significant loss in power

jcow

My 1996 36v Club Car has lost so much power it barely is climbing a hill now. I have 6 mos. old Trojans that are testing over 36v and just under 36v with a load. Cart was working great until early winter then I noticed the loss in power AND the first 3 batteries in the series were not charging as fully as the rest. However, when I pulled them out and charged then on a 6v charger they were fine. Prior to all of this the cart was strong with great power. This one has me stumped so any suggestions are welcomed.

BGW

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum

scottyb

Sounds like you have a wiring problem what is the pack voltage when read at the charger receptacle?

jcow

getting +36v...shows closer to 38v on my tester

scottyb

Did you solve why half the pack was not charging?

jcow

No. I just assumed I had some bad batteries until I did the individual charge on them. To be honest, when I put them in this morning I assumed the cart would be back to full power. This is why I am so baffled by this. The cart charger is only about a year old and seems to operate OK so I don't think that is the issue.

OLD MEC

I LEARNED LONG AGO TO NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING TO DO WITH CARTS. If part of your battery pack is fully charged ( individual batterys 6.37 Volts and pack voltage of 38.22 )and part isnt it must be either a wiring installation problem, high resistance in some of your battery cables, or a defective battery near center of pack not allowing full charge to the rest of batterys? Almost sounds like your charger receptical plus post is hooked to 1/2 of the battery pack rather than front battery ( battery with plus post connected to cable going to lower right F&R post ) viewed from battery side of F&R control? There is a cable from center of battery pack going to F&R control to give you 1/2 speed in reverse, and another cable from lower right side of F&R that connects to full battery pack.
Have you changed F&R control lately or done any wiring, other than removing batterys and charging and replacing them? Have you had this problem since installation of you new Trojans 6 months ago?

jcow

Good to hear from you Old Mec. No changes to the wiring have been done and I double checked the battery cables per the schematic and all is good. I have tested each battery with a hydrometer and they all test between 1.3 to 1.275. Also checked with my voltage meter and each is showing 7v.

As stated earlier this all started with a concern that the 1st three batteries in the series were not getting a full charge. Once I pulled them and charged individually I thought for sure I would have full power when I put them back in. Was then going to concern myself with the charging issue. Instead it runs as if half dead. This ones got me.

OLD MEC

I forgot to ask before is this a resistor cart OR a solid state controller as they came both ways and many of the poor efficiency resistor carts have been converted when they are that old?
If resistors ( large coils in bank behind batterys with 6 cables running to V Glide ( pie shaped unit under drivers seat ) it could be broken or bad connections on coils, cables, or problem inside V glide with the wiper brush, wiper arm itself, wiper arm spring ( weak spring make poor contact ), Wiper arm bushings?
If solid state controller and using V Glide unit with small electronic resistors on back side with small guage wiring running to controller, check for burned or broken resistors and then again same thing even more important with V glide as this set up uses minor voltage can be lost easily if contacts inside V Glide are not near perfect?

jcow

It is a resistor cart. That is one thing I noticed after I took it for a very short drive yesterday. There seemed to be more heat coming off of the coils than I remember. Could be I just never paid any attention, but while checking the battery connections for the 5th time I could feel the heat eminating off of them from 10 to 12 inches away.

scottyb

My best guess = 1 or more batteries are installed backwards. Check that all 6 batteries are in series + to -