uk.people.disability

(not quite so) Fat Sam wrote:
> Temprance wrote:
>> I don't wish to have to spend a lot of money which I have not enough
>> of so can anybody give me their thoughts on what is wrong with my
>> Mercury M48 Scooter. I've got a glitch where all of a sudden it slows
>> right down and then picks up again. A bit scary as I don't want to be
>> stuck somewhere. It did it today and about 40 seconds before the power
>> came back. According to my manual it should beep at me when something
>> is not working but so far it has remained silent.
>>
>>
>> temprance
>
> Sounds to me like it could be a problem with the rheostat that forms the
> throttle mechanism.
> It may be damaged, or it might need cleaning.
> Is there any regularity to it?
> Does it always happen when you hit the same speed?
>
> Or does it happen when you go over rough surfaces? That might just suggest
> somethng as simple as a loose connection or a cracked solder joint.
>
>

Wow, I haven't seen a speed controller with a rheostat for, oh, more
years than I can remember. IME, they all use pwm controllers, these
days. YMMV.

If you mean "potentiometer", I dare say that the OP gave the throttle a
good old waggle when it stopped. So any poor contact point would have
been moved off, quite quickly.

As you say, the key thing is "how regular". If it always takes near
enough the same length of time to recover, then it sounds like intent is
at work rather than something random (like bad connections). That sort
of time sounds like an overload/overtemperature trip resetting itself.

Or it could be something very simple and possibly not really a fault at
all. I know one owner who found that the space by the controller got
nice and warm, so thought it a good place to keep her anaorak hood.
Unfortunately, it got even warmer, as a result...

Of course, every time it was tested, it was without the hood and all was
fine.. Oh we laughed when the penny finally dropped:(
--
Sue