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New 2012 Volt owner has charger questions

2K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Mister Dave 
#1 ·
Thanks for reading this post concerning my 120V charger. As you can read, I'm a new owner with no knowledge of this charger.

1. Does the flashlight stay lit as long as there is power to the unit?
My wife dropped the handle, and is concerned that the light does not go off now. Was it always that way?

2. After being dropped, we plugged it into the car, and NO dash lights came on. No solid green, or flashing green, or red. Is that an issue?

3. If the charger was damaged, who fixes them?

I appreciate any help possible. Thank You.
 
#2 ·
Welcome to Voltdom. Too bad you can't charge the car.
Did you drop the charge cord handle that plugs into the car and now the flashlite won't turn off? It has a trigger which activates the light and a lever than hooks over the top of the receptacle on the car. If the trigger won't make the hook go up and down there could be an internal problem in the handle. In addition the hook may have broken off. If the hook doesn't latch on the receptacle the handshake won't occur to start charging.
Also look into the pin area of the handle and receptacle to see if there are bent pins, dirt or signs of arcing.
Try asking at places that fix cell phones or places that fix home audio or computers.
If your charge cord plugs into the wall with an orange cord you may get a new one at the Chevy dealer. The orange wall plug cord units were recalled.
 
#3 ·
If the hook doesn't latch on the receptacle the handshake won't occur to start charging.
That's incorrrect. Several people have snapped the hook off and it still works.

There is a microswitch inside that the button on top makes and breaks, and a spring that pushes up on the release button. Best guess is that one of them is broken or dislodged. When you press the button on top and release it, does it spring up?

Some examples:


 
#4 ·
Yes, the button springs back when released. But, the flashlight is always on now. The latch seems to work fine.
Would it be worth it for me to take the handle apart? You make it sound like it's a mechanical issue verses an electrical one.
Visually, from the outside, there is nothing that seems wrong.

Thanks for the help.
 
#5 · (Edited)
The light should go off once the button/trigger is released. Perhaps a switch is stuck.

The handle Mister posted is not from a 2012 EVSE (aka charge cord).

Here's what that one looks like:

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Squeezing the trigger results in pivoting arms moving the latch up to disconnect it from the car's charge port. One of those arms might be sticking, needing some dry lube. Here it is with the handle cover off. Latch is top left.

Basically turn off power to the EVSE, the pry the two halves of the handle apart using a flat bladed screwdriver (or, if yours has screws, remove them). This is for 2011-2012 but newer models may be very similar.

Pry apart the top and bottom parts of the handle. Those with a replacement cord, it has four screws, two star screws and two phillips (one is hard to remove because of the charging door). The charging cord for my 2014 Volt has six screws! So, depending on the model of your cord, the handle will pry apart, require removing four screws, or removing six screws.
 
#7 ·
The handles Mister posted are not from a 2012 EVSE (aka charge cord).
Fixed that for you. They're examples to show springs and microswitches. I used to be able to find better photos on Google images but this was the best I found yesterday.

It turns out the small plunger switch was indeed stuck in the "plunged" position. With a few taps, it came free and now works perfectly. Thanks for all the help.

MK
Good news then! Some of these J1772 handles have cheezy microswitches and when those break it's game over.
 
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