Bent pin in Throttle cable

[Adamsavage79]

So I've had the bike back now for about week and half. I first noticed after using my bike trailer, the left nut was so loose, that I could tighten it with my fingers! Not good! Good thing I have a Torque arm and another fail safe on the other side. Then today, when changing a flat. I noticed that my torque arm, where the two pieces meet is also loose! Then, when checking to see if I have the pins lined up correctly. I find out I have a bent pin. The bike has been mostly working normally, aside from a strange vibration at a certain load or speed but passes if you speed up or slow down.

I don't know what pin is broken, but I think it's on the left side. I could try and take a picture. Worse comes to worse, I will need to to cut the plug off both ends and solder them. That is of course, unless I can get a HiGo connecter that would work with the bike, or a 5 wire anderson connector ? I don't see a option on the website, to buy the wire harness coming from the motor. I wouldn't even need all of it. I would just cut the plug off and solder the two ends, vs removing the wheel, then the controller etc.

[Bikemad]

The five pin throttle connector plugs into the main control harness not the motor/controller harness, so it should be easy to replace either the throttle or the main control harness as required without having to remove the wheel. 

Both of these items are available separately.

However, if it is the motor/controller harness that you require because the five pin connector for the Smart LCD display, Bluetooth dongle and USB programming lead is damaged, GM Canada also have a vector controller wiring harness listed on their website, but there is no picture and it doesn't specify which vector controllers it is for, so it might be for the external VEC range of controllers not the internal Magic/Smart Pie controllers.

They may even have a perfectly good controller harness pre-attached to a failed controller that they could ship to you for a reasonable price (if they don't have to be returned to China).
A quick phone call or email should provide the answer.

Alan
 

[Adamsavage79]

I was wrong, the wire that has the pin bent is for the LCD display. That is part of the main cable that comes directly out of the controller on the wheel. From the wheel you have a main cable, that splits off into 3 small cables. So far it hasn't given me any problems, aside the light vibration sometimes.

[Adamsavage79]

So it seems I need to track down a 5 pin cable, as I'm being told the only way to replace the plug is to buy a new controller and splice it in. Not going to $150 plus tax, and shipping for a single Higo plug/connector. Ebay has some, but the quality is not known nor is the color coding of the wires either.

[Tommycat]

Perhaps an acceptable work around would be to purchase an extension cable that would have both sides of the connector. Relatively inexpensive, but would require you cutting off both sides of the damaged connector. And correctly splicing the replacements on.

Some what similar to what I did to make the motor easily removable...




As seen here...
https://electricbike.com/forum/forum/builds/ebike-building-directions/48457-1st-build-e-bike-rider-magic-pie-v5-rear-bottle-batt-52v-11-5ah-huffy-parkside?p=73411#post73411

Example of extension to purchase...
https://lunacycle.com/bafang-display-extension-cable/



Regards,
T.C.

[Bikemad]

Don't assume that the wire colours will be the same in both cables, a simple continuity check will confirm what colour wire goes to each pin to be sure you are connecting the right wires together.

When you are splicing two different cables together, try to stagger the joints in the individual wires as shown below:



If you stagger the joints, it should make a neater, more durable and safer repair.

Alan
 

[Bikemad]

Ok will do. I have a plug being sent to me from Golden Motor. It turned out he had some lying around somewhere. The biggest problem I have with small wires, and heat shrink is the heat from the soldering shrinks them before I can get them over the exposed wire. What is the work around to that ?

Oops, I tried to quickly reply without my glasses on and clicked on the "Remove" tab instead of "Reply".   

The only advice I can give is to slide the heatshrink tubing as far away as possible from the soldered joint and clamp a damp cloth over the heatshrink using a wooden clothes peg etc. to try and keep it cool while quickly soldering the joint.

I use a pair of helping hands to hold the wires together accurately which allows fiddly soldered joints to be done much quicker, as the longer you take applying heat and solder to the joint, the further the heat will travel along the wire.  If the clips are positioned close to the joint they also work as heatsinks to prevent the heat from travelling too far.

I have also used a pair of 10mm neodymium magnets either side of the wire being soldered to act as a heatsink to prevent heat from travelling too far, but you still need to be as quick as possible soldering the joint.

Alan
 

[Adamsavage79]

I will try some of what you suggested, but some seems overly complicated. I never use helping hands really, as I just twist the wires around each other really good and then solder. As for the other wires, I move them as far as possible away from the one I'm working on.