Jetson Bolt bike, Blowing out ESC after installing aftermarket throttle...

[Mach-Lid]

Hello,,
I'm hoping to get some advise here or maybe some parts resources.
I have two Jetson Bikes,,, one Bolt and also a Bolt-pro. Both of them are about two years old and I've upgraded the battery in both to 48v along with larger capacity. The 48v didn't seem to make either of them any faster other then they seem to accelerate a little better, both top-out at about 18.5mph with the Bluetooth adjustment I made using an older version of the app. Both bikes have been just fine like this for several months.

Unfortunately on the regular Bolt bike my throttle controller has broken (to some degree) ,, it still functions, but its built in rotational travel limiter broke,, so now I have to twist it much further to make it move and drive.... I have ordered 2 new aftermarket throttle units from both Amazon and eBay, and both of them have blown out the stock ESC units on this bike. These replacement 3rd party throttle units will work for only just a few minutes, and then if I try to test or use the cruise-control button it proceeds to somehow destroy the ESC immediately. This has happened twice, luckily I've been able to score OEM take-out ESC's that work perfect. As of right now I don't know how to fix this as I cannot seem to be able to come up with a totally stock or good used factory type throttle.

I'm mostly looking for a known quality replacement throttle or a new OE unit or something like this,,, I would rather avoid more aftermarket cheapys if I can.

Thank you very much in advance for any info

 

[Annieolnie]

Have you checked jbbikeparts.com ? It is not cheap, but it is there.

 

[Annieolnie]

Also, if you go to the search box ( top right, here) and put in Jetson Bolt, you'll find Sparkoy towards the bottom. He had a blown transistor in his display that was killing his controllers. It seems the displays can do some very strange things. This isn't really in my knowledge base, but see what you think.

 

[Mach-Lid]

Thank you for the response,
I looked into that replacement throttle and display unit from jbbikeparts.com,,, and its listed for only the Bolt-Pro and not the standard Bolt that I'm trying to repair... I own a Bolt, and a Bolt-Pro, and the throttle and displays are different between the two. I don't know if a Pro version throttle will work and fit onto a regular Bolt ? I really wish I could purchase a 100% OE unit or a known good used stock throttle.. frustrating !

 

[Annieolnie]

This fellow on Ebay just sold one. He has a lot of Bolt parts. You might reach out to him or save his store to watch. I often hunt Jeep parts on Ebay. I'll keep an eye out for you, is there an original part number that is different from the Alvey throttle? I couldn't find one.

 

[Mach-Lid]

I also seen this listing about two weeks ago,, I shy'd away from it for two reason: I didn't like the "cut" harness,, which I could easily make work,, but the key reason I didn't grab it was according to the listing picture,,, its a Bolt-Pro throttle.. The power level display is different then my regular bolt bike's display. The bolt-pro uses 4 little round LEDs to display power level,, whereas the regular Bolt display has 4 LED rectangular bars that indicate power level (like a cell phone signal strength meter). I'd use the "pro" throttle version if it'll work or someone tells me its interchangeable,, but I'm scared to try anything other then a original style Bolt throttle after what I've been through.
Its possible that all these 6-wire throttle units function the same, but without a doubt the two aftermarket ones I tried 100% were at fault and smoked my ECS units.

 

[Annieolnie]

Do you have a picture of your original throttle? I think you have to own one of these to tell them apart.

 

[Mach-Lid]

Here is a Pic of the original throttle

 

[Annieolnie]

One problem is people listing the Alvey model use this same type of picture. As I'm sure you know, the Jetson throttle is a big problem for people. I know you want an original but that might be difficult. Have you read the Reddit posts on Jetson throttle replacement? A lot of people use the Alvey model but the phase wires are wrong for the bolt, so you have to rearrange them, or every thing will over heat. I'll post a pic from that thread. If you really love this bike, your other option is to get an independent controller, display and throttle, 36v set ups are not that expensive and it would get you away from nonreplaceable, always breaking components. Here is the picture from Reddit Jetson Bolt throttle replacement. If you need help with phase wire testing, there are a lot of videos on it.

 

[Mach-Lid]

Hello guys,

I wanted to update you guys on my throttle fix for my Bolt bike (not a bolt-pro). After blowing out two stock ESC with two different aftermarket throttle units. First I ordered another used "take-out" ESC from eBay and made sure the bike was back working normal, other then my stock throttle unit needed to be twisted a lot more than normal to make it start to move and bring on the power.

I no longer wanted to risk popping another ESC so this time I took the time to see what each wire did and I also excluded and did not re-install or make the "Cruise control" work this time with the new aftermarket throttle unit.. The new Amazon unit had a "latching" style cruise control button where as the stock CC button is a momentary button,, plus with my Bolt goes nearly 20mph, and with different friends and family riding this thing (used as a pit-bike at race tracks) ,, with as sketchy as it is already,, I didn't want the cruise control working anyway and one less thing to worry about. Its possible the cruise will work with this set up.. but the "latching button" worried me.

Here is the wiring diagram I came up with, and also a link to the Amazon throttle unit I purchased and made work.
I hope what I came up with may help others. Its to bad we can not come up with stock good used, or take-out throttle units.
Good used stock ESC units seem to be way easier to acquire like I did for two of them so far. My bolt has a 48v battery,, which did nothing for top speed,, it only seems to accelerate a little quicker with the 48v versus the 36v, and all else has been fine with it on 48v until I tried the aftermarket throttle units.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1J14TFC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details