1999 Power Drive charger problems

x-bird

Hello;
I'm having issues with 2 of my chargers. They are 1999 Power Drive, model number 17930.
One of them, when plugged into a cart, the relay will click on, but there is no reading at the ammeter and checking voltage across the battery pack definitely shows that it's not charging. I've opened it up, all appears good, no broken/loose wires, all connections are clean.

The second charger is tripping the breaker about 2-3 seconds after kicking on--i haven't opened this one up yet.

The Lester link for the manual for this model charger gives "page not found".

Any input as to what to look/test for would be appreciated.

Cart charges fine using my other chargers.

thank you.

BGW

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x-bird

spoke with a lester tech;
based on his input, eliminating the circuit breaker and jumping the relay on both chargers provided the same result, tripped breaker in my circuit panel. According to him, that would indicate a short in the transformer wiring. anyone concur or have any other input? looks like it's time to hit the for sale section.

TahoeDawgZ71

I think he's an idiot personally.... Replace the heatsink assembly in the one that's blowing the circuit breaker. I've been in the golf car business for 9 years and 100% of the chargers I've seen with this symptom have a blown heatsink. On the one that clicks and does nothing... it's not getting any AC power to the transformer.... It's either got a bad relay (even though it clicks, it could still be bad) or it's got a bad circuit breaker that will not allow power to get from the wall outlet to the relay...

x-bird

strangely enough, both did the same thing when i bypassed the circuit breaker and relay--tripped my breaker. swapping the breakers and the relays around still did not give me a functional charger. "supply" breaker is ok, other chargers work on it fine. These do the same no matter what outlet i plug them into. By heatsink, are you referring to the diode strip screwed to the rear of the charger? These do not have capacitors, just the circuit breaker, relay, fuse, ammeter, transformer coil and diode strip.

scottyb

Yes, your heat sink will have 2 or 3 diodes on it.

TahoeDawgZ71

Exactly what Scottyb said. They're pretty inexpensive and easy to change out. When they blow they actually cause the charger to work against itself and short out, that's what makes the circuit breaker blow.

x-bird

Thanks guys;
tested out both of the bad chargers and each has a bad diode. i have a spare diode (not the exact same style--just a generic with straight wire out either end) that appears to be approximately of the same value as the original. I'm a bit hesitant to try this it. I'd rather just get the entire heat sink assembly for both and be done with it. Does anyone have a source other than CC or Lester for the parts? i'm going to do the relay, circuit breaker and heat sink in each charger.

x-bird

just finished installing a new heat sink, circuit breaker and relay in one, works like a champ. second one got a new heat sink, still getting a hum, but no reading on the ammeter. I bypassed both the circuit breaker and the relay (live black jumped to transformer black with the red pair left in the relay and i still get no reading on the ammeter.

wilster734

Is the ammeter blown? They go out too.

x-bird

Give that man a ceegar!
As soon as i order up an ammeter, i'll have 4 correctly functional chargers for four carts.
Thank you all very much for the assistance.