I have found that as an EV (or any vehicle/vessel) ages, resistance increases all over the place, blade connections, crimped connections, rot creeping down inside the cables. Not to mention arcing damage to contacts.
I have replaced many battery to starter cables over the years that had corrosion work itself down many feet of cable inside the insulation, have even seen the cable crumble into nothing but green with no metal apparently left during disassembly. A dry climate helps, though you can't escape electrolysis even if you solder everything and treat each connection like it might have to operate in an extreme marine application. (though this helps) Any type of mechanical switch, contactor or continuously moving potentiometer will eventually age and fail. Depending on how many miles and how much time is on your EV, it may be a good idea to replace the microswitches and especially the potentiometer as regular extended maintenance items. And always inspect the condition of blade and crimp connections carefully. Folks who purchase a used EV with a lot of time on it or has been sitting a long time should especially take heed. "Lot Rot" is a term people in the auto repair industry are very familiar with. Lot rot in particular attacks: Brake systems Electrical connections Oil seals Anyone else please feel free to add to this list =) HTH Roy LeMeur Seattle WA My Electric Vehicle Pages: http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/renewables/evpage.html Informational Electric Vehicle Links: http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/renewables/evlinks.html _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
