This week we finished the high voltage wiring. Everything is mounted now except for the motor. The main breaker is only mounted with masking tape for the moment. When the new bracket arrives that will change.  
 
The goal this week was to test the high voltage wiring and the motor. That was done but the results were not as I had hoped.
 
When everything was hooked up I energized the system and it seemed fine at first. The controller blinked and the led green light was on. I then twisted the throttle and the motor started to turn, that was so cool.
 
A few seconds later smoke and sparks started spewing out of the control box.
 
I shut the system down and double checked all wiring to the diagram. It all looked good. Test 2 had same bad results. At this time I shut down for the night.
 
The next day I called Alltrax support and double checked the wiring diagram. It all looked good. I sketched the wiring diagram and sent it to Jeff at Electric Vehicles. When I talked to him on the phone we reviewed the wiring and it sounded correct.
 
Today when I was taking the pictures I was removing the connections from the motor and I found the problem. The lugs I used in the PMG 132 motor were too large to fit properly. I had covered the lugs with clear heat shrink insulation, but when I tightened down the screw on the negative cable it came in contact with a screw head on the positive plate.
 
I could not see any of this until I removed the cover and removed the negative lead. Then I could see a small black spot on the screw head under the cable. See the pictures below.
 
This resulted in a full plus to minus short and that blew the controller. An expensive lesson learned. Next week will be the fix.
EL Ninja week of 4-7-2007
Side view of the bike
Potbox is mounted. Cable mount modified from gas carbs.
Top view of main breaker
Fuse 300 amp for battery pack
Zivan 72 volt charger. It works nice.
DC to DC converter goes 72 to 12 volt.
Rear view of the controller and connections
Side view with the tank cover on.
Another side view
Main breaker shut off.
Motor ready to test
Pmg motor on the floor.
Cover removed from motor
Negative lead removed. Now we see the problem.
Bottom side of lead that shorted out.