Semi-integrated battery fuse replacement

[paulcstaley]

I just did this fuse replacement. It mostly went well and now the battery is charging again! I would like to add one thing to the instructions above. Just to the right of the fuse is the flat ribbon that conveys the battery state to the exterior indicator lights. Without knowing it was there I cut through it completely! Now those lights no longer work. So, keep the cut to expose the fuse to the smallest possible size.

A very big thanks to all that responded and gave freely of their help. I will be riding again tomorrow!

[jrnelsonla@gmail.com]

First off a big thanks to Dick and Scott for your input.  Very helpful.

To anyone who's put the key into the charging port and feel stupid I feel doubly stupid cuz I've done it twice.  I've got some yellow electrical stickers and a big stop sticker to put next to the power socket now.  I will also be leaving the key in.  Seems like the key on the other side would have been a better idea.

First time I called Red power bikes was honest what happened they sent me a new charger to try and that didn't work then I never heard from them so I called back and they asked me to send pictures of the charger with and without the battery plugged in showing it was the battery and then they sent me a new one under warranty.  I did originally make them aware that it was my mistake.  Skip forward a few months and guess what I did again.  Not expecting them to cover it again I went ahead and ordered a new battery.  Gulp.  It hasn't shipped yet so I decided to do another search and ran across this thread.  First I tried just look cutting a slit but I put it in the wrong place and there's no fuse there so then I started opening up that end a little bit more found the fuse but for the life of me could not get it out.  So I decided to take the other end off and push it out a little bit couldn't get it to budge.  So I went back to town on the fuse with needle nose pliers again and finally got it.  Of course the two prongs pulled out of the plastic and were left behind.  I was able to get those out put a new fuse in and I just need to close up the patient.  Decided to confirm it was charging before reassembling everything and it was.

Scott you must be a laparoscopic surgeon because that seemed close to impossible getting out of that little slit you had.  I had pretty much the whole back end opened up and had trouble getting to it.

Tomorrow I plan on calling them and hopefully I can cancel the order before they ship the new battery.

So I had another confirmation it is possible.  I'm sure there was a reason to seal the fuse up but it having it accessible would have been so much easier.

[BriainO]

I shorted it and had to replace the fuse again only one week later.

The good news is the first time will take an hour + research, the second time only takes 5 minutes.

[clundh]

Thanks all for posting your insights and experiences!

My charging fuse blew when I plugged it in to the charger (not sure why; charger still works).  Rad is replacing the battery under warranty (after a little back and forth - it needed to be escalated to a supervisor customer support before they would cover it), but it is going to be at least a month for shipping unfortunately.  I was able to get my battery working again following these instructions.  It took about 10 minutes.  I scratched the plastic cover for the T10 screws trying to get it off with a screwdriver, but other than that it seems to be a very easy fix.  I used a small piece of electrical tape to seal the hole in the plastic and then the Permatex Ultra Black gasket maker suggested above to seal over that. 

I really can't understand why Rad designed the battery this way.   $600 for a new battery is absolutely crazy when the fix is a $0.50 fuse. 

Thanks a million for sharing, @DickB.

I needed to register with this forum to view the photos... radpowerbikes.eu told me they would replace the battery, but due to changes in dangerous, or hazardous goods' regulations in January 2022, they have been unable to ship any batteries and it will still be around 2-3 weeks from now until they can possibly ship due to ironing out the bureaucracy between Customs and the their suppliers and manufacturers. At this time they are not advising customers to do the fuse fix themselves. I hope they may provide support on their help pages soon... additionally I encourage them to include the following warning in the manual: Don't poke the charge-port with your key!

Thankfully, it's an easy enough fix.

1. Remove the end cap was tapping the ends with a hammer and screwdriver. Don't lever with your carving knife, the tip will break off!

2. Remove the 4x torx #10 screws holding on the endcap.

3. Carefully make a slit in the thick plastic wrap.

4. Firmly grip the Red 10A fuse. It's a micro type and it's seated very firm.

5. Replace the fuse with another 10A micro-fuse.

6. Tape (or silicone) it up. I used electrical insulating tape and Duct tape over that.

7. Charge your battery as normal (I charge mine to 80-90% for longevity, unless I'm doing a big ride)

[GoBettyRVA]

The only thing I love more than my new RadCity is this forum.  You guys are the bomb.  I have a non-charging battery likely due to this and one that will be like you said, probably a month away.  Ordering what I need to change the fuse and will report back.  Thank you everyone for such great info!!!

[gsc]

Just did a fuse replacement of the red 10 amp fuse and totally fixed the charging problem for a $1.39 fuse.  A few suggestions:

1. I used a small wood chisel to pop off the plastic end caps.  Easy.

2. You do need a narrow, long torx bit to get out two of the screws.  I ground my bit down on a surface grinder holding it fast with vice grips to make it narrower.  It worked.

3.  I found it easier to slide the whole battery pack out and access the fuse with it out.  The  10 amp fuse is on the end where the plug in charging port goes.  Use a utility knife to cut the black glue/adhesive on both sides before sliding it out.

4.  A utility knife also works well to slice open the plastic wrapper.

5. Once the fuse was swapped out I used standard electrical tape to tape things back.  I then coated the patched area and the tape with liquid electrical tape for a good seal. This brushes on nicely.

6.  Test this before reassembly.  Charger lights should both be red now.

7. Start to finish this is a 30 minute project with the right tools.

[Markv61]

I also touched my key to the charger port. The battery was 9/10s charged but the charger indicated it was fully charged with a green light. I read on this forum that some had admitted to Rads tech support that they had touched the port with the key causing the fuse to short but still received a replacement battery at no charge. I chose to be honest with them and I contacted tech support yesterday and explained exactly what I did. In my case the battery was dropping in power before I ever touched the key to the charge port. I had charged my battery and my wife's at the same time for the same amount of time. Even though I had not used the bike it dropped one bar. That is what prompted me to remove the battery and put it back on the charger. I explained all this to tech support and they had me submit a video showing all parts of the battery, bike connections and the charger attached. They denied my claim under warranty. Funny thing was even the tech guy said it was a confusing placement of the key hole and charge port. He admitted he's had to stop himself from putting the key in the charge port several times. Rad has some redesign to do.
Since the battery warranty was now void, I performed the fuse replacement like many of you have and it went well. Thank you GSC for suggesting to use a small wood chisel to remove the plastic trim. I used a 1/2 inch chisel and lightly tapped the plastic trim off both ends. No damage whatsoever to the trim. The screws came out easily. I cut around the battery edges to loosen it so I could slide it forward an inch to get to the fuse better. I used a Bussmann brand 10A fuse. With the new fuse in place, I plugged in the charger and the light was now red indicating it was charging again. Great. I covered the cut in the blue wrap with electrical tape and then sealed the whole thing with liquid electrical tape. I sealed it all up and plugged the charger in to raise it to 10 bars. It reached the 10 bars but the red light remained on. I left it for almost an hour and the charger became very warm. The light never turned to green. I plugged the same charger into my wife's fully charged battery and it turns green. I have a second charger as well and the red light stays on connected to my battery. So something is still not right with the battery even though it charges. I questioned if there is another 10A fuse I could have used but all of one ones I found regardless of brand had the same specs. The fuses were purchased at Walmart. $3.50 for a 5 pack. I'll run the battery down a ways and try charging it again. If the green light ever comes on, I'll update this post.


Update: I ran the battery down on a 10 mile ride. After leaving the charger on for about 4 hours it finally showed a green light! It took that long for the last 3 bars to fully charge. Like it never happened.

[Radio Runner]

So what about this new battery style makes it so temping to put the key in the charging port?

[jrnelsonla@gmail.com]

I don't know if tempting is the right word because I definitely let off a few cuss words after I did it the second time.

The key to unlock the battery from the frame and the charging port are probably an inch or two apart on the same side of the bike.  The prior model it looks like they were on alternate sides of the bike.

So if you're not really paying attention you just stick it in the slot and find out it was the wrong slot.

To limit this in the future, I've done two things.

One I leave the key in the bike because I don't leave my bike anywhere.  If I do, of course I'll remove the key.  At least I hope I will.

The second thing I've done is add red electrical tape above it to bring my attention to it and then after that I bought some yellow electric symbols from Amazon and put those around the charge port. 

Not the prettiest thing in the world but hopefully it will bring my attention to it being the charge for it and not put key in there.

[needabreak]

Once fuse was removed, definitely noticed a waxy material on top of fuse and on both of fuses's two blades, thick enough that you can actually scrape it off with fingernail.  Some sort of moisture protection? Was not sure if I should use some sort of car bulb contact grease or electrical contact protectant on new fuse?  Maybe just overkill? 

[Markv61]

First time I've heard of a waxy material on the fuse. Mine did not. I put nothing on the new fuse. It's working great now.

[needabreak]

Hey guys. I followed the procedure show in one of the posts where you only cut a slit in blue plastic on the one end that has the 10 amp fuse. Unfortunately I cut just a hair two far to right with razor blade and cut into ribbon wire 1/8 inch. So although with the new fuse installed and the charger light now showing red instead of the previous green, and the charger itself heating up like normal, the battery is still cold after several hours of charging. It appears I cut 2 or 3 wires of ribbon necessary for circuitry to allow incoming charge to actually charge battery. There is also no response to pushing button on battery to see charge level. Any ideas on ribbon wire replacement or patching it? Thought I might scrap insulation back on both sides of the three cut ribbon wires and try to solder small wires across to bridge but will be difficult with such thin ribbon.

[Markv61]

Hey guys. I followed the procedure show in one of the posts where you only cut a slit in blue plastic on the one end that has the 10 amp fuse. Unfortunately I cut just a hair two far to right with razor blade and cut into ribbon wire 1/8 inch. So although with the new fuse installed and the charger light now showing red instead of the previous green, and the charger itself heating up like normal, the battery is still cold after several hours of charging. It appears I cut 2 or 3 wires of ribbon necessary for circuitry to allow incoming charge to actually charge battery. There is also no response to pushing button on battery to see charge level. Any ideas on ribbon wire replacement or patching it? Thought I might scrap insulation back on both sides of the three cut ribbon wires and try to solder small wires across to bridge but will be difficult with such thin ribbon.

There was another person on this post that cut the ribbon completely. His battery charged up fine but the charge level indicator did not work at all like yours. You may have to live without the indicator lights on the battery. I think the battery level will still be visible on the LCD panel on your handlebar. As far as charging a long time, when I repaired mine it charged 4 hours to go from 9 bars to 10. But it works fine now. Maybe your battery will eventually charge to full if you give it more time.

[needabreak]

Hey guys. I followed the procedure show in one of the posts where you only cut a slit in blue plastic on the one end that has the 10 amp fuse. Unfortunately I cut just a hair two far to right with razor blade and cut into ribbon wire 1/8 inch. So although with the new fuse installed and the charger light now showing red instead of the previous green, and the charger itself heating up like normal, the battery is still cold after several hours of charging. It appears I cut 2 or 3 wires of ribbon necessary for circuitry to allow incoming charge to actually charge battery. There is also no response to pushing button on battery to see charge level. Any ideas on ribbon wire replacement or patching it? Thought I might scrap insulation back on both sides of the three cut ribbon wires and try to solder small wires across to bridge but will be difficult with such thin ribbon.

Thanks a million for sharing, @DickB.

I needed to register with this forum to view the photos... radpowerbikes.eu told me they would replace the battery, but due to changes in dangerous, or hazardous goods' regulations in January 2022, they have been unable to ship any batteries and it will still be around 2-3 weeks from now until they can possibly ship due to ironing out the bureaucracy between Customs and the their suppliers and manufacturers. At this time they are not advising customers to do the fuse fix themselves. I hope they may provide support on their help pages soon... additionally I encourage them to include the following warning in the manual: Don't poke the charge-port with your key!

Thankfully, it's an easy enough fix.

1. Remove the end cap was tapping the ends with a hammer and screwdriver. Don't lever with your carving knife, the tip will break off!

2. Remove the 4x torx #10 screws holding on the endcap.

3. Carefully make a slit in the thick plastic wrap.

4. Firmly grip the Red 10A fuse. It's a micro type and it's seated very firm.

5. Replace the fuse with another 10A micro-fuse.

6. Tape (or silicone) it up. I used electrical insulating tape and Duct tape over that.

7. Charge your battery as normal (I charge mine to 80-90% for longevity, unless I'm doing a big ride)

[Slowrider]

I don't know if tempting is the right word because I definitely let off a few cuss words after I did it the second time.

The key to unlock the battery from the frame and the charging port are probably an inch or two apart on the same side of the bike.  The prior model it looks like they were on alternate sides of the bike.

So if you're not really paying attention you just stick it in the slot and find out it was the wrong slot.

To limit this in the future, I've done two things.

One I leave the key in the bike because I don't leave my bike anywhere.  If I do, of course I'll remove the key.  At least I hope I will.

The second thing I've done is add red electrical tape above it to bring my attention to it and then after that I bought some yellow electric symbols from Amazon and put those around the charge port. 

Not the prettiest thing in the world but hopefully it will bring my attention to it being the charge for it and not put key in there.

I just thought about something.  You don't have to use the key unless you're taking out the battery.  You can charge the battery while it's connected to the bike so you can basically forget about the key if you wanted to do that.  I guess you might stick the charging plug in the keyhole doing that though.  I'm not sure if that would do anything because I think the hot wire is in the center but I'm not going to test it either 😂