ZEV Motorcycles & Scooters

Of course the body panels are from the same molds, this body is a Chinese knock-off of the Suzuki Epicuro maxi-Scooter. But the underpinnings are often welded together by different entities, to be seen by the name on the frame plaque, usually somewhere close to the main stand hinge.
Mujin Chen's erider, now once again merged with his brother's efun, have had this body style on their formerly called VK2008 probably since that year. Now it is just called the TK.

The high-powered hubmotors however do follow some kind of standard, so they are mostly interchangable. The Chinese E-Scooter-industry typically allows the customer to select the components he wants, and they will put the thing together for you. Full customization as a standard :-)

I'll be testing the motor lines next. I felt that it was unlikely that it would behave identically on both sets of sensor leads if the problem lay there

Just to be clear, I'm referring to the three motor phase leads, not the sensors. A break or short in the motor windings is rare, but it is easy to check.

"Understood. Can I just watch the pattern on a voltage meter as the wheel is turned, with one meter lead on a motor lead and one on ground, repeated for each motor lead?"

Isn't this a 3-phase permanent-magnet brushless DC motor? I'm pretty sure the ones I saw and test rode at ZEV's shop were. If it is, it should have three thick wires going into it typically blue, yellow and green. Connecting any two wires together should cause the motor to have distinctly greater resistance against turning (regren braking effect) all three together will have the greatest resistance. You could also check the resistance between each phase wire. It it should be some low value (few ohms) but not zero or infinity.

If it is a PM brushed motor, then you could just check the resistance as motor is turned. Connecting the leads together should also produce the braking effect.

Note that the motor windings don't fail very often - but it is something that is easy to check. Note that you can also do the same check with it hooked to the controller - excess turning resistance indicates a short in the mosfets.

Let me continue my experiences with the ZEV T8500 which I have driven a part of last summer in the south of France. Like I wrote already in my previous message I always drive with a duo passenger (my wife) and I was curious how the ZEV would behave in the mountainous region I live in when I'm in the south of France. Everything seemed to go well until I decided to take a tour to Montsegur. (of course it wasn't my intention to drive on the actual mountain but just to the parking space at the bottom of the mountain) The road to Montsegur is already going upward with several hairpin curves and just a kilometre or two before we would have reached our destination just after we had done such a hairpin something happened.
All of a sudden there was a strange rattling noise coming out of the controller and we could smell something was burning. We stopped immediately and when we tried to move on it didn't react any more so we decided not to continue our trip. We only hoped that moment to be able to get back to our home for which we had to drive at least 30 kilometres back, mostly downhill.
The first 10 km would be going more or less down and we hoped that would be sufficient to cool the things that needed cooling.
All went well until we reached the point we had to try the engine again, it appeared to work again but with a terrible noise coming out of the controller.
We made it home but had to push the last 50 metres because they were going upward again and the motor didn't have the power any more to do that.
It took us several months before we would be able to return to our dealer in the Netherlands where they could look to the problem.
Two weeks ago the dealer examined the ZEV and there had been indeed a problem with the controller. They replaced it for a newer type controller and since then the ZEV seems even better then it had been before. This new type controller ( it also had totally new plugs) runs the bike much smoother than the previous had done and it also reacts much better on the electronic gear gadget.
Of course I have read since on this forum about the problems some of the owners of a ZEV had with the controllers but as for now I can only suggest to try that new type of controller (looks the same as the old one, but the interior must have been improved) for it seems to me an improvement.

I have it running with a Kelly controller :)

What controller. How many amps and do you have regen working? My controller only puts out 95amps max and I would like to pump that up to 180amps

I am especially very interested in the 'regen' of that controller.

Did you find the people at the ZEV office hard to deal with. I have heard and I have found it is very difficult getting help after the sale. Now in my case I did buy a used 5000L. but I found help for parts very difficult. Two weeks for them to answer emails with a price and then a week to send a check and then wait for shipment. check is all they will except.

If somone came along and wanted my ZEV I would sell it in nano sec.

If somone came along and wanted my ZEV I would sell it in nano sec.

What ZEV do you have?

I did not mean to imply it as an add to sell it, it is just that I am very tired Of dealing with zev corporation!

2012 5000L

Oh you ended up with one of the old "Lead Sleds". Wonder if you ended up with LeftieBikers bike?