The Cut Out switch is activated by both left foot brake and the accelerator tiller bar. The idea is that when you are wanting to fully stop you apply the left foot brake with applies the wheel brakes and opens up the main battery circuit to completely deenergize the vehicle.
There were some problems...
1. Apparently, the plunger spring had broken at some point and caused a short to the case. We found a piece of broken spring in the box and a place where the case had melted away. The divot in the case is not a big deal but the spring had been re-bent to fix but the new configuration didn't put enough force to keep the plunger between the contacts (that's the theory). Hence the second issue.
2. Arcing had melted one side of the contact away. So we had to make a new contact.
3. Insulators were broken and all needed to be replaced. These are the original Bakelite and are shot. It's very important to have these pieces in place as all the vehicles current goes through these. There were three types of insulators, a two level barrel type (as used in the reverse switch), a barrel insulator to shield the cone terminals and an insulating base plate on the inside.
