Electric Scooter Nightmares! Please help!

Ok, so to make a really long and boring story short, I am 41 years old and decided to go back to college a couple years ago. I have a family, house, bills, ETC… so needless to say, we have had to be tight with money. So, I buy a used TaoTao ATE501, off of craigslist. I know, I know. But it looked good, the only issue was that it had been sitting for a year or maybe two, so the batteries were toast. So, I pay $250 for it, order 4 brand new SLA batteries and everything was fine with it.

Until the rear inner tube went flat, which happened 7 times in 8 months. That was annoying, but manageable. Then the charger got fried. No biggie, I am in technical lasses in college. The electronics classroom was right down the hall. The professor fixed it in like 10 seconds.

Then, the motor would do this thing where it would feel like it was grinding. That’s the only way I can explain it. It would basically stop running, grind a bit until I got off f it and either moved the hub motor wires around a bit or even if I kicked off a bit. It only did it intermittently. Then one day it just stopped.

So, I took the motor off and found that 2 of the hall sensor wires were broke. Figured that would explain it. We didn’t have the money, so I went for 3 and a half weeks without it, right at the end of the summer semester too. Not fun. We finally get a new hub motor for it from a guy we know who runs a scooter shop here in town, come home, put it on and the damn innertube is flat again.

4 days later, my girlfriend finds a scooter shop that isn’t close to our house. She happened to be driving to a different office for her job and passed it. So, on the way back, she stops to get an inner tube and ended up buying two brand new tubeless tires. Got them on the rims just fine, everything was great. I put the tire on the rear axle and I’ll be damned if the motor wires weren’t severed half way through the Bundle. There are 8 wires, 4 were severed all the way and a 5th was showing copper.
So, I take the hub motor apart. Cut the wires, run them back up the Axle-Bolt and get it all connected again. (The opening, where they hollowed out the bolt to allow the wires has a very sharp lip on it BTW. That’s how they got cut, from being pushed against it.)

Charged the batteries and the next morning, while taking my son to the school bus stop, the damn motor starts the weird grinding noise again. The bike jerks forward, then loses momentum as it grinds. I pull it into someone’s driveway and mess with it. Nothing. My son walks to the bus stop and I got on it and kicked a bit and it made it back home. Barely. Now, while its up on the Mechanics kickstand, the motor only clicks when I twist the throttle. And the damn battery charger is fried again (LED light is burnt up on one of the legs.)

The batteries are charged. Enough to spin the wheel a bit at least. I cannot, for the life of me figure out what the issue is. I have looked online and found some stuff about brake lights (Disconnected them), and that’s all really. I am not sure what to test, or even how to test it really. The controller would be my next guess, but from what I can find, there is no real way to test a speed controller. Could be a faulty voltage regulator or even a short in the wiring.

Or maybe, just maybe, someone here is going to say,** “Nope, Nope, not at all pal.”** Because they have experienced the grinding or know enough about electric scooters and electrical/electronics, in general to have a better solution. I just need help.

Can’t afford to be without the bike, can’t afford to buy a new one. So, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Gene @btcworker