My buggy went waaay past wild today, it went Atomic.

alm1071

Question is at the end skip this if you don't want the story :)

Monday Morning starts off normal. goto work, get my tools loaded on my cc, unplug my cc, check water levels in my batteries on my cc, jump on it and back out of the garage and then shift to forward. Step on the pedal and all i get are fast clicks from the solenoid. So I open the seat check all my connections everything looks good only questionable thing is a small plastic box looks kinds like a phone jack with red and black wire attaches to the solenoid, shrug? So starts the cave man tap on solenoid, phone jack thing, f/r switch, look at resistors, put the seat down step on the pedal same rapid clicks. so I put it in reverse and it makes one normal click and backs up, WTF!?,,, so I back it up 10 or so feet and then switch to forward, same rapid clicks for about 1 second, and then one HARD BOOM! A Boom so hard that my co workers that where about 300 maybe 350 feet away Felt it, not just heard. So I jump off the cart to check my @zz not for fecal or urine, but for blood and cuts, I notice tons of smoke and acid hemorrhaging from under my cart. so I lift the seat to find the middle battery on the passenger side had blown the entire top off of the battery. Last but not least I called all 3 cart places here and NO one had batteries in stock not even used ones WTF!?
after calling local parts houses car quest had 1 on the shelf. dropped in the new battery, bungeed down the seat (just in case), took a 12' pole and pressed the pedal down and forward it went no bang. :)
Moral of the story is I LOVE Mondays. I just can't wait till next Monday :)


Question I have at this point:
I did search "battery explosion" and found a few that popped the sides out but none that popped the tops and most had old and unmaintained batteries.

1999 Club car 36-volt, resistor type, single solenoid.

1: I WD-40 everything switches and all attempting to kill the acid,, Do you think this will work and if not what should I do to neutralize the acid on my switches and v box, etc ?

2: what is the phone jack looking plastic box with a red and black wire going to my solenoid top posts? I don't see it on any schematics?

3: I keep my posts clean and batteries filled / checked every Monday before i start my day. any ideal why it decided to fail so violently?

4: anyway to check for this type of failure / warning signs I can look for in the future?

Thanks for any help you can send my way :)

BGW

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pachanga90

A plate may have broke loose internally and shorted.Nothing that you do in your checks could tell you this was happening unless you happened to see it actually cockeyed in the cell(unlikely).Just chalk it up to a bad battery and good luck that you weren't standing over it when it let go.Most battery explosions occur under cranking due to sudden high amp/voltage draw.They sound like a shot-gun when they go,and it will definitely get your attention!

erict

Glad you are alright I would like to know the answer as to what to use to rinse off the electronics from acid. I would pull all the batteries out and rinse the tray out with water and baking soda mix.

Colbyntx

It is a microswitch. It activates to solenoid.

kgsc

Glad your ok. Batteries blowing up is no fun. May have gone boom due to hydrogen in the cells from the charging. Add a spark in a closed cell full of it = boom.

alm1071

from what I can tell Wd-40 is the best and safest bet. while it may or may not neutralizes the acid, (some say it does and other say it don't), but almost all agree that it will prevent corrosion which is all i'm after anyways plus I use it all the time on the v switch and f/r switch and never had a problem its safe for most electronics and it displaces water. I'll try to post back here if everything gets eat'n up which I'm guessing should not take long to show signs.


I'll try to remember to take a pic of it in the morning, I think you're speaking of the micro switch thats on the f/r switch? this box only has 2 wires and is approx. 1.5"x1.5"x3/4" off white in color and zip tied to the lower frame. I would almost think it was the back up alarm but I disconnected it the day I got the cart and it was behind the key switch panel.

alm1071

wonder if i can drill a pin hole in the tops of the caps to vent the hydrogen without any ill effects.

alm1071

it def gets your attention,
do you know if a cell breaks loose would it show a massive voltage drop on that battery maybe? I've been thinking of making a small box that would show me each batteries voltage and the overall voltage along with amperage draw, so I'm thinking that if i would have had this meter in place I would have noticed one of my batteries dropping excessive voltage or maybe I could add a warning light/ buzzer to each reading if it drops more than 50% or normal voltage at anytime.? I don't know just a thought whats your on it?

Stevec3201

Glad you are ok! Battery caps are already vented. What brand of battery was it?

Colbyntx

That does sound like the reverse buzzer.