Levo Gen 2 Specialized Levo Cutting out 17/18 Battery Cable and Remote (Fixed!)

[Todaviews]

I found my 17/18 Levo was having some similar issues as posted elsewhere on the forums so I went ahead and took the shroud off of the brose motor. To find a few issues. The main power supply wiring to the motor itself was starting to chaff (which I imagine could be a fail point). I wrapped that in electrical tape to avoid breaking through the insulation on the wires.

The main issue I saw right away was the connector on the handlebar remote had split. Which wasn’t a total failure but accounted for loss of control from the handlebars and possibly cut out. I don’t know for sure but below is a fix that I implemented and where I was seeing the issues.

You can clearly see the connector split and I decided to try fixing it for two reasons: I’ve done a decent amount of this type of debugging before. The new remote is 133$ and out of stock.


Slipping some heat shrink over the split.

Applying a polyurethane based glue (gorilla glue works), it’s non conductive, insulates, and reinforces the failed area.

Then I went ahead and slipped the heat shrink over.

Cleaned up the inside a bit and taped the cables in place. There seemed to be a lot of play and freedom of motion for things to fail.

Hope this helps. To the left of the above image you can see where I wrapped the cable with electrical tape. I prefer 3ms 33+ tape it has a nice stretch and works well.

 

[Todaviews]

After the cutting out continued, I boiled the problem down to two points. The connector from the battery to the motor and some solder coming loose in the remote itself.

For the remote, I resoldered the loose wire so it seems to be working just fine now. To figure out if the remote is causing issues, unplug it and see if you can use the power button on the side to change the settings from 1 2 and turbo. If you cannot then take a look at the next step that I went through, because they were both causing problems.

As for the connector, after a while the pins start to make the motor connection female pin holes wider (just from rattling around, newer levos fixed this by internalizing that connection), which makes the bike cut in and out. What I did to fix this, which I also found elsewhere on the net, was to insert about a 8mm x 8mm piece of aluminum foil in each hole. This has solved my problem of cutting out and the bike is back to absolutely ripping. I've got about 100 miles of error free riding, everything feels like it did 2000 miles ago. Thought I'd give an update.

Also, in the process of fixing the remote I replaced the wiring (I thought there was a pinch not a loose solder point). The wiring that I used was a 6ft length of usb wiring cut to length, which has the proper number of internal wires at the correct gauge for this purpose!

 

[Dee Scee]

After the cutting out continued, I boiled the problem down to two points. The connector from the battery to the motor and some solder coming loose in the remote itself.

For the remote, I resoldered the loose wire so it seems to be working just fine now. To figure out if the remote is causing issues, unplug it and see if you can use the power button on the side to change the settings from 1 2 and turbo. If you cannot then take a look at the next step that I went through, because they were both causing problems.

As for the connector, after a while the pins start to make the motor connection female pin holes wider (just from rattling around, newer levos fixed this by internalizing that connection), which makes the bike cut in and out. What I did to fix this, which I also found elsewhere on the net, was to insert about a 8mm x 8mm piece of aluminum foil in each hole. This has solved my problem of cutting out and the bike is back to absolutely ripping. I've got about 100 miles of error free riding, everything feels like it did 2000 miles ago. Thought I'd give an update.

Also, in the process of fixing the remote I replaced the wiring (I thought there was a pinch not a loose solder point). The wiring that I used was a 6ft length of usb wiring cut to length, which has the proper number of internal wires at the correct gauge for this purpose!

@Todaviews, thank you for a great post! i retrofit the switch to my 2017 levo and it’s been a valuable upgrade and trouble free for 3 years, but now i know to keep an eye out and the tip about the wire = awesome.
thanks brother,
dav

 

[Todaviews]

@Dee Scee No problem! These things are pretty well made all other aspects aside. I still really like the design and over all function of my levo. The thing absolutely sends it down any terrain that I feel the need to hit. I want to upgrade the front fork to 160... maybe 170mm deal but for now I'm going to continue putting hard miles on it.

It's been 2000 miles of not even thinking about the electric drive train. So a little maintenance is warranted... and it's all been fairly doable from the garage. The most frustrating was definitely the connector holes widening themselves out. I'll get a new one at some point, but while the thing is working I'm not going to think about it too much.