Major Problems resolved
Problem 1
Jon Eggenhuizen helped to resolve a major problem. The car was not driveable for a long period of time due to intermittent failure. There is an error code from the motor but it took a long time to find the real problem. After bench testing it appeared that all pins on the wire connector were worn out. I build the new connector with new pins. Also, I turned the controller 180 degree and secured the loom solid so that there is no movement of the connector and pins when driving. Well, fingers crossed. I calculate that this should last at least 100,000 km driving without servicing.
Photo - Jon's electric bike racing
He is your Go To man for electrical issues.
http://catavolt.com.au/
Problem 2
The car sometimes by mistake is in the wrong gear. This causes a problem and the car is not moving from 4th gear. In reverse the car drives but that seems not too practical for normal driving. The solution was easy. I replaced the Mazda Tribute with Mazda 3 gear shifter. The gear shifter from the replacement Mazda 3 was already bought from the wreckers together with the gearbox. The length of the cables was first a problem but it appears to fit perfect. Also, the original screws to secure the shifter on the car floor fitted very well. Only secondary challenge is to make the plastic around it fit nicely. This work did result in an over enthusiastic approach and directly I installed my 20 year old car audio speaker set to upgrade the sound in this car! The sound is beautiful. And first, second, third and reverse gears tested and fine. Note that for the AC motor the moment of shifting gear there need to be a pause of the power regeneration.
Problem 3
A test drive with lights on appeared to fail. The 12v drops to 9v. This is caused due to the steering wheel power that consumes a peak of around 50-70 amp and the DCDC plus old PC680 Odyssey 12V battery does not keep charge. The challenge is which part is the root cause? Tested with 2nd 48Ah 12v battery does not resolve the problem. This is currently in investigation. Should I buy a 300 dollar replacement battery even if it may not resolve the problem?
