during the last few weeks, TW560’s been behaving strangely.
whilst driving – and more annoyingly – at red lights, my TWIKE started to claim that it was ready for charging, although i was either driving or clearly not wanting to charge, since i was standing at a red light. it’s a really annoying and potentially dangerous problem.
unlike newer ev’s, TWIKEs come with a non-removable charging cable which directly connects to the inverter. detection of drive-readiness is achieved through a dummy socket in the vehicle’s interior.
my current problem was a bad contact or broken cable, since the problem was fixable whilst driving by just wiggling the cable with the socket a little.
DISCLAIMER: i would like to caution anybody attempting any kind of repairs on a TWIKE to either know EXACTLY what their doing or leave the repair to a suitably trained professional! removing any type of cover behind the driver’s seat can expose you to LETHAL DC voltage of around 400V!
with this friendly reminder out of the way… let’s begin.
first of all we need to remove both battery bay panels.
today, i’m not working alone…
i now need to get access to the AK-print, where the pigtail ends. again, be careful what you touch. with a dreifels controller, you are on the safe side: DC from the batteries gets disconnected 100% every time you power down your TWIKE. i lift out the controller, dcdc and ak print and spread out the cables…
i now assemble a new pigtail – cutting a pre-assembled cable.
the new plug even comes with child safety features – so now your toddler can’t unplug and re-plug the TWIKE and drive off with it! now that’s a feature!
i put everything back together and i must say, the new cable looks very good.
tadaa – all problems gone and driving TW560 is a lot of fun again.