Some of you know that on our trip to Sipapu my EZ Steer failed and I only had manual steering from Wednesday on. That sucked but I lived through it. When it quit I felt the motor and it was cool, then I felt the controle unit and it was so hot I couldn't touch it for long. I also touched the framing in front of it and other things between it and the radiator. They all were as hot. Some testing showed the motor worked fine and so did the torque sensor so it was likely the problem was the control unit. With my oil cooler set high and in front of the radiator the unit would habe been getting double- heated air. And SWBF did take a reading on my oil temperature to fine it was hotter then it has ever been with the cooler...217. Just so happens swbf has an EZ Steer on his 09 and I asked to borrowed his control unit. He let me try it and it works so in my frame of mind, heat did a number on mine and needed to be located away from this high heat source and I'll be asking SuperATV for a replacement. In the meantime the search was on for a new location. I think I found the perfect place, On the left side at the front of the airbox. There the electronics cover is against the coolest part of the Brute...the air box and the heat sink side is faced outword in the air steam from the far left side...well away from the radiators hot stream....and the splash guard blocks the front and bottom side of the unit from heat and water. And only the motor wires had to be lengthened about a foot. Cake.
Just make a couple of simple 1/16" thick frame brackets, painted them and mounted the new unit to them.
Cleaned it up, installed a new fuse holder, added about a foot to the motor cables and its ready to test. Got a little more heat shield left so I think I'll slap a peace under the splash guard just for GP
If it was the heat that killed it and this is a cooler area for it, it's bound to help. I send a request to SuperATV about getting or buying another controller. They should have some good ones laying around from the returns.
Discovered something else. A while back I was told the unit pulled about 18 amps at full load. I actually didn't fully believe that because of the main power wire size being 12g and the amount is almost equal to the full output of the charging system. I had put a 10 amp fuse in and it did blow it but not a 20. I have this old amp meter used to test the DC generator's output from the old days and it can be used to see the amp flow through any wire using any DC voltage a little like an amprobe does for AC current. Decided to see what it said for this thing. To my surprise it shot to 19 amps. So...it does pull that many amps. Needless to say I put the 30 amp fuse back in. No wonder it pulls a battery down so fast. Now.. I am glad I have the Shorai battery.
Any idea what the unit from Kawie draws?
My 12 stock battery is doing fine so far and I have not put a charger on it.
The Shoria will be going into the 12 though, no way am I leaving that in the 09.
I am just leaving the EZ-Steer control box where it is on the 09, the oil cooler is out.
Any idea what the unit from Kawie draws?
My 12 stock battery is doing fine so far and I have not put a charger on it.
The Shoria will be going into the 12 though, no way am I leaving that in the 09.
I am just leaving the EZ-Steer control box where it is on the 09, the oil cooler is out.
Just ordered a new control unit from SuperATV. Only 50 bucks. Just FYI, they no longer have or can get the 3-plug control units as they have been discontinued. Fortunately this is a 4-plug and is still used.
The unit still runs very hot even relocated so I also ordered some heat sinks and special thermo adhesive to mount them onto the current heat sink it already has. I am taking from what Kawie has done with the 2012s+. Their controllers are mounted in about the same place and have large fined heat sinks on them.
Sense I have to make new mounts anyway because of the heat sinks I bought some 6mmx12mm threaded male/female vibration isolators to go between the mounts and the threaded mounting holes on the unit. That should soften-up it's ride. I'll get some pics when done.
Well, today not 15 minutes into our ride the unit failed yet again. This time it lost 80% of the assist but recovered back to about 75% full power for the next 1.5 hours where it completely lost all assist. The light comes on for a second but nothing other then a low hum when you turn the bars and there is no draw on the battery. I will check to see if this is something I missed or did on the rewiring but I don't think so. If it is, I'll post those findings but for now...well, partly because this time I was injured with bar whip because it was down, and the fact that I have done everything in the book to make this system better including heat shields, heat sinks on the motor and control unit, relocation of the control unit to a cooler area and mounting it on vibration dampers...and gave it #10 power supply and ground and this is the fourth time it has failed in less then 400 miles. And I am just your average trail rider.
SuperATV is one of the greatest companies to work with and to a fault they stand behind these products and for that I salute them. But it has become painfully obvious this first system for the Brute is nothing but Chinese junk and I will no longer recommend it to anyone. The new system may be better...I can't speak for it but if you want power steering, then buy a quad with a factory system. That's my recommendation.
Sorry for the rant..just a little Pissed and in pain with a possible cracked rib because of this SOB.
It will take some time to heal up but I'm glad you are ok and we got out of there if no other issues.
That vid doesn't show how steep the climb was and I couldn't stay to the left of the trail, as I too slid into the deep ditch on the right side and smacked that same Rock that stopped NMK.
Man you have done everything you can to bullet proof the unit you said main unit (the motor) if so just wandering if all the miles you put on it with the small12ga (my strippers showed it to be 14ga) power wire had anything to do with it failing anyway get healed up an good riding
I don't know other then there is a sound like a trapped bee coming from the motor. Just pisses me off that again I have to pull this thing back down and pay another 50 bucks for something that may fail again.
I hear that there are a lot of problems with the old units for sure. But thinking how mine preforms now with the new controller an 10ga power supply wireing the whole system was hurting before from lack of power an the long trips you guys take, we probly never ride over a 1/2mi before stopping an watching or playing in a hole not al9t of extended use on the system I would talk with kraig after I found the power problem on mine an determined high resistance an heat. I think the OEM wireing fried your complete system. Good luck an give them hell
I had an EZ steer system on my machine for 1 weekend.
Wasn't for me, didn't like it. Removed it and sent it back.
Worked great at lower speeds and trails.
But not being speed sensitive it was way to strong and twitching on hard pack high speed gravel roads.
I had an EZ steer system on my machine for 1 weekend.
Wasn't for me, didn't like it. Removed it and sent it back.
Worked great at lower speeds and trails.
But not being speed sensitive it was way to strong and twitching on hard pack high speed gravel roads.
Mine was actually quite nice at any speed once all the loose parts were replaced and the toe-in set to 10mm. I just can't seem to keep the damn-thing functioning for any length of time...grr
I am thinking I may just pay the 50-bucks for the replacement unit and prep the old girl for sale. I almost have enough saved-up in my quad fund to pay cash for a new one anyway...so what's a few months early anyway...Right SWBF
Here's an interesting turn of events. Just for the hell of it I put my spare controller unit on it...and it worked? Perfectly! Then I put the other one back on...and it didn't work...the motor was making that same buzzing sound. So I mounted the spare new one in it's place, plugged it in and yes, it worked fine again. So.. I have P/S again. Now to figure out what happened.
As I look at the terminals on the controller, the battery + looks to have been hot as I see what looks like melted plastic..or wet-looking plastic around the base. Not the negative though. Also I see this same thing on both the terminals for the two motor leads. Looks like they were getting hot.
I am now wondering if they purposely put smaller gage wire in line to reduce voltage or amperage draw. Like having an in-line resistor except cheaper because it's just wire. I'll almost bet if I have taken a voltage reading under load with the smaller supply wire it might have read not more then 12 volts and now that we have taken that resistance out it has all of the 14.4 now which is too much for the circuits. That's my thinking at this point.
Rick, how long have you been running yours now with the #10? I got about 18 minutes when it failed. And it still worked some...for a while..then it was all gone except a slight trickle to the motor making it buzz.
more than 8hrs on it so far when I talked with satv ez guru he said the wire wasn't of the proper size for the load. On another thought if they were using small wire to cause a volt or amp drop they wouldnt say to cut off excess an about all electronics have over volt an under volt protection built in now days
Hmmm...That's true..Something heated those terminals though...and this isn't the first controller that has failed on this main unit by load or heat. It wasn't heat this time..
Do you have an amprobe or something that can read DC amp draw? I wonder if mine is pulling more then others. I have an old generator tester that shows the draw or charge and it says the motor is pulling 22amps and full turn.
I al also wondering if the Shorai battery with it's ability to stay above 14 volts for extended times is having something to do with it.
Sorry for slow response got called out on a repo job to help a buddy he needed someone with a m/c endorsement
But did check it this morning
Batt v at idle 14.1 no load
Battery v with load 13.6
Ez motor no load (tires off ground) 15.3 amps
Ez motor loaded (tires on ground) 20.0 amps
Readings were taken with engine at idle an bike not moving I would think if the bike was moving the amp draw would be lower.
In your case I would think the way you guys ride that extended time on your components with the sub par wiring has taken a bigger toll on the system than mine like I was telling you before its very rare for us to go much longer than 30 min before stopping for a cold 1 or to play in a mud hole
Hope you get something figured out on your system just got enough coin saved for the rzr sure don't need to be looking at a newer brute with OEM p/s
Well, that sounds exactly like mine...and you were so right about the lead into the unit from the fuse holder. I though it was 12 or 14 to the fuse and 10 from the fuse to the unit but my stripper says it was 14 from the fuse to the unit. It's 10 now and the new fuse holder with #10 in and out will be back at the battery where I can get to it. I also have a large 12 volt high output fan that's going to be mounted on the front side of the unit and have an adjustable temp switch mounted against the metal heat sink of the unit. Its only a 2.5" fan but when that puppy comes on it moves almost as much air as the radiator fan. Sounds like a turbo...not sure I can handle that but it will be under the plastics so well see.
I took the burned unit apart as much as I could and it looks like it had some issues like moisture sealed inside it...screws rusted and some other signs that made me think it had issues before ...the guy I got it from got it.
Nice...a water proof holder. I didn't use a water proof holder but I did order an 8ga capped holder that's good to 60amp. It was only a couple of bucks more and per their chart, the 10ga in the type I got was maxed out at 30amps. Which is fine but.. you know me...
Well I don't know if it was the addition of the larger power supply and grounding lines or the new rectifier /regulator keeping the voltage up or both (Probably both) but mine now has about 25-30% more power at the motor...enough that it now turns on the shop concrete floor with very little effort where before you would have to turn it like a manual with a hair of assist. And kicking it around the yard today I couldn't overrun the torque sensor so...something good has happened in all of this. Soon as this rib heals a bit more I want to hit some trails.
Hey NMKawierider, Loved your review on the ez steer. Just joined here - picked up an 07 750i and love it ,but at 53 years old, I'm thinking of adding the EPS system. I glanced at the instructions and it seems pretty straight forward to install, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. I haven't purchased a system - any best place to get one? Thanks for all the info! Jeff
Also, would love to see a video of the install... looked around but couldn't find one.
Hey NMKawierider, Loved your review on the ez steer. Just joined here - picked up an 07 750i and love it ,but at 53 years old, I'm thinking of adding the EPS system. I glanced at the instructions and it seems pretty straight forward to install, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. I haven't purchased a system - any best place to get one? Thanks for all the info! Jeff
Also, would love to see a video of the install... looked around but couldn't find one.
At 58 I can tell you I really enjoy having power steering...and my old shoulders and arms thank me on every ride now. I had several problems with the first generation of this unit but they probably have most of the bugs worked out on the second generation unit. I highly recommend making sure your battery and voltage rectifier is up to the 22+ amps of max demand and working correctly. My rectifier/regulator may have been the cause of the loss of my last two control units.
SuperATV is the only place to get these and the instructions are pretty clear and straight forward. I'll be happy to help any way I can.
I do have a video on setting the toe in with the EZ Steer on my You Tube Channel when needed.
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