'02 DS fully charged, shudders, slow, & hot cables

mrdane

Newbie here. We've recently developed an issue with our 2002 48V DS. The battery pack shows 51 volts but it shudders when accelerating and is quite slow. Step-daughter had been driving it and the orange cable from the forward/reverse switch was overheated.

I did some searching here and found this threads that seem to be relevant. Will be following the suggestions in the threads but thought I'd post here for support :-)

buggiesgonewild.com/electric-club-car/85465-2003-club-car-ds-runs-then-slows-crawl.html

buggiesgonewild.com/electric-club-car/92486-1999-ds-cart-wont-move.html

buggiesgonewild.com/electric-club-car/112836-2005-cc-ds-shuddered-now-slower-driving-slow-charge-jerky-speed.html

buggiesgonewild.com/electric-club-car/111970-did-i-fry-new-controller.html

buggiesgonewild.com/electric-club-car/24070-resetting-obc.html

BGW

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mrgolf

Anytime a cable overheats, there is a problem. Most likely need to replace that cable. Make sure all cables have good clean tight connections.

mrdane

Ok. Here's an update on what I've discovered so far:

Cable connections were all secure. Also, I should mention step-daughter had her boyfriend tow the cart a few days before these issues started.

Battery pack total voltage: 50.3 volts

All but one battery showed 8.4 volts, the other showed 8.3 volts. I used an electrolyte tester that used 4 floating balls to test each cell. All cells floated all four balls except for one cell on the low voltage battery. 3 floated and one was halfway sinking. Batteries are from 2012.

Measured resistance from the controller for the accelerator (green and yellow wires to the controller.) Initially reading was OL (open circuit). Even after I heard the solenoid click I still was seeing OL. Eventually, I was getting a highest reading of about 4300 and a low reading with the pedal all the way down of about 1055.

Voltage input on the controller was the same as the battery pack voltage.

Voltage output on the controller never got above 11 volts.

To those who know, any recommendations?

scottyb

Like you have a battery cell dropping out under load. Put the meter on the 8.3 battery and see what the voltage for this battery drops to under load.... preferably uphill.

mrgolf

Towing cart without putting run,tow switch in tow will kill the controller dead..

mrdane

Even if this is not a regen cart? Any way to confirm the controller is toast? And what do I look for in a replacement? Thanks

mrgolf

I was thinking it was regen. You need to load test the batteries like scoyyb said, then report what you find.

These guys need this information to tell which step you need to take next.

Anytime a cable gets hot and is the only one that is a bad cable or bad connection.

mrdane

Ok. I checked voltage on this battery (and all the others) under a load. Under load it dropped to 7.6 volts as did all the other batteries when I checked them individually.

Would it make sense that if the controller isn't outputting full voltage that excessive amps are being drawn to make up the difference causing the cables to overheat?

mrdane

Should the accelerator drop lower than 1055 Ohms at full throttle? Or is that a good reading for full throttle?

mrdane

I spent a little more time today searching for loose cable connections. Nothing. They all are tight & secure. The motor seems to run quite hot. I'll have to shoot it with my temp gun from work tomorrow.