# broken Curtis 1231C-8601



## kroesche (Aug 31, 2009)

Hello, I am pretty sure my Curtis 1231C is dead but I wanted to get a second opinion and see what my least expensive option for getting back on the road.

The vehicle is a 93 mazda pickup (http://www.evalbum.com/3949). It has been working well for about 2.5 years. Recently while driving on a city street, not even fast or under heavy load, I had a sudden loss of power and had to get towed home. I spent a fair amount of time troubleshooting the whole system, trying to see what it could be other than the motor controller. I checked the main pack voltage, the contactors, all of my 12V fuses and control circuits. I can verify that I have full pack voltage on the controller terminals, and full pack voltage on KSI, and when varying the throttle input I get no voltage out on M-. I checked the resistance of the throttle pot and it looks good.

There was no smoke or sound when it happened. I lifted the hood pretty quickly, as soon as I pulled over, and the motor controller was not particularly warm not was there any burned electronics odor. The one symptom aside from the part where no voltage comes out, is that when I use the precharge, it never reaches full pack voltage. There is a constant ~20V drop across my precharge resistor (470 ohm) which I think comes to about a 40 mA leakage into the controller. It definitely did not do this before. The precharge would come up to nearly full pack voltage.

So I feel pretty confident the controller is dead, but maybe someone can tell me the stupid thing I am missing. As for repair, I am considering the following options:
1. attempt to repair myself
2. get a refurb
3. get a soliton jr

What I really want is option #3 but that is the most expensive and also the most trouble because I will need to modify the mounting bracket and the wiring. Option #1 is possible. I am familiar with electronics but I dont know how fixable the inside of the Curtis is. Is there much chance I would be able to actually identify the problem and then fix it? And if I do attempt a fix and decide to give up, would I still be able to return as a core?

So that leaves me with option #2 as the fastest and most practical way to get back on the road. I saw that there is a dealer that lists $750 for a refurb and you send them the dead one. Does anyone know of any other less expensive options? I tried to contact the FSIP company using the form on their site but I got no response.

Any opinions or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for reading!


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## arklan (Dec 10, 2012)

option 3 is the only option that is guaranteed
solitons r quality and curtis's r not
a refurb is still a second hand unit and will not be as good as a brand new one
if u cant fix it urself go the soliton imo


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## domosher (Jul 10, 2011)

if you still have your broken 1231 I repair them for $750 or upgrade them
to 1300 amps for $1050 complete with a 1 year guarantee


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