Upgrading a 1999 Club Car DS to 48v

kellys~hotrods

A grinder to the bolt head (carefully) makes that a lot easier

Kelly

BGW

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Brushpup

I didn't think my solenoid bolts would come off as corroded as they appeared to be, but they did. Are you going to mount the new solenoid in the same place?

Good to see an update and thanks for posting the pics of progress. I bet that motor will be something else.

wwford

Kelly, you were right. Grinder took those bolts right off. Moving on.

Brushpup, no, the new solenoid will go (per Scotty's diagrams) on the main aluminum frame rail, the passenger side, just south of the batteries. The new solenoid is the size of a softball.

So, now that I have the front lift and brakes straightened out, I'm working on the back lift. I'd been anticipating the rusty-arse bolt on the rear leaf, and had been hitting that dude with PB for a couple of weeks. I took off the black plastic inner fender to get good access to the bolt. I wedged a box wrench on the inside bolt, and put a socket wrench on the nut head--with a five foot lead pipe on the handle (see picture). Yep, that got the nut off. Then I had to pound on the bolt from the inside, spray PB, pound it back the other way, spray, pound from inside. Finally got the bolt off. As everyone has experienced, the bolt had practically fused to the steel bushing. See picture.

Anyway, almost all the old parts off. How do I get the lower shock mount plate off the brake line? There is an E-Clip holding it on, then a tiny rubber bellows. This lower shock mount plate is the one you need to drill bigger holes to accommodate the beefier U-bolts included in the Jake's lift kit.

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Brushpup

Seems like I remember that now. Another member did an upgrade recently and he put his in the same area you mention....I think on the vertical support. I guess the controller will go where the coils once were?

wwford

Brushpup: Controller and voltage regulator will be mounted side-by-side above the old coil shield. I'll put a second side-to-side aluminum strip (which I bought at Lowe's today) behind the existing one on the upper frame. Anyway, you'll see pictures in a week or two.

To answer my last question, to remove the lower shock mount plate from the brake cable, I just pushed the e-clip off with a screw driver, and slid the plate off the rubber bellow end.

Alright! So I installed one side of the rear lift. Jake's, I love ya, but here are my improvements to "Rear Installation".

- In Step 6, drop the black Allen bolt down into the center hole on the stock shock mount plate. The head of the Allen bolt is going to end up in the hole on the bottom of the axle. Read step 6 and tell me it says that even remotely.

- Step 7, you'll be happier if you drill to 9/16" instead of 1/2", because the new U bolt binds up a tad.

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wwford

Forgot to mention, in Step 6 of rear lift, after you drop the allen bolt down into the center hole of the lower shock mount plate, go ahead and put the supplied nut on it.

Finished up the rear lift during lunch today! Put the wheels on too. See photos. When I was installing the front disc brakes, I'd loosened up the nut on the stock rear brake equalizer. So now that everything is all put together, I tightened up the nut so that the rear and front brakes look like they are grabbing together with the front brakes. Will probably adjust a little more after we are motile.

One little thing. When dropping the rear end, I had to take off the rear brake cable hangars. After the rear lift was done, the rear brake cables aren't going to reach the cable hangers in the same configuration. So I kind of hung the hangers backwards and sideways enough to hold the cables up snug. May need later futzing.

So tonight it's time to swap motors! My new Plum Quick Rattlesnake has been waiting. I'd been reading how hard it is to get the old motor off. After taking off the three mounting bolts, I spent a pretty good amount of time tugging and pulling and rubber malleting, and still couldn't get the motor off. I took a break, and pulled up the old Club Car diagrams. Then I went outside and took off the fourth bolt, which really makes all the difference. Boom, old motor off.

One partial hernia later, and the Rattlesnake is bolted on board. Input from Robby: "when you put your new motor on, make sure the motor slides on the output shaft and bumps the rear end housing……….DON’T use the bolts to draw up the motor to the rear end housing, this would cause the bearing in the motor to go bad."

Other input from a master. I'd expressed concern to Scottyb that my new Trojan T890's were sitting on a mat waiting for installation, and perhaps losing potency since they aren't being charged yet. He replied, "To relieve any worry check the voltage of each battery and then figure they will loose 1% of their charge per day. Compare this to your state of charge chart to see if you are within reasonable discharge limits." I checked each battery, and they are at 99% charge levels (8.49 volts each), so they are apparently holding up well.

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cjnfiremn

Looking good

wwford

Got a length of aluminum bar from Lowes, cut it and screwed it in place behind the seat area. Mounted the GE controller and the voltage reducer on the existing and new bars. Now, I test-fitted the cart body during this process, and didn't see that any screws holding on the body/seats/roof/etc would be impeded by this new setup, but only time will truly tell.

I also cut a piece of aluminum angle metal (also from Lowe's), and screwed it over my middle battery support shelf. That shelf was getting paper thin from corrosion. Last year a buddy suffered the indignity of his batteries dropping through his cart floor mid-round, and I didn't want to share that honor.

Anybody have a used 2000.5+ Club Car DS roof for sale? I am in MS.

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Brushpup

Clever way of mounting the new gear. I dread having to do mine as I already have the rear seat mounted and it will be such a pain taking it off to remove the body.

Looks like you are doing a bang up job on the whole thing....looking great!

That musta been a real PITA with batts falling through in the middle of a course....what a day ruiner!

scottyb

It's looking good, Bill