I understand what you are saying. What baffles me is when I install the brand new one it will not do anything. I feel like it has been wired to bypass something in the overloadIt is starting to make sense now. I thought it was odd to have the direction buttons latching which was the impression I got at first. So there is one contactor that is the main ON / OFF control that should latch on. I think the fault is in this part of the controls.
So we are back to my first theory about the stop button or the maintainer contact. Again guessing I guess that when the ON button is pressed only one of all the contactors in the system is actuated. This will be the one that should latch on. The fault could also be in the cable between the main controls and the pendant. (This cable will have to survive a lot of flexing.)
Les.