Quoting myself from earlier...
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Originally Posted by MetroMPG
I believe controllers "charge" before they go into action, so that may be the source of the spark.
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I did some digging in the EVDL archive and I was correct in my belief about the initial spark:
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When you first get in the car, the controller caps are discharged and appear as essentially a dead short. If you simply close the main contactor and apply full pack voltage to the controller, the inrush current can be *huge* (as in 100s of amps).
(from http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/.../message/78835)
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That would explain where our spark came from and why we only it once: we charged the caps in the controller when touching the pack cable to the controller. It also serves as an explanation of the function of a precharge resistor (to protect the caps & the contactor - or cable tip & controller terminal, in our case - from excessive current inrush).
So tomorrow, I should look at the pot and see if it's the problem.