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My friends at Xcel Marine gave me seven Torqueedo electric outboard motors. The story goes that these all belonged to a resort in Orlando Florida. They were used to power some tiny pontoon boats that guests could rent to drive around on a lake they dug to get fill to build the resort on top of. Florida swampland can be converted into valuable real estate if you dig up one part of the swamp, making an ornamental "lake" and pile the muck up to make dry land.
But I digress...As time passed, several of the motors quit working. They got some preliminary diagnosis written on them in magic marker or on red tags. At some point, there were only a couple of them working. Some kid they hired was supposed to take them in and recharge them when guests were done. One day he decided to put all the batteries in a cardboard box so he didn't have to make multiple trips back and forth to the dock. He tripped, dropping the box and made serious cracks in several of the batteries. Several others fell in the lake and apparently they didn't even try to fish them out. And that was just it for the Torqueedo electric outboard motors.
At some point, they were given to the mechanics at Xcel Marine. Greg wanted to use one of the batteries for an electric tricycle for his kids but was having trouble with the BMS in the battery. Eventually they gave the motors to Me in case I could make some of them work.
I cheated. I bought two used Torqueedo batteries on ebay. With good batteries, I was able to test the different components of all the motors. At first, I got a good battery, speed controlling handle, and lower leg with the motor itself working. With this one good set of components, I was able to swap out one component at a time so I could determine what worked and what doesn't.
This first step in the process gave me two good legs, two speed controlling handles and the two ebay batteries. From there, I could swap out one component at a time until I had sorted the working parts from the non-working ones.
One leg needs the power cable and plug, which I plan to scavenge from one of the broken ones. One of the handles works for now, but its plug is crushed, again an easy swap from one of the broken ones.
There are two more battery packs which look like they might be OK, except for huge cracks in the housing. One has a big crack across the top which leaves one of the little arms which grip the leg, very weak. My first plan is to drill some holes on either side of the crack and fill them with thickened epoxy with chopped glass fibers in it for strength and then lay fiberglass on the inside and outside while the epoxy in the drilled holes is still wet. The through-holes should hold the rest of the patch in place much stronger than just roughing up with sandpaper.
Another battery pack shell is in good shape except one of the nubs where it slots into the leg is broken off. My plan is to make a mold of that part from one of the other battery packs. Then I can use the mold to cast fiber re-enforced epoxy in the mold, effectively molding the nub onto the broken part.
For the legs that do not work, I plan to take the lower unit apart so I can connect to the three phase wires on the brushless motor. I can then use three of the four power wires in the original cable to carry power from an electronic speed controller for model airplanes down the leg to the motor. This plan bypasses all the Torqueedo circuitry, replacing it with the radio controlled electronic speed controller and a big lithium battery. This can be any 24 volt battery once the RC speed controller has replaced all of the Torqueedo circuitry.