I did make it back to the junkyard, and managed to rip out all of the guts (yes, including a little battery meter
):
There was a guy there who was curious about what I was doing and we got to talking to discover he was a retired forklift repair tech. He was pointing things out on the controller and explaining what things did, and thought that this controller was designed to only output 60% of available power/voltage/whatever. Basically he said that once you demanded more with the "throttle", the controller then used those contactors in the foreground to expose the motor(s) directly to battery power. Even if this controller ended up being unusable or too bulky for a motorcycle application, it would still be worth tearing it out for all those nice thick pre-made cables and the contactors. Here is said controller. Notice the GE logos that might as well be screaming "you will never get any documentation about me, foo!"
I have actually been reading ben's electro-metro thread and considering how much it rains around here coupled with the fact that I am nearly always transporting something unwieldy like computer cases; I kind of want to do a little car instead of a bike. Are either of these motors up to the job of being over-volted enough to shove a little metro around? They're pretty damn heavy, weighing in at around 60lbs a piece. I don't know so much about this motor, which (ben, you were right) was the hydraulic pump motor in the forklift:
I would be more prone to nominate this guy for the job, if anyone:
Thoughts?