MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

Technical discussion for the Blade
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Randall679
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MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

Post by Randall679 »

OK, so it only has 20,000k on the clock, but it is 10 years old ...

Yesterday, the Auxiliary Motor didn't kick in on "launch" ... usually gives that nice satisfying whine as it gets up to speed. This runs the power steering, I guess, because i felt like I was in my old car from high school ... like steering through mud.

First instinct was to check the fuses, in both the under dash and engine bay boxes ... all working fine. Connections ... seem OK ... ring a friend ... there are several Blade engineers still living in the Castlemaine area ... "is it the gold coloured one" ... yes, that's the best ... This Blade was #2 ever built, so set the standard ...

Off to wrestle the car 20km on a fairly straight road to have a look ... wish me luck ... I will update ...
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coulomb
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Re: MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

Post by coulomb »

I wonder if the auxiliary battery might have died, or become weak. Perhaps the steering pump controller decided that the battery wasn't up to the load.

But power semiconductors in the steering pump motor controller seems more likely.
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coulomb
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Re: MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

Post by coulomb »

It could also be a problem with the motor itself. Weber had two problems with his MX-5's third party power steering motor; there is a small chance you might have a similar problem. His main problem was that the brushes were not centred on the commutator, which he fixed with some veroboard acting as standoffs. He also found that a seal had leaked, and the motor was filled with water. A small hole seems to have cured the latter.

Power steering motor repair.
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Randall679
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Re: MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

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Well, I went to jump in my (usually) trusty Blade to struggle to a nearby town this morning … thought I’d take another look under the bonnet … and noticed a tiny slide clip had come off … popped in back on … bingo! Off and running … still went to the nearby town and give Scott a drive around town … he was one of the team who built them … he did the wiring harnesses, etc. second engineer from Blade to give me a lot of insight. Just as I arrived back, the clip slipped off again, so I think a good squeeze with the needle nose pliers is in order!
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Re: MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

Post by Randall679 »

I LOVE the quirkiness of my Blade Electron ... all of the sudden, the "keys left in ignition" warning started working ... never had before or since ... not that it is ever an issue, because you can't lock the keys in the car ...
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Re: MY FIRST BIG BLADE PROBLEM

Post by Randall679 »

coulomb wrote: Fri, 02 Nov 2018, 07:19I wonder if the auxiliary battery might have died, or become weak. Perhaps the steering pump controller decided that the battery wasn't up to the load.
Mike, that's an interesting suggestion ... the aux battery seems to be the cause of many of the Blade's idiosyncrasies ...

In my case, the low battery cut-out occasionally shuts everything down during start up ... and if you don't start it in 48 hours, you have to reset the low-battery switch. I often find the clock has zeroed out and the radio code has to be input. No biggie, but annoying ...
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