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[Richard230]

Here are instructions and comments for replacing the stock on-board 12 amp charger as used on 2014-2020 Zero S and SR models:

Yesterday I received my new replacement charger from AF1, a day early. Naturally, UPS beat up the box during its transit from Texas to California, but the charger managed to survive the shipping fun.  Attached are two photos of the original charger that was installed in my 2018 Zero, with a build date of early November 2017. Note the model number and the burn hole in the top of the charger. Also note the two black boxes located on its power cord.

The new replacement charger has a new model number and has only one black box on the power cord. Photos attached.

[Richard230]

Replacing the charger took about two hours. Having a helper to hold a flashlight and to perform some other minor tasks will make the job easier, but is not really necessary. It was easy to remove the old charger, after spending a few minutes removing the side, front and bottom plastic covers with a 3mm hex driver. Then the three charger wires can be disconnected.

The tricky one is the reddish rubber-covered connector at the right side as it is hard to get to. You need to remove the two bolts holding the shoe protection plate over the rear brake reservoir with a 4mm hex driver, push the brake pedal down hard and then loosen the large bolt behind the rear brake pedal using a T45 bit, after first cutting some zip-ties holding the wire in place. You can then push the rubber cover downward to expose the body of the plastic connector. After that you can push the connector and wire downward past the end of the bolt, while pushing the end of the bolt outward to obtain the necessary clearance and finally past the frame.

The power cord outlet needs to be unbolted from the frame by removing two very small 2.5mm hex-head screws. Removing the left side passenger foot peg support bolts first using a 13mm socket will make this job a lot easier. You will also need to carefully cut several zip ties on power cord wires.

Finally, the old charger can be unbolted from the bottom of the chassis by first loosening all 16 small hex-head bolts holding the charger to the bottom of the chassis. Then you remove eight of the securing bolts on one side of the charger. After that the old charger box can be slid off that side, as the chargers frame uses forked protrusions to retain the box instead of holes.

Installation of the new charger is accomplished in reverse order. The major headache during the replacement process is relocating the power cord and installing new zip ties at their previous locations. Bending the tips of the new zip-ties is helpful to get then threaded through the attachment devices that clip to the sides of the battery box. And of course, screwing in the little bolts holding the power cord outlet at the back of the chassis spar will not be very easy as access is restricted somewhat. A small L-shaped 2.5mm hex wrench is needed here to both remove and replace the screws.

Then you can tackle the major irritation of reconnecting the red right side connector. You will need to push it upward past that protruding bolt end while pushing the bolt outward again to obtain the necessary clearance and then push the connectors together, which requires nimble fingers and some pushing and pulling to get the connector and its rubber cover hooked up completely and zip-tied together (see attached photo). You can then reinstall new zip ties to the fasteners on the battery box cover to hold the wire in place again. More irritating fiddling. It helps a little to unbolt the three screws of the battery cover to provide just a little more room to relocate the wire, connector and zip ties.

You can then replace the left side passenger hanger, the rear brake reservoir cover (don't forget the ground wire) and all of the plastic covers.  Finally you can plug in the power cord and if you got lucky like I did you will hear a click and the charging light will come on. Life is good again. 

The new charger maxed out at 11.85 amps before shutting down at 100% SOC and has finally resolved my never-ending complaint about the charger not disconnecting when the power cord is removed from the wall outlet. Now the green charging light finally goes out by itself when the power cord is pulled, without the ignition having to be cycled on and off.    So I guess my original charger had more than one issue that has been resolved by the new version.

Photos are attached that illustrate the areas of work.

[DonTom]

Replacing the charger took about two hours.

I take it you have it all working and charging normally again. Thanks for all that info. It could come in handy for me someday.

However, I could also just decide to remove the OBC and just charge with my external chargers. A loss of 1.3 KW isn't much difference from my 6.3 KW. I could simply charge at 5 KW (instead of 6.3KW)  while on the road using my Elcons and still charge at 7 KW (instead of 8.3 kW) at home. But there would still be one major issue. I would have to keep the key in at all times to charge from the Elcons (unlike the Delta-Q's where the key can be removed after the bike is once turned on). So if I cannot find a way to keep the contactor closed for charging, it's worth replacing the OBC just for that one reason alone, when/if  mine craps out.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[ESokoloff]

Photos are attached that illustrate the areas of work.

Hijack.......

Is that a e-mower in the background & if so, what brand?

[AutoE]

Richard, you may want to open the old charger and try to ID the point of failure. We found water entry was too often at fault.

[AutoE]

Wow kinda surprised they are still shipping Rev A's.  I feel like those should have all been recalled.  Richard am I remembering correctly?  Didn't you recently replace one on another bike with the newer Rev B?
https://www.electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=9170.0

-Carl

Hi Carl, 7 years "dealing with Zero" as their largest distributor.  Are you expecting Zero to do the right thing, to act responsibly, with moral clarity?  Cheat-them or snow board boy. There's a reason INVUS has placed these persons at Zero and not industry veterans.  Do you know the level of product failures?  BY some estimates well over half of all Zero motorcycles are off the road.  14000+/- produced in 13 years. 

[carldev]

No I got confused, that is the newer style charger, it has the latest part number 45-08253.  Just ignore my previous post sorry
-Carl

[Richard230]

Photos are attached that illustrate the areas of work.

Hijack.......

Is that a e-mower in the background & if so, what brand?

Sharp eyes. That is a Greenworks "40 Volt Lithium Twin Force" mower. Works great and I no longer have to worry about running over an electric extension cord while cutting my lawn. 

[Richard230]

Richard, you may want to open the old charger and try to ID the point of failure. We found water entry was too often at fault.

I almost never ride in the rain. The charger seems to be very well sealed and I am pretty sure that it was just the failure of an internal component, not due to water entry causing an electrical short. Even if I took the device apart I would have no idea what I was looking at.

[Richard230]

I just revised my charger replacement instructions slightly and added some more information that might be useful to anyone else who needs to perform this task.  Let me know if there are any questions or if I didn't make any of my comments sufficiently clear.

[AutoE]

Richard, you may want to open the old charger and try to ID the point of failure. We found water entry was too often at fault.

I almost never ride in the rain. The charger seems to be very well sealed and I am pretty sure that it was just the failure of an internal component, not due to water entry causing an electrical short. Even if I took the device apart I would have no idea what I was looking at.

Appearances are often deceiving.  We found the charger to be IP65 at best but failing even this low bar with ingress from the rear.

[DonTom]

Even if I took the device apart I would have no idea what I was looking at.

You could just take a photo and post it here. But with the smell you had and such, there is a very good chance that one part shorted out, perhaps a shorted capacitor which in turn caused several diodes and transistors to short out which is the norm in switching power supply failures. Perhaps burnt the PC board as well.

Or a shorted diode caused a capacitor to short out. It's often difficult if not impossible  to tell if it were the chicken or the egg that happened first in switching power supply failures.

I expect from the smell an electrolytic capacitor shorted out and caused more damage.

See here.

"Electrolytic capacitors are very often the cause of SMPS problems. In cheap designs, where thermal dissipation is a bit too close to the limit, and a choice of components a bit too cost-oriented, electrolytic capacitors are real time-bombs that will eventually fail (sometimes by literally exploding)... The liquid electrolyte inside these components tends to evaporate and dry out completely altering the characteristics."

-Don-  Reno, NV

[AutoE]

Yes... I believe your citation is hitting the nail on the head "In cheap designs..."  Yet, ZERO manages to demand $800+/- for chargers that routinely fail and which according to invoicing we found in one shipment from them cost less than $200. That quite a mark-up, especially when one considers the numerous other superior chargers available in China for under $200.

[Crissa]

If there are numerous $200 solutions that are better... Why don't you point them out?

The 'garlic' is the key, that sounds more like a capacitor failure, they have a funny scent to some people.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

Yes... I believe your citation is hitting the nail on the head "In cheap designs..."  Yet, ZERO manages to demand $800+/- for chargers that routinely fail and which according to invoicing we found in one shipment from them cost less than $200. That quite a mark-up, especially when one considers the numerous other superior chargers available in China for under $200.

Sure, but without all the special work required to package it up to fit on the bottom of a Zero motorcycle  and not be air cooled or anything.

IMO, it will be tough to design a much more reliable charger in that size package without any fans for cooling and such. It would probably stay cool enough if we could ride as we charge, but the bike just sits there while  charging. I would not expect a big increase in reliability of the Zero's charger, but there are probably some small minor  improvements they can make.

What Energica does is put its charger in a location that can be cooled by a fan. I don't see how Zero  can do that on a plain SR/DS without some major expensive design changes.

One thing Zero  could do, to greatly increase reliability, is reduce the power output of the OBC to less than a KW or so. But then the time to charge will look ridiculous on the SR / DS  with power tank. That would even be worse for sales as then even an overnight charge won't get from empty to full.


-Don-  Reno, NV