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This child’s electric jeep had come in last month when our normal session had been cancelled, but I took it on as a job to do at home. The problem was simply that it would not go. |
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| Checking the battery voltage showed it to be dead, but with a temporary supply there were signs of life with the lights and sound effects so it seemed possible that the electronic controller (top of photo) was still working. The customer agreed to risk investing in a new battery which would either cure the problem or enable me to diagnose whatever else might be amiss. |  |
| With a new battery, fully charged, there was still no response to the accelerator but crucially everything worked when the jeep was driven by means of its remote control.
That meant that we could eliminate the onboard electronics and the motors: the next most likely culprit was the accelerator. From the way it clicked I could tell it was just an on-off switch. |
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| Having figured out how to remove the pedal assembly I could get access to the switch connections. Notice how they have used a twin switch, meaning that there are spare normally-open connections on the right. |  |
| Shorting across the connections on the switch brought the beast to life, proving that the switch contact was the culprit… |  |
| …so I just had to move the wires over to the spare pair of on-off terminals.
Put everything else back as I found it and job done. |
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The key here was to start with methodical diagnosis. And although the owner had helpfully brought the instruction booklet (never throw those away!) on the first visit, I didn’t learn until later that there was a remote control. It was the fact that it worked under remote control which enabled me to pinpoint the fault.
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