I recently bought a Powatryke Mk1 that seemed okay-ish at first, pottering around the yard, then it became obvious once I tried to use it on the road that the range was extremely limited, I found an incorrect smaller 36 volt Li-ion battery of 7.8 AH had been installed in the battery case so sourced a set of three of the correct CSB 12 volt 15 AH batteries as per Powabyke's website. Upon installation I got nothing until I replaced the power controller (which had previously been okay) PCB with a used unit I managed to find on E-bay. Off I go down the road and - it's exactly the same, it loses power after a couple of hundred meters and barely gets me back home. I measured the voltage across the terminals at 38 volts and checked the battery charger - it was delivering 42 volts for a few minutes then the green light comes on and it settles down to 40 volts. I checked each individual battery with a known good and trusted charger and this showed each battery to by fully charged. So I conclude that the problem lies elsewhere, but that's the thing - where and what is wrong? Could the fault be inside the power hub? All wiring looks okay and nothing seems to be getting hot. I have absolutely no experience with these things so am unsure what to do next - all suggestions will be much appreciated...
Powatryke runs out of "pow!"
- Thread starter Hawaii50
- Start date
In the mean time I took the wheel out and noticed this:
The lever that is supposed to stop the hub centre axle from turning has a hole that is far too big and the axle - the inner part you can see in the photo - was able to move around it. Not good...
So I took the hub out of the wheel, battling many seized and rusty screws in the process, patiently hitting them with a sawn off screwdiver to jar them loose...
Prising the individual pins out of the plug housing.
Allowing me to extract the motor from the wheel.
Revealing this damage to the armature. Question - is this what might be causing my loss of power?
The lever that is supposed to stop the hub centre axle from turning has a hole that is far too big and the axle - the inner part you can see in the photo - was able to move around it. Not good...
So I took the hub out of the wheel, battling many seized and rusty screws in the process, patiently hitting them with a sawn off screwdiver to jar them loose...
Prising the individual pins out of the plug housing.
Allowing me to extract the motor from the wheel.
Revealing this damage to the armature. Question - is this what might be causing my loss of power?
So I tested the armature after watching a couple of YouTube videos on the subject and it tested okay, so I reassembled the wheel and road tested it.
Exactly the same!
It cuts out when confronted by the slightest hill, if I switch the ignition off it will recover but only very briefly, only when the "hill" is climbed will it pull along normally. So basically when I need the motor most it says "bye-bye". I now know that the motor is okay and the battery is okay but the controller circuit board was used from E-bay and only swapped because the original one was totally non functional following installation of the new batteries - so I'm asking myself - Why? I'm going to look at the old controller for clues...
Exactly the same!
It cuts out when confronted by the slightest hill, if I switch the ignition off it will recover but only very briefly, only when the "hill" is climbed will it pull along normally. So basically when I need the motor most it says "bye-bye". I now know that the motor is okay and the battery is okay but the controller circuit board was used from E-bay and only swapped because the original one was totally non functional following installation of the new batteries - so I'm asking myself - Why? I'm going to look at the old controller for clues...