauge. Not sure what we're actually working with here as I am new to this stuff but it will give you a blade like edge and can be very thin.

Volt_Ampere

You need a sharp edge on the end to clean the slots. Feeler gauge ain't going to do it. Too rounded.